“The idea that is proposed, supposed, or speculated about in a fiction may be simple, and idealistic, like the notion in Cinderella that the good and beautiful will triumph. Or it may be profound and unprovable, like the theme in Oedipus Rex that man cannot escape his destiny but may be ennobled in the attempt. Or it may be deliberately paradoxical and offer no guidelines that can be used in life, as in Jane Austen’s Persuasion, where the heroine, in order to adhere to her principles, must follow advice given on principles less sound than her own.”
Janet Burroway