Variations on a Theme

I understand that it is a common literary technique to begin a discourse about one subject by writing about a separate and completely different one, and so arrive by a sort of backwards shuffle at what one intended to discuss all along. The practicality of this device lies in that one thing often cannot be viewed correctly except in the light of another. Sometimes a thing cannot be viewed at all except in the light of something else.

In a story, as in life, there is what can be seen and what cannot. The events and characters of a story are easily grasped--they are, though fictional, concrete. Children often have no difficulty understanding what happens in a story. This is the part that appeals to them because they are still learning about the world and the sort of things that happen in it.

Adults already know what can and can’t happen in the world (or at least think they do) and are more interested in how the world works. They respond more readily to the unseen part of the story--the messages and ideas contained in it.

Between these two groups of people I take a neutral stance. I do not wish to state an opinion as to which part of literature is more important--the story or the message--because I rather incline to the belief that both are very necessary. You may divorce one from the other but the results are manifestly unsatisfactory. What, after all, makes a story real and credible but a truism? And what makes a truth come alive but a story?

And so we come to literary theme, which is a message or concept illustrated by a story. A theme is usually the author’s view of some aspect of the universe; sometimes it is a moral or a principle, although more often it is less definite. A theme can be something as vague as “imagination” or the relationship between brothers. And themes are multitudinous and various, including anything from childhood and growing up to lost causes or the pursuit of happiness.

The themes in a story belong to the story and are an inextricable part of it. The setting, the problems, what the characters think and feel and what they do in the story, all relate to and collaborate with the theme. The themes play their part in the story just as the characters and setting do, influencing the plot and the audience’s response to the story.

Those who are fond of classical music are likely familiar with musical theme. This sort of theme is a short piece of music, usually a melody, that a larger musical work is based on. The theme recurs throughout the piece and, as you listen, you’ll hear it pop up again and again, sometimes unexpectedly, but always recognisably. In music the theme sometimes signifies a person or a thing, but more often it is an idea. Each time the theme returns, it brings us back to the central idea of the work.

Literary theme is rather like that. A theme recurs throughout the story and whenever it appears the reader knows that the author wants to draw his attention to something important.

But themes are often subtle, not being explicitly stated. To discern themes, it is often necessary to search for them by analyzing the concrete portion of the story. Why do the characters do what they do? What makes the setting unique? What consequences result from choices made by the characters? The answers to these questions usually have something to do with the themes involved.

Many of the greatest literary works of all time contain timeless and universal themes and it is these themes that lie at the very centre of the work. The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, treats the themes of guilt and expiation, and the consequences of concealing one’s sin. One of the major themes in Alexander Dumas’s The Count of Monte Cristo is revenge and how it affects the innocent as well as the guilty. In Shakespeare’s play, King Lear, a major theme is true and false friendship.

It is in a great measure due to the themes contained in them that these works are considered great classics, although because of the depth of the same themes, these works tend to have an avid following only among an intellectual few.

An author’s purpose in his choice of themes can be varied. Dickens’s novels, for instance, contain many different themes, including poverty, the suffering of children, and the senselessness and destructiveness of certain institutions (such as debtor’s prison or the court of Chancery). Dickens chose these themes because he wanted to draw people’s attention to problems in the world around them and to impell them to change these problems.

An author may wish to propagate one of his views on life, society, world government, stamp collecting, etc. Books are an excellent way to put one’s own ideas in other people’s heads, and story books especially so.

A story alone will probably never change the way a person thinks about a particular idea. It is the ideas in the story that make him reassess his own views. An author presents ideas in a form that makes his own opinions about them seem plausible, whether or not they are actually correct. Life can take on many forms in fiction apart from the true one.

A story illustrates an idea. Usually the main theme of a story is embodied in the story’s main problem. For instance, say that one wished to treat the theme of What Is Really Important in Life. In order to do this, one might conceive a story in which the protagonist becomes very rich and buys everything he ever wanted, but finds out in the end that he still lacks the most important thing. Or, one might write a story about a man who loses everything but at the end finds something so wonderful that he realises that all the rest wasn’t important.

Theme is very closely connected to the story, but there is one great difference between the two, for at the end of the story the problems are overcome, but the themes still remain, requiring us to think about our own actions in light of the truths in the story. The story may be over but the lessons of the story, the larger ideas and principles, continue to influence the minds and hearts of the people who read the story.