Setting

Setting is the historical time and place and the social circumstances that create the world in which characters act and make choices.

Setting can be revealed through the author’s use of details about one or more of the following:

Geographic location

Cultural backdrop/social context/time period

Artificial environment

Props

In addition to identifying the setting, it is also necessary to analyze the effect setting may have on such elements as structure, symbol, irony, tone, mood, and character.

Setting: As it Creates Mood or

AtmosphereThrough details about the environment, the emotional charge of a literary piece is created, and that charge prepares the reader for what is to come.

When authors describe light, shadow, colors, shapes, smells, and sounds, they are using setting to create distinctive moods.

Examples: gloomy, foreboding, suspenseful, ominous, dreary, brooding, tragic, hopeless, happy, romantic, mysterious.

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat; it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.

It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube-shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats—the hobbit was fond of visitors. The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill—The Hill, as all the people for many miles round called it—and many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining-rooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the lefthand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep-set round windows looking over his garden, and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river.The Hobbit

A writer often uses imagery to create moods or feelings.

Cold FearAs I came home through Drury’s Woods,My face stung in the hard sleet.The rough ground kept its frozen tracks;They stumbled my feet.The trees shook off the blowing frost.The wind found out my coat was thin.It tried to tear my clothes away.And the cold came in.

Elizabeth Madox Roberts

Setting as a Reflection of CharacterWhen analyzing the correlation between setting and character, one should consider the way characters respond to their environment and their adjustment to any changes in this setting. If an author gives details about a character’s favorite room, workplace, hideaway, or manner of dress, the reader may infer certain traits which serve to enhance character development.

What can you infer about the characters of Tony and Ultima from the author’s words about the setting?

Ultima came to stay with us the summer I was almost seven. When she came the beauty of the Ilano unfolded before my eyes, and the gurgling waters of the river sang to the hum of the turning earth. The magical time of childhood stood still, and the pulse of the living earth pressed its mystery into my living blood. She took my hand, and the silent, magic powers she possessed made the beauty from the raw, sun-baked Ilano, the green river valley, and the blue bowl which was the white sun’s home. My bare feet felt the throbbing earth and my body trembled with excitement. Time stood still, and it shared with me all that had been, and all that was to come…

From Bless Me, Ultima

Archetypal SettingsArchetypal settings or setting elements have some universal aspect that is associated by most people with a particular human experience. For example, deserts are associated with spiritual quests through which the character is cleansed of desire and materialism and in which he or she has a divine or prophetic vision. The sea is a setting that hints at an opportunity to delve into the subconscious. Underground places suggest an experience in which the hero confronts the darker or more unpleasant aspects of the self, including the fear of death. Many other archetypal settings enrich the reader’s understanding of the author’s chosen theme. Other archetypal settings include the river, garden, wasteland, maze, castle, tower, wilderness, and the threshold.

Characterization

Characterization is the process of presenting the different aspects of character and personality of someone in a novel or short story.

Readers learn about characters from…. What they say (dialogue) What they do (actions) What they think (interior monologue) What they have and wear Where they are The people with whom they associate What others say about them The author’s direct statement

Connection: Narrative Point of View & Characterization

Narrative point of view and characterization are closely connected. The narrator tells the story from a certain point of view and, in doing so, develops the character of the persons in the narrative. The omniscient narrator and the limited narrator present information in different ways. The omniscient narrator knows all the thoughts of all the characters, so he or she may choose to describe a character explicitly. The limited narrator tells what he or she sees without access to the thoughts of any other character.

Types of Characters Static Character: one that changes little over

the course of the narrative. This character is revealed by the action but is not changed by the action.

Dynamic Character: one who changes in response to the actions through which he or she passes. One of the objectives of the work is to reveal the consequences of the action upon him/her.

Types of Characters (cont.) Archetypal Characters: those who embody a

certain kind of universal human experience. These characters appear regularly in narratives. Examples: femme fatale (siren, temptress – purposefully lures men to disaster through her beauty); damsel in distress; the mentor; the old crone, hag, or witch; the earth mother; the blind seer; the threshold guardian; and the naïve young man from the country.

Point of View

The author chooses the point of view very deliberately for its effect on the meaning of the story. An individual tells the story, and this person provides the reader with one perspective about the events.

Participant (1st Person) Point of View

Two Types of 1st Person Narrators: Major character (the story is told by and is chiefly about

the narrator) Minor character (the narrator tells a story that focuses on

someone else, but the narrator is still a character in the story)

Special narrators…..

Innocent-eye narrator (child /developmentally disabled)

Different times in a character’s life (ex - Scout)

Nonparticipant (3rd Person) Point of View Omniscient narrator: The author can enter the

minds of all the characters Selective (limited) omniscient narrator: The

author limits his omniscience to the minds of a few of the characters or to the mind of a single character

Objective narrator: The author does not enter a single mind, but instead records what can be seen and heard. This type of narrator is like a camera or a fly on the wall.

