Setting (literature)
In literature, the setting is a fundamental element that establishes the backdrop for the story, encompassing the location, time period, and cultural context in which the narrative unfolds. It serves not only to ground the characters and their actions but also to enhance the mood, tone, and themes of the work. Authors utilize detailed descriptions of environments—ranging from specific geographic locations to atmospheric conditions—to create a vivid canvas for the plot. Elements such as historical time, social environment, and cultural references are integral to the setting, shaping how characters interact and experience their world. Notably, a static setting can reinforce themes and tones, while a dynamic one may reflect character development and plot progression. For instance, in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper," the confined setting mirrors the protagonist's mental decline, symbolizing her imprisonment. Conversely, in L. Frank Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," the contrasting settings emphasize personal growth as the characters journey through diverse environments. Overall, the setting is critical for enriching the narrative and guiding readers’ understanding of the story's deeper meanings.
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Setting (literature)
In literature, the setting refers specifically to the literary element of a written work that characterizes, outlines, or describes the location of the story. Setting can include anything from a specific historical time period to the description of a room or location where the main action or plot occurs. Overall, the setting provides the foundation on which other literary elements are built and helps establish the mood, tone, and theme of the overall story. Elements of a setting can include cultural references, geographic locations, time of day, and the social environment and context. Settings are often conveyed to readers through descriptive details passed along in either the narrative or through conversations among characters. Along with the literary elements of plot, theme, character, and style, a literary work’s setting is considered an essential element of a story’s development.
Background
Setting is a critical component for aiding in the story’s plot and theme development. To develop a setting, writers typically describe a world or area they and the reader may be familiar with. The writer will describe in detail such things such as sights, sounds, colors, and textures of the story’s environment as well as time of day or time in history, all of which provide a canvas for the story’s action to occur. Culture, political conditions, and social environment can also be considered critical elements of a story’s setting as they help to support the story’s theme and advance its plot.
For example, The Diary of a Young Girl (1947; English translation, 1952), which recounts the two years Anne Frank and her family spent in hiding during the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam, would not convey the same message of social injustice, loneliness, and fear if the setting was not an accurately described. In John Boyne’s The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2006), which is also set during World War II but is told through the eyes of a young German boy who is the son of a commandant in a Nazi concentration camp, the setting illustrates the juxtaposition between two cultures, religions, and two children. While the children interact through the camp fence, they experience the same setting—approximate date, time period in history, and geographic location—but their experiences and interpretations of that setting are radically different.
Overview
A story’s setting is a critical piece of a story’s development and structure. If a reader where to remember a favorite book, for example, where and when the story took place and how the characters interacted within their environment would be important components of that memory. The setting of a story helps to move, or advance, the story’s plot along. Conversely, if the setting is itself unchanging, it can serve to reinforce a story’s intended tone and theme as well as help support certain literary devices such as symbolism. In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s 1892 short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” for example, the setting is an upstairs bedroom whose walls are covered with yellow wallpaper. The main character is a woman who has been confined to the room by her physician husband in order to recover from depression and what was then termed “hysteria.” The location and time period of the setting never change in this story, but as the character’s mental health declines in proportion to the length of her confinement, the room and the wallpaper—the setting—begin to change and evolve as well, mirroring and symbolizing her changing mental status. The setting, then, serves to support the overarching theme of confinement and imprisonment and the effect that imprisonment can have. The setting continues to transform itself in the eyes of the character who begins to hallucinate that women are moving in and out of the wallpaper’s patterns. The woman eventually becomes too afraid of the outside world and refuses to leave the room ever again, and the setting now symbolizes the woman’s imprisonment within her mind.
Another notable setting is in L. Frank Baum’sThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900). In this story, the character of Dorothy moves quickly from the dreary, drab, and boring Kansas farm to the exciting and new setting of the Land of Oz, a magical land of green that is home to a cast of creatures and characters unlike any seen in Kansas. The setting of Oz helps to influence the story’s plot and advance the characters’ actions and dialogue. Dorothy’s progress along the yellow brick road, for example, leads her to each of the unique main characters within the plot, and each location symbolizes the inner journey of personal growth both she and her cohorts must experience. The Tin Woodman and Cowardly Lion are discovered in the woods, which is lonely, dark, and depressing. This setting helps perpetuate and symbolize the characters’ initial isolation and lack of strength. The yellow brick road finally leads to the beautiful, colorful, and joyous Emerald City, a setting that creates an aura of mysticism, transformation, and endless possibilities for self-realizations.
Bibliography
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Davis, Philip. Reading and the Reader. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2013. Print.
Hogan, Patrick Colm. What Literature Teaches Us about Emotion. New York: Cambridge UP, 2011. Print.
King, Stephen. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. London: Hodder, 2012. Print.
McNamara, Kevin R. The Cambridge Companion to the City in Literature. New York: Cambridge UP, 2014. Print.
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Trimble, John R. Writing with Style: Conversations on the Art of Writing. 3rd ed. Boston: Prentice, 2011. Print.
Turner, Mark. The Literary Mind: The Origins of Thought and Language. New York: Oxford UP, 1999. Print.