What is the definition of motif in literature?

Answer 1

You could decorate a room using a sports motif if you had pictures of famous athletes, maybe a Baseball bat hanging on the wall, paint the floor to look like a football field, use a hockey stick as a curtain rod, etc.

A motif specific to literature is usually a recurring detail that repeats throughout the work. Generally, a motif will have some sort of symbolic significance in the story. It can be a character trait, object, color, idea, place, etc.

Answer 2

A "motif" is a recurring theme, idea, expression, or symbol, especially as found in a work of art, music, or literature. For example, the motif of "innocence" is found in the novel, "To Kill a Mockingbird", while a four-note motif appears again and again (in varying ways) in Beethoven's 5th Symphony.

Answer 3

In "Tom Sawyer," the cave in which Becky and Tom got lost in symbolized a trial which Tom had to pass before he "became of age" and could reunite with the rest of society. It symbolized the passing from child to adult by taking on responsibility.

Answer 4

The motif in a short story refers to a recurring theme or conflict throughout the story. For example if the author of a story wishes to portray some idea about the conflict between man and nature, the story may contain several separate instances of that conflict rather than just one such instance.

Answer 5

There are many, many themes present across literature. A theme in a specific work could range anywhere from loss of innocence, the challenges of relationships, to social change. Any universal idea that remains prevalent throughout a work is usually considered a theme.

Answer 6

1. - it's a recurring element tied to the theme of literature

ex. The Wicked Ogre

Illness

Answer 7

the motif is a recurring subject, theme, idea, ect., in a literary work

Answer 8

Somebody close to the character being murdered

Answer 9

Science-Fiction