Plot

When characters are set in opposition to each other in literature, the result is conflict. Conflict requires resolution, and the process of resolution of conflict is called the plot.

Development of (most) Plots Beginning: the onset of conflict between important

characters Middle: the development of the conflict and the

characters themselves End: The resolution of the conflict

Plot is more than “what happens.” One also must consider the crucial elements of cause and effect that drive the plot.

Forms of Conflict A person in conflict with another person A person in conflict with his or her inner self A person in conflict with his or her society A person in conflict with fate A person in conflict with nature

Archetypal plot structures Quest for identity Journey in search of knowledge Epic journey to find the promised land or to build the

good city Tragic quest: the journey to the crossroads Quest for vengeance Quest to rid the land of danger Warrior’s journey to save his people Fool’s errand Search for love (including quest to save the princess) Quest for the grail

Narrative Structure & TextureThe framework of the work:

*elements of arguments in essays

*plot or storyline in fiction

The term texture is used to indicate the nonstructural elements: metaphor, imagery, diction, tone, rhyme, meter

Narrative PaceThe pace of the literary work should

support the plot and characters. For example, adventure novels will use a brisk, action-packed narrative pace, whereas novels of ideas or manners will move with a slower narrative pace.

Theme

Theme is the central, underlying, and controlling ideas of a literary work. It is an abstract concept that is a generalization about human conduct. Theme may be serious or comic, profound or unsurprising.

Statement of Theme is not… just a word—it is expressed in one or more

sentences the purpose of the work (i.e. entertainment or

instruction) the conflict (man vs. man) usually stated explicitly like the moral of a

fable or lesson of a parable—it is implicit

To get to the theme, ask the following: How has the main character changed? What lessons has he or she learned? What is the central conflict in the work? What is the subject of the work? What does the author say about the subject? Can this idea be supported entirely by evidence

from the work itself? Are all the author’s choices of plot, character,

conflict, and tone controlled by this idea?

Tone

Tone is the speaker or author’s attitude toward the subject, which is revealed by the words he or she chooses. To misinterpret tone is to misinterpret meaning.

Tone Changes Meaning….A. You’re late!B. I know. I couldn’t help it.

A. I understand.B. I knew you would.

A. I have something for you.B. Really? What?

A. This!

Shifts in ToneGood authors rarely use only one tone.

Watch for the following clues of tone shift: Key words (e.g. but, nevertheless, however, although) Punctuation (dashes, periods, semicolons) Stanza and paragraph divisions Changes in line and stanza or in sentence length Sharp contrasts in diction

Elements to consider (DIDLS): Diction – the connotation of the word choice Images – vivid appeals to understanding

through the senses Details – facts that are included or those

omitted Language – the overall use of language , such

as formal, clinical, jargon Sentence Structure – how structure affects the

reader’s attitude

From “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe

“During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing along, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country, and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher…I reined my horse to the precipitous brink of a black and lurid tarn that lay in unruffled luster by the dwelling…[with] vacant and eye-like windows.”

From “Life in Caves” by Frank Folsom

“Perhaps because bats are nocturnal in habit, a wealth of thoroughly unreliable legend has grown up about them, and men have made of the harmless, even beneficial little beasts a means of expressing their unreasoned fears. Bats were the standard paraphernalia for witches; the female half of humanity stood in terror that bats would become entangled in their hair. Phrases crept into the language expressing man’s revulsion or ignorance—“Bats in the Belfry,” “Batty,” “Blind as a Bat.”

From The Pearl by John Steinbeck“In his chamber the doctor sat up in his high bed. He had on his dressing gown of red watered silk that had come from Paris, a little tight over the chest now if it was buttoned. On his lap was a silver tray with a silver chocolate pot and a tiny cup of eggshell china, so delicate that it looked silly when he lifted it with his big hand, lifted it with the tips of thumb and forefinger and spread the other three fingers wide to get them out of the way. His eyes rested in puffy little hammocks of flesh and his mouth drooped with discontent. He was growing very stout, and his voice was hoarse with the fat that pressed on his throat. Beside him on a table was a small Oriental gong and a bowl of cigarettes. The furnishings of the room were heavy and dark and gloomy. The pictures were religious, even the large tinted photograph of his dead wife, who, if Masses willed and paid for out of her own estate could do it, was in Heaven. The doctor had once for a short time been a part of the great world and his whole subsequent life was memory and longing for France.”

Remember: The work of great writers is often

characterized by complex attitudes; a broad range of tones can be discerned by a close reader and there is no one, right answer.

Analysis of tone is important in the search for a work’s theme.