the use and function of the setting

7/29/2019 The Use and Function of the Setting

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4. The Use and Function of the Setting in British-American Fiction

1. Introduction

Thesis sentence : In most cases the author chooses a certain kind of settingdeliberately, and in such cases its description is emphasised and detailed: the setting

may be a very important part of a story because it may add further information anddeeper meaning to the story with the help of symbols and it can also set an adequatemood.

Definition of setting : The overall background against which the action of a narrativetakes place: the time, place, physical details, and circumstances in which a situationoccurs; settings include the background, atmosphere or environment in whichcharacters live and move, and usually include physical characteristics of thesurroundings

difference between setting and locale: local refers only to the physical background of

a story, setting also includes the way of life and general environment of thecharacters, and the time or period of history in which action takes place

Literature : Sir Orfeo, Poe The Fall of the House of Usher

2. Use and Function

Setting : simple (ancient writings) or elaborate (todays writings); sometimesrelatively unimportant, but can be the most important part of understanding a story

Common genre specific settings :o Realist > actual places: cities, villages (usually named)o Fantasy > past medieval times, castles, forests, fictitious worlds (fairyland)o Science-fiction > future times/post-apocalyptic, space, planets

Uses and function of setting:o The vivid description of a setting enables the reader to depict the story more

easily and realistically.o As a shaper of events (in mystery or horror stories, esp.) In stories of men in

conflict with nature, the setting (nature) often becomes a character, usually theantagonist (e.g. in Hemingways The Old Man and the Sea).

o As an adjunct to the plot and characterizations. It shows important changes anddevelopments. Moving from one place to another shows movement in action.o It adds an emotional quality to the work, an atmosphere or feel, a mood, or

contrasts. The setting sets the mood and should put the reader into the rightframe of mind to accept what then evolves in the plot.

o As an external reflection of the internal state of the charactero As a symbol related to the action and its deeper significance.

Symbols in settings : traditional (many of them are easilyrecognisable) or original (made up by the author > has to be part of thecontext of the story to take on meaning); symbols can be part of thesetting > may be tied directly to the theme of the work; makes the readerunderstand more about the plot, theme, characters and events > carefulreaders notice the symbols > they are brought into a story more quickly;

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[apart from places, the seasons of the year and weather can be symbolicof various meanings, e.g. autumn stands for dying, winter for death spring for rebirth/new beginning; naming of places/characters can also besymbolic]

3. Relevant Literature

a)Sir Orfeo

Middle English romance, Breton lay, with Celtic elementsIn Sir Orfeo, a minstrel retells, this time with an English setting, the age-old story ofthe love of Orpheus for Eurydice (originally Greek setting), a love so strong that itovercame death.

Celtic folklore:Set in a scene rich with Celtic folklore, the poem involves magic and enchantment, a

King who loses everything only to regain it after years of suffering, fidelity to spouseand to lord, love, and music. The music of the harp was considered sacred by the Celtsand represents harmony; its power is such that it can restore order, even overcomingthe fairy King.

Parallelism between Orfeos kingdom and wife (Heurodis) > he loses both of them,but recovers them in the end

Direct parallels between Orfeos kingdom and fairyland (typically Celtic blending ofreality and otherworld):

o Description:

fairyland > And showed me castles there, and towers, rivers,forests, woods with flowers

Orfeos kingdom > He, once the lord of castles, towers, rivers,forests, woods with flowers

As opposed to the original story: Fairyland instead of Hades (+happy ending)

o Social hierarchy: king, queen, knights (even their numbers are thesame: 1000), subjects

Traditional symbolic setting:o Traciens: the kingdom of Sir Orfeo > ideal kingdom with an ideal ruler and

subjectsSir Orfeo is directly derived from the classical myth of Orpheus andEurydice. Indeed, the poet tells in lines 47-49 of the poem that Thrace, theoriginal setting of the Orpheus myth, was called Winchester in the time of(this) Orfeo, advising the reader that Sir Orfeo is a translation of the Greekoriginal into the English language and culture.

