What is the main idea or controlling theme of the work of literature? What does the work "mean"? Does it say something about life, death, love, happiness..? Are there repeating patterns and symbols? A theme is a recurrent idea with a certain amount of universality. We study the main ideas of stories, and compare them to other works through history to discover what writers have to say about life, death, loneliness, sadness, hope, and other themes related to society, human nature, and beyond.