Theme (literature)

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In literature, a theme is a broad idea in a story, or a message or lesson conveyed by a work. This message is usually about life, society or human nature. Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work. Themes are usually implied rather than explicitly stated. Deep thematic content is not required in literature; however, some readers would say that all stories inherently project some kind of outlook on life that can be taken as a theme, regardless of whether or not this is the intent of the author. Analysis of changes in dynamic story's theme the similarity of life to chess. Themes arise from the interplay of the plot, the characters, and the attitude the author takes to them, and the same story can be given very different themes in the hands of different authors. For instance, the source for Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Matteo Bandello's The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet gave the story the theme of "marrying without parental consent is wickedness and folly",

but in Shakespeare's hands the same story acquires the theme of "feuds and parental heavy-handedness in preventing young love from marrying are wicked."

While thematic analysis is a primary concern of literary critics, a minority viewpoint holds that explicitly stating the theme of a work universalizes it in an inappropriate way. For example, many love stories end happily when the hero and heroine marry, thus the theme "Marriage equals happiness." Critics would point out that marriage rarely does simply equate to happiness and that marriage and happiness are individual and cultural intangibles that may or may not relate. The term theme may be used in the same way to refer to works of theatre and film.

References

• Wayne C. Booth, The Rhetoric of Fiction
• Thomas C. Crockett, Walking in America: Themes of Literature

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Last updated on Wednesday March 12, 2008 at 15:56:26 PDT (GMT -0700)
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