Page:Tayama Katai and His Novel Entitled Futon (Reece).pdf/67



As the quotation from Goethe's discourse gives us a clue, Hauptmann condemns dogmatic Christianity which belittles human Nature. Here in the above passage, the theme of seems to spring to life, as Hauptmann, for the first time, champions Johannes's side of the issue, "Whoever seeks to know Nature seeks to know God. God  Nature." The above statement contains all that is required of a well-constructed theme: characters, conflict and conclusion. In other words, it seems to allude to the theme of which we are seeking: the contrast and tension between the natural and the unnatural, with a strong implication that nature is best, or at least that it is preferable to follow nature. Will this be the theme of ? We are unable to reach a definite conclusion until we read to the end of the story. Let us examine