Revision on Motif vs Theme vs Topic

What is a motif?

This is the simplest one to define. A motif is a real concrete element of the text that actually appears written down on the page. Motifs are repeated again and again throughout a text and through this repetition they begin to symbolize bigger ideas. Remember this idea of bigger ideas because it is important when understanding the relationship between motifs, topics and themes.

What can be a motif?

Basically anything that’s repeated in a text. Most often, however, motifs are repeated images, actions, phrases or objects.

What is a topic?

This is the confusing one because we often use the term THEME when actually we really want to be talking about is a TOPIC. We have already seen that motifs can be used to suggest or symbolise bigger ideas. Essentially those bigger ideas are what we call a topic. If you had to sum up in one or two words what a text is ‘about’ or what the main issues it is dealing with are then those would be the topics of the text

What can be a topic?

Topics are the big ideas that a text is about. Often these can be expressed very simply in just one or two words. Because of this, they are inevitably very high level and general and don’t go into very much detail. It is this lack of detail that is important because this is what distinguishes a TOPIC from a THEME: THEME’S have more detail.

Some examples?

Examples of topics are easy to come up with – they are the things that we would normally call themes. For example:

The role of women

The constructed nature of social roles

Appearance vs. reality

Freedom

Dictatorship

Social control

Love

Loneliness

You should easily be able to add to this list based on discussions we have had in class about 1984

What is a theme?

It is the term THEME that we most often misuse. We have seen that when we usually talk about THEMES what we are actually talking about is TOPICS. So, what is a theme? If a TOPIC is a very general big idea of what a text is ‘about’ then a THEME is a much more detailed development of exactly what the text says about that big idea.

A theme often expresses the writer’s perspective on some aspect of human life. It is meant to be true of people outside the story in the real world. A theme is not quite the same as the moral of a story (if there is one) because the moral tells us what the world should be like whereas the theme tells us what the world is actually like.

Cited: http://mrhoyesibwebsite.com