What Is a Motif in English Literature?
A motif in English literature is a recurrent image, idea or theme. An author may use an object, a color or an emotion as a motif to enhance the story she is trying to tell. While people often may consider motifs relics of antiquated writing, they are prevalent in books, as well as plays and poems. If something recurs in a story, you can argue that it is a motif.
Other People Are Reading
-
Images
-
A motif may appear in literature as an image. This can include such images as animals, money, plants and sunlight--writers can choose from a range of possibilities. For instance, William Golding's "Lord of the Flies" features a conch shell as a central image. A band of boys find the conch shell after their plane crashes on an island. The boys use the shell to designate who is allowed to speak. This creates a sense of order among the juveniles, and the conch shell comes to represent communication. During the story, the conch shell is destroyed--communication literally breaks down between the boys. In this sense, communication also is a motif, with different objects symbolizing the concept throughout the book.
Archetypes
-
In literature, there are a range of motifs known as archetypes, meaning they have been present in stories since the first manuscripts were found and translated. Archetypal figures include heroes, damsels in distress, evil sorcerers and faithful sidekicks. Modern comic books and such epic tales as "Beowulf" and Virgil's "Aeneid" often feature archetypes. Families are a motif throughout the Bible, and are just one example of archetypes being used as motifs.
-
Abstract Ideas
-
A motif is not always tangible. It also can include such abstracts as emotions and ideas. For instance, a power struggle is an abstract motif. "Tuck Everlasting," a children's book written by Natalie Babbitt, includes such abstract motifs as eternity and time. "Speak," a young adult novel written by Laurie Halse Anderson, features secrets and innocence, all woven into the story to enhance a reader's understanding of the characters and the story itself.
Symbols
-
As mentioned in the "Lord of the Flies" example, a motif can serve as a symbol. In literature, a symbol represents a deeper meaning. When symbols are recurrent, you can count them as a motif. Anderson uses trees as a symbol in "Speak." In the story, the trees represent the growth of Melinda, the main character, after she is raped at a party. She spends the year drawing trees in art class. The way Melinda draws the trees changes as she deals with the assault. She even has a tree outside her window. After a lightening storm, the dead limbs have to be cut off so the tree can continue to thrive, and this represents Melinda herself after her devastating experience. Because trees recur so often, they are a motif.
Themes
-
A theme is another literary term, often defined as the main idea of a work of literature, film or art. The main idea can be viewed as a story's moral, in that a theme may be "greed leads to destruction," or "in order to grow up, a person must leave the comforts of home." The latter example commonly is called a journey theme, where the journey itself becomes the story's motif. L. Frank Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" is an example of the journey theme. Dorothy, the main character, must travel far from home to learn about herself as a person, and about the importance of family. Each character she meets joins her journey in search of something they feel is missing from their lives, and the journey becomes a prominent motif in the story.
-
References
- Photo Credit money money money image by Arman Zhenikeyev from Fotolia.com
