Overview
A long-standing trick of the writing trade is to have a character--almost NEVER the main character, for reasons that will be obvious in a second--make a statement of the work's larger theme or meaning. Typically, this happens early in the work, but it really could be anywhere. The theme line will often be something like this: a character, sometimes a character who's very peripheral to the action, will make a statement that the main character doesn't hear, doesn't understand, doesn't agree with, doesn't see the relevance of, disregards, or otherwise ignores--but ultimately, it turns out to be a central insight that the author is trying to communicate to the audience. The reason it's almost never the main character is pretty simple: If they knew the insight already, we'd have a vastly different narrative. They'd be doing something else, realizing something else, learning something else. For example, early in The Lord of the Rings, the wizard Gandalf informs Frodo that his uncle's ring is a dangerous, deadly talisman whose destruction absolutely must occur, for in the hands of evil, their world would be destroyed. Frodo is an unpreposessing person, unsuited for what looks like a task far above his skill level, and he states that he wishes the Ring had never come into his hand. Gandalf's response is, "All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.” Among other possible choices, this works well as a theme for the novel. We often get passed a cup we'd rather not drink out of, metaphorically speaking. We do not always get to decide the troubles or challenges that face us.. However, we can decide what we do with those challenges. In Wilde's play, many characters make various pronouncements, some lofty, some paradoxical, some absurd, many all at once. The job of the student writer in this assignment will be to find at least one statement that stands as an arguable theme for this play. |
Directions: Find the Theme Line
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