Recap
- Setting depicts a time and place and conveys the values associated with it.
- A change of setting may suggest other movements, changes or shifts in the narrative.
- Contrasted settings can establish a conflict of values or ideas.
- Characters’ interaction with their surroundings reveals insights about the characters and about the settings.
- How a character behaves in or describes a setting reveals an attitude and contributes to development and interpretation.
Grid
| Look at | Ask |
|---|---|
| Sensory details | What do they suggest or value? |
| Social details | What norms or pressures operate? |
| Temporal details | What mood or pressure of time? |
| Changes in details | What shifts in the narrative? |
| Character’s behaviour | What attitude is shown to the place? |
Examples (public domain)
- The Open Boat (Stephen Crane, 1897): “None of them knew the colour of the sky.” The men look only at the waves; nature is indifferent.
- To Build a Fire (Jack London, 1908): the cold and grey that allow no error, and a man who misreads them.
- The Garden Party (Katherine Mansfield, 1922): “And after all the weather was ideal.” A privileged garden against the cottages below sets up a conflict between comfort and compassion.
Assumptions
- Evidence for setting includes details, repetition, contrast and the characters’ reactions.
- A setting may convey different values to different characters.
- “Setting as symbol” is a further step that needs evidence (Topic 7.5).
Mistakes to avoid
- Describing the setting and stopping.
- Ignoring what a character does within the setting.
- Missing a shift because the place has changed only briefly.
- Treating contrast as simple opposites without naming the values.
- Calling every setting symbolic.
Sentence frame
“By [verb] [character] in [setting detail], the narrator [verb] a conflict between [value A] and [value B], and so [function].” Fill it with specific details and check that it says what the setting conveys, not only where it is.
Quick self-check
1. A story’s first scene is a cluttered kitchen full of voices; its last is an empty field at dawn. What shift might this mark?
2. A character in a rented room keeps the curtains drawn all day and talks of “the street” as “that noise”. What does the behaviour reveal?
3. Name the first two steps of analysing a setting.
4. True or false: a setting that appears in only one paragraph cannot matter.
Answers.
- A shift from social demands to solitude and reflection (or from obligation to freedom or exposure); the mood and the character’s state change with the place.
- An attitude of withdrawal or fear of the outside world; the room as refuge or confinement.
- Notice the details (sensory, social, temporal) and ask what they suggest or value.
- False. A brief setting can mark a turning point or contrast with a longer one.
Return to the Topic 7.2 study guide for worked examples, then try the practice questions.