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1、trouble with the hero Jordan, yet he is a main character as his wife Pilar is. Minor characters are those in remote and static relation with the hero. It is wrong to think that minor characters are all unimportant. In some novels, one or some of the minor characters may serve a critical role, struct
2、urally or interpretationally.Foil characters are ones that help enhance the intensity of the hero by strengthening or contrasting. They may be main characters or minor characters. In a word, they serve as foils to the hero or heroine. Cohn in The Sun Also Rises is a good example. He is one of the ma
3、in characters. Like Jake, he is also “lost,” trying vainly to escape the past by courting women and drinking. But during their stay in Spain, Cohn displays qualities in contrast to those cherished by Jake, which makes Jake realize his own problems and finally find a solution, though temporarily. Coh
4、n works mainly by contrast. Wilson in The Great Gatsby works by presenting. Gatsby lost his lover to Tom and Wilson lost his wife to Tom. By presenting Wilsons case the novelist intends to point out the profound cause of Gatsbys tragedy. Dr. Watson in the stories of Sherlock Holmes serves as a foil
5、to the hero, rendering the detective smarter than he would otherwise appear to the reader.By the degree of their development, characters can be grouped as round characters and flat characters. This division is proposed by E.M Forster. Round characters are fully developed while flat characters are no
6、t. Or we can say that round characters grow while flat characters do not. Usually the reader is allowed access to the inner life of the round character and permitted to learn about many sides of the round character. The flat character is a “closed” character to whose inner thoughts the reader is den
7、ied access. Usually one side of the flat character is shown in the novel. Most heroes are round characters who grow emotionally or spiritually.Chapter Three ThemeAristotle in Poetics lists six basic elements of tragedy. Melody (song) and diction (language) fall in the general category of style, and
8、spectacle is relevant to setting in our discussion of fiction. The other three aspects are mythos or plot, ethos or character, and dianoia, which we generally translate into “thought” in English. According to Aristotle, plot is the “soul” or shaping principle or fiction, and characters exist primari
9、ly as functions of the plot. In most of the stories, plot plays the role of principal structure of the story. But, as Northrop Frye points out, besides the internal fiction of the character and his/her society, there is an external fiction consisting of a relation between the writer and the writers
10、society. We indeed have literary works by the likes of Shakespeare and Homer in which artistry is completely absorbed in their internal characters and we can hardly perceive the existence of the author. However, as soon as the authors personality appears on the horizon, a relation with the reader is
11、 established, and sometimes there seems no story at all apart from what the author is conveying to his/her reader. In this case, the primary interest in dianoia, the idea or thought that reader gets from the writer, which in modern criticism we generally call “theme”.I. What Is Theme?One of the safe
12、st comments to make about novels is on the theme. Everyone is entitled to extract a theme based upon his understanding of the novel. Theme may be the most democratic elements in literature, because its definition is the least restrictive. The theme of a novel is its controlling idea or its central i
13、nsight. Being an idea or an insight, the theme should be abstract and it should generalize about life. Labeled as controlling or central, the theme should be capable of unifying the whole novel. So the theme of a story, then, is whatever general idea or insight the entire story reveals. II. Clarific
14、ation about ThemeCommon as it is, theme suffers some misunderstandings. One misconception about theme is that each novel has a theme or themes, or theme is important to all novels. In fact, some novels, interesting ones though, do not provide any insight into life. For example, many novels of ratioc
15、ination and novels of horror. These novels are aimed at entertaining the reader, not at improving his understanding of life. They may sometimes touch upon the human nature or social problems, but these issues are only used to push the plot forward and they are not mentioned for their own value. Them
16、e exists only in the novel that seriously attempts to reflect life faithfully or intends to reveal truth about life, or in the novels that are based on ideas or theories of life. (for example, novels of ideas).Another misconception about theme is that the theme is largely what the novel is. Some people discard the novel when they think that they have got the theme. It should be made clear that the novel is not written to convey an idea but to convey an idea artistically. The n