o Orchard (artificial, controlled) > sinister place > place of temptation (Eden snake) > Heurodis is tempted and abducted by the fairiestree: magic tree; comes from Irish lore > trees open the door to otherworlds/also to the underworld

o Noon > Heurodis is sleeping and is visited by the fairies in her dream >noon, dream > negative aspect (suggests something bad will happen)

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o Forest (wilderness, natural, uncontrolled) > represents Orfeos state of mind> his grief is uncontrollable+ loneliness > maybe Sir Orfeo had to prove that he is worth his wife (hehadnt fight on the battlefield but had to fight with the loneliness in thewilderness; Sir Orfeo and not King Orfeo > represented as a hero; no heir)

o Rock > the place of Fairyland (F. is within the rock); Irish folk tale element,over the rock (the unknown place) anything can happen (~ sg like azveghegyen tl in the Hungarian folk tale tradition)

o FairylandIn the Greek source, the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, music plays anessential role as Orpheus uses his skill on the lyre to lull Cerberus and theother obstacles of Hades. In the lay the underworld is replaced by the Celticidea of a parallel world ruled by malevolent fairy creatures; however, thecreator ofSir Orfeoretains music as a central theme.Celtic vision of fairyland > grotesque: beautiful (gold columns and arches,sumptuousness, precious stones, like a medieval castle put into F.), but hasits dark side (the world of the dead and the taken > captured people headless, pierced, hacked, choked, mad => everybody is represented at the

point of their death > not an English hell > Irish folk tale element); timepasses differently > Heurodis has not aged and changed during her stayingthere (Orfeo has aged and changed in the forest)

b) Poe The Fall of the House of Usher

Typically gloomy/dark/Gothic atmosphere created right at the beginning(typical of Poe macabre):

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 hadbeen passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract ofcountry ; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drewon, within view of the melancholy House of Usher. I know not how itwas - but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferablegloom pervaded my spirit.

The symbols are rather straightforwardly expressedo The haunted house and the setting are a reflection of Roderick Usher:

dilapidating house and tarn, whose signs of decay reflect the mentalcondition of Usher, which is rapidly deteriorating

o The House of Usher: both the family and the family mansion > theUshers (Roderick and Madeline) are ill the mansion dilapidates > theUshers die out the mansion collapses

The Gothic tradition in Poes writings

Elements of Gothic writing:

Emphasis on setting (castle)

Exterior: landscape (dreary)

Interior: houses (haunted h.) Castle-like architecture

Characters are brooding, secretive

Buried family secrets

Long history of family tied to place Mysterious sickness

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Doubled personality Women in distress

Poes typical building as the representation of a state of mind

Location: set apart in a valley or a sea or a waste place remoteness express the retreat of the

poets mind from worldly consciousness into dream

Structure: tottery;crumbling or decomposing the dreamers mind is moving toward a perfect

freedom from his material self and the material world

Inside: dim and winding passages indicate the state of reverie waking life is dominated by

reason (= daylight & straight lines)

Dream rooms: circle or oval identified with the otherworldly imagination angular forms

identified with everyday reason

Furnishings: weird, magnificent, and suggestive of great wealth the heroes are richly

imaginative

Lighting: no windows, or the windows are blocked up or shuttered. The time is always night.

Artificial lighting: flickering candles, wavering torches, censers, chandelier that hangs from a lofty

ceiling by a long chain Cellars or catacombs the irrational part of the mind

Comparison btw. a building and a man in The Haunted Palace

The Haunted Palace A man The House of Usher//RoderickUsher

Stanzas 1-4: a point-by-point comparison btw. a building and the head ofa man

The exterior of the palace The mans physical features The body of R.U.

The interior of the palace The mans mind engaged inharmonious imaginative thought

The mind of R. U.

The two luminous windows of thepalace

The eyes of the man vacant eye-like windows

The yellow banners on the roof The mans luxuriant blond hair hair of a more than web-likesoftness