What is the difference between a theme and a motif?

Question

For example, on the Les Miserables SparkNotes page, it says that one theme is The Importance of Love and Compassion and that a motif is The Plight of Orphans. Is a motif just a more specific version of a theme, or what?

Answer 1

You are exactly right. Motifs tend to be more specific and concrete themes or universal ideas that occur throughout a book to support the over-arching theme. So notice how many orphans (and neglected children like Eponine) are in the novel, and how their situations act to make Hugo's point about what love and compassion could potentially do to make the world a better place. There should be a glossary on Sparknotes somewhere to clarify this-- I'd look for it but I'm on my phone.

Answer 2

The theme is an overarching statement about the work. A motif is something that shows up over and over again in the work. It could be symbolic, such as the bows that are so beloved by one of the characters in Buddenbrooks, or a color (yellow), in the same book. A motif may or may not be related to the theme. In Buddenbrooks, the theme is the dissolution of a great family. The motifs of bows and the color yellow don't really have anything to do with the theme, they are simply recurring patterns in the life of one of the characters.



The motifs can relate to the theme. If the theme is the importance of love and compassion, and orphans are a recurring motif, then every time an orphan appears, then take a look at how that particular situation relates to the absence or presence of love and compassion as experienced by that particular orphan situation. By definition a motif has to be a recurring pattern, or it is not a motif.



The motif develops or reveals the theme of the work. In a sense, the theme "tells" the main idea, while the motif "shows" the main idea of the work. You can sum up the message behind the work in your theme, and the recurrent motif shows the theme in action.

Answer 3

The theme is the major idea running through the whole work; a motif is a minor idea, pattern, symbol or image that helps highlight or develop the theme.



For example, in Macbeth, the major theme is the problem of appearances, that looks can be deceptive -- "fair is foul, and foul is fair."



This theme is then developed through the motifs of androgyny and role reversal (witches with beards; Lady Macbeth taking the man's role in the murder), fate, clothing, the idea of "double," ambiguous visions, and so on.



In your story then, the importance of love and compassion would be the major theme and the plight of orphans would be a motif that would provide a perspective on that theme.