In extracting theme of the story, one must consider that a story may have several themes, or the minor themes. Yet, there exist 'the theme,' or the major theme. At first glance, a reader may see these several themes that a story wants to portray, especially in novels, few in short stories. And these minor themes lead to the major theme.
To extract the theme of a story, the reader must see what the dilemma of the story is all about. A reader must take note that the theme may reveal itself wherever in the story. Basically, the climax stems directly out of the theme. The theme could be the solution to the climax, and also be the cause of the climax. Whatever the characters do inside the story, either stated or implied or understood, is based on a theme.
The reader may also check out motifs or major incidents or recurring objects in the story: they lead to the theme. These could be a powerful event in the story like a crime, a fight, success, defeat, etc. Symbolisms of objects in the story also give clues or the objects of the theme itself. For example, a storm may mean suffering; a house or room: privacy; etc.
For example, in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, we could consider love and fate as themes. But the rest of the story will tell us that there is more. The story contains violence, passion, and death. There is also the fighting institutions Capulet and Montague. We could consider the alternation of night and day as representations of dark and good which is common in stories exporting such idea. Although the play is quite direct in using objects to tell the story (lacking symbolism), we may consider the Prince there (the sort of police) as law. Using all these facts, we could say that quarrels between two bodies of any kind and the result of the story tells that any disagreements will lead to a form of tragedy, minimal or obvious, in one way or another. These quarrels may have bright sides or dark sides but the law shall be the final judge.
