SETTING AND ENVIRONMENT

Narrative requires a setting, which may vary from concrete to general, and often has a particular culturally coded significance. Setting can create an appropriate atmosphere arousing some expectations of events to come or indirectly characterise the personages.

There is the setting in terms of time and place and the setting in terms of the physical world.

The actual place or places in which the events happen can be significant for several reasons. Any physical object might be described:

· in specific detail, as single or multiple locations for characters in action (providing a realistic background). Consider the way A. Trollope describes the setting in The Warden (1855): “Hiram’s Hospital, as the retreat is called, is a picturesque building enough, and shows the correct taste with which the ecclesiastical architects of those days were imbued. It stands on the banks of the little river, which flows nearly round the cathedral close, being on the side furthest from the town. The London road crosses the river by a pretty one-arched bridge, and, looking from this bridge, the stranger will see the windows of the old men’s rooms, each pair of windows separated by a small buttress. A broad gravel walk runs between the building and the river, which is always trim and cared for; and at the end of the walk, under the parapet of the approach to the bridge, is a large and well-worn seat, on which, in mild weather, three or four of Hiram’s bedesmen are sure to be seen seated. ”

· in a more tonal way as the scenery and the atmosphere the characters perceive and interpret, thus being used the physical environment can reflect the moods and behaviour of the characters in the novel, and establish the mood of the narrative, and create associations; weather description is frequently a projection of human emotions onto phenomena in the natural world: “The evening of this day was very long, and melancholy, at Hartfield. The weather added what it could of gloom. A cold stormy rain set in, and nothing of July appeared but in the trees and shrubs, which the wind was despoiling, and the length of the day, which only made such cruel sights the longer visible.” (Jane Austen, Emma (1816)). Shakespeare in Macbeth insinuates a comparison between what is happening in human terms and in terms of nature. On the night of Duncan’s death there is a sudden storm in which chimneys are blown off and houses shaken; mysterious screams are heard; horses go wild; a falcon is killed by a mousing owl.

· as a motif (in Ice (1967) by Anna Kavan the setting is unspecific in terms of time and place, but snowy, icy, frozen environment described sets the main motif of narcotic dreams and people’s isolation);

· as acquiring aesthetic meaning and assuming symbolic or allegoric role (allegory ties an image or event to a specific interpretation, a doctrine or idea; symbols refer to broader, more generalized meanings). In A Farewell to Arms (1929), Hemingway’s famous anti-war love story, the setting is used symbolically: the mountain symbolizes life and hope; the plain is the image of war and death; we soon see rain as another symbol of death;

· as creating a moral, political and social environment, referring to the world of the novel in the sense of social inclusion and exclusion as well as drawing and transgression of boundaries marked by race, class, gender, religion, nation, etc.; the society the novel describes can include geographical setting, but also encompasses social and historical factors that help to identify the nature of the novel’s world. The world of the novel may be as small as a family or as large as a whole country, it can be the focal point of conflict. Setting can characterise the social status (wealth/poverty, aristocracy/bourgeoisie), character traits (independence/tendency to imitation, taste/lack of taste, practicality/impracticality, etc.), sphere of interests and views.

Fiction generally claims to represent 'reality' (this is known as representation, or mimesis) in some way; however, because any narrative is presented through the symbols and codes of human meaning and communication systems, fiction cannot represent reality directly, and different narratives and forms of narrative represent different aspects of reality. A narrative might be very concrete and adhere closely to time and place, representing every-day events; on the other hand, it may represent psychological, moral or spiritual aspects through symbols, characters (used representatively), improbable events, and other devices.

So, setting can be used for a variety of purposes; consider this a spectrum: concrete - tonal - connotative - symbolic - allegorical.

Scenery plays special role in a literary work. Scenery can be lyrical (not connected directly with the plot), of primary importance for the plot development, fantastic or symbolic.

Questions

How does the extract make use of setting? Where and when does the story take place? What mood is created? How does the setting affect the events? How are the physical setting and psychological events related? What impression do you receive from the passage? Go through the passage and underline words and phrases that create a particular effect. What is the importance of the physical environment in the text you are studying? Are there examples of symbolic use of place (semantic space, externalised mirror image of character)? How is the setting used: to create a sense of realism? / to create mood? / to represent or create states of mind or feelings?/ to stand for other things? Is it a single setting or multiple settings? Does it relate to cultural context? What is the interrelation between the objective location and perceived atmosphere, between internal space and external space?