An Analysis of the Ballad of the Sad Café from the Perspective of Grei mas'Semiotic Square

Greimas's Semiotic Square is a new approach in analyzing literary works.Based on Sassure and Jacnson's claim on binary opposition,Gereimas extends it to four actants and adds contradictory relationships.By assign meanings to the four actants,an analysis of the complicated relationship between the roles in a text can be made and a revelation of the theme of the text can be realized.Previous studies of this novel take it as an excellent work revealing loneliness and isolation is thought to be the basic condition of human existence.Other study covers the effects of the unrequited love.Quiet differently,this paper tries to interpret this novel by Greimas'semiotic square and thereby revealing the widely accepted theme of this novel that isolation and loneliness is the final destiny of human being in modern society.