An action summary is a concise statement of the play’s primary action. Actor Laurence Olivier employed an action summary for his film version of Hamlet as “the story of a man who could not make up his mind.” Olivier’s main idea highlights the psychological dimensions of the play, while discounting its social and political implications.

A thesis statement is a single declarative sentence that asserts a lesson about the play. For example, Ibsen may have written The Wild Duck to demonstrate that “impractical idealists always go wrong,” or Brecht may have written Mother Courage to show that “capitalism destroys human feeling.” Three Sisters may be a demonstration that “love always gives back much less than we expect,” and Angels in America is evidence that “freedom that fails to grow will not last.” These examples show that a thesis statement is often useful for highlighting social or political issues.

A theme is an expression of the main idea in abstract universal terms. For example, the theme of Machinal might be “a struggle for freedom” or that of Oedipus Rex , “a quest for truth.” Chapter 1 showed the theme of Hamlet as “blind idealism.” Themes seem to work best when they are expressing the broad philosophical and poetic aspects of a play.