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Theme

Theme

Theme can be defined as the central idea/s, subject or topic of a work of art.

Theme runs as a thread through a work of art and holds it together.

"Theme is more usefully applied to a general concept or doctrine, whether implicit or asserted, which an imaginative work is designed to involve and make persuasive to the reader. John Milton states as the explicit theme of Paradise Lost to “assert Eternal Providence, / And justify the ways of God to men”; see didactic literature and fiction and truth. Some critics have claimed that all nontrivial works of literature, including lyric poems, involve an implicit theme which is embodied and dramatized in the evolving meanings and imagery. And archetypal critics trace such recurrent themes as that of the scapegoat, or the journey underground, through myths and social rituals, as well as literature. For a discussion of the overlapping applications of the critical terms “subject,” “theme,” and “thesis”. ." - M. H. Abrams

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