![]() To develop this theme, Shakespeare describes the experience of love by pairing contradictory, opposite symbols next to each other throughout the play: not only crows and swans, but also night and day, moon and sun. light" in Romeo and Juliet to emphasize one of the play's main themes: the contradictory nature of love. For example, Shakespeare uses the motif of "dark vs.Motifs, which are often collections of symbols, help reinforce the central themes of a work. Motif: A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature.However, if you start to see clusters of similar symbols appearing in a story, this may mean that the symbols are part of an overarching motif, in which case they very likely are related to a theme. Symbols might occur once or twice in a book or play to represent an emotion, and in that case aren't necessarily related to a theme.Near the beginning of Romeo and Juliet, Benvolio promises to make Romeo feel better about Rosaline's rejection of him by introducing him to more beautiful women, saying "Compare face with some that I shall show….and I will make thee think thy swan a crow." Here, the swan is a symbol for how Rosaline appears to the adoring Romeo, while the crow is a symbol for how she will soon appear to him, after he has seen other, more beautiful women.In literature, a symbol is often a tangible thing-an object, person, place, or action-that represents something intangible. Symbol: Broadly defined, a symbol is anything that represents another thing.Spotting these elements at work in a text can help you know where to look for its main themes. Writers often use three literary devices in particular-known as symbol, motif, and leitwortstil-to emphasize or hint at a work's underlying themes. Instead, each reader must come to their own conclusions about what themes are at play in a given work, and each reader will likely come away with a unique thematic interpretation or understanding of the work. But even when writers do set out to investigate a particular theme, they usually don't identify that theme explicitly in the work itself. ![]() Understanding the themes of a work is vital to understanding the work's significance-which is why, for example, every LitCharts Literature Guide uses a specific set of themes to help analyze the text.Īlthough some writers set out to explore certain themes in their work before they've even begun writing, many writers begin to write without a preconceived idea of the themes they want to explore-they simply allow the themes to emerge naturally through the writing process. Therefore, when analyzing a given work, it's always possible to discuss what the work is "about" on two separate levels: the more concrete level of the plot (i.e., what literally happens in the work), as well as the more abstract level of the theme (i.e., the concepts that the work deals with). ![]() Here's how to pronounce theme: theem Identifying ThemesĮvery work of literature-whether it's an essay, a novel, a poem, or something else-has at least one theme. Oftentimes you can identify a work's themes by looking for a repeating symbol, motif, or phrase that appears again and again throughout a story, since it often signals a recurring concept or idea.
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