Set This House on Fire: Analysis of Setting
"Set This House on Fire" explores the intricate relationship between setting and character through the fictional village of Sambuco in Italy, New York City, and Port Warwick, Virginia. Sambuco, perched on cliffs overlooking deep gorges, serves as a picturesque but decaying backdrop, reflecting postwar poverty and despair despite its historical charm. The village's isolation during World War II contrasts sharply with the violent events that unfold within its borders, symbolizing a façade of peace hiding deeper issues. In New York City, the narrator, Peter Leverett, experiences a stark duality of life through his interactions with Mason Flagg, who embodies both the allure and moral ambiguity of American excess. This setting serves as a catalyst for Peter's journey, shaping his views on wealth and depravity. Port Warwick, where both characters grew up, is imbued with themes of privilege and disillusionment, further complicating their identities. The novel also draws a metaphorical line between Europe and North America, highlighting the complexities of cultural exchange and the contradictions faced by expatriates. Overall, the settings are not merely backdrops but integral to understanding the characters' struggles and the thematic depth of the narrative.
Set This House on Fire: Analysis of Setting
First published: 1960
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Psychological realism
Time of work: Mid-twentieth century
Asterisk denotes entries on real places.
Places Discussed
Sambuco
Sambuco. Fictional village on Italy’s west-central coast, not far from Salerno—a six-hour drive south from Rome and one hour from Naples. It sits atop imposing cliffs and looks downward into deep gorges, one of which Cass Kinsolving nearly falls into and another in which American millionaire Mason Flagg’s body is eventually found.
Built in the ninth century, Sambuco enjoyed its greatest prosperity in the thirteenth century. In World War II, it escaped destruction because of its physical isolation. However, beneath Sambuco’s facade of longevity and bucolic peacefulness lies a village being gradually demoralized by postwar poverty and despair. Mason Flagg’s arrival and subsequent “Americanization” of his Sambuco experience, despite his expatriate posings, set events in motion. Sambuco’s remoteness, its geographical aloofness toward the rest of Italy, and the village’s uninvolvement in the war’s violence and destruction all stand in ironic contrast to the violence that occurs in the novel.
*New York City
*New York City. Before the departure of the novel’s narrator, Peter Leverett, for Europe, he and Mason Flagg reconnect in a Greenwich Village bar. Mason introduces Peter to his version of New York City—a new and eye-opening world of sex, excess, self-indulgence, and alcohol. At first, Peter marvels at both Mason’s and the city’s fearsome duality: gentleman by day, nihilist by night. However, following ten days of debauchery and excess in New York City with Mason, Peter is relieved finally to leave behind the city’s depravity as he sets sail for Europe. To Peter, New York represents America and Mason represents New York, and he is ultimately horrified and mesmerized by them both.
Port Warwick
Port Warwick. Virginia city of Peter Leverett’s youth and, for a time, Mason Flagg’s. Mason and Peter both attend St. Andrew’s School in Port Warwick until Mason is expelled for allegedly raping a female classmate. While growing up at Merryoaks, a palatial colonial plantation manor, Mason is surrounded by the wealth, parties, celebrities, flash, and glamour that he later surrounds himself with in the Sambuco version of his home.
(Although “Port Warwick” was a fictional place when William Styron wrote this novel, it is now the name of an experimental village in Newport News, Virginia. In tribute to the novel, the community’s three-acre town square has been named Styron Square, and Styron himself was accorded the honor of naming most of Port Warwick’s streets and squares.)
*Europe
*Europe and *North America. These two continents are treated metaphorically as two parts of the same place, divided by an ocean. From the beginning, a generalized parallelism exists between them despite their obvious differences. Additionally, Mason, who represents much that is objectionable about America, merely transports his own “America” to Italy. In Sambuco, the three expatriates’ purported disdain for America is contradicted by their apparent embrace of things American, such as Mason’s Cadillac, Hollywood houseguests, and flashy wealth, all of which are surprisingly evident in postwar France, Italy, and presumably other parts of Europe. At various points in the novel, Europe and America are both decried as artistically, morally, and spiritually “dead.”
Bibliography
Fossum, Robert H. William Styron. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1968. Includes a thorough and perceptive chapter on Set This House on Fire. Notes the novel’s existential bent and purgatorial suffering implications.
Friedman, Melvin J. William Styron. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1974. Argues that the novel is a caricature of traditional detective fiction and notes the importance of setting but incompletely explains the symbolism.
Pearce, Richard. William Styron. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1971. Focuses upon the class conflict implications of the economic disparities depicted and the violence underlying the superficial sophistication in American culture as presented by Styron.
Rubin, Louis D. The Faraway Country: Writers of the Modern South. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1963. One of the best analyses of the novel, depicting some of the Southern themes implicit in it and sensitively analyzing the psychological portrait of Cass Kinsolving.
Ruderman, Judith. William Styron. New York: Ungar, 1987. A thorough study of the novel that utilizes prior criticism in effectively interpreting some of Styron’s symbols and astutely analyzes Mason Flagg’s sexual obsessiveness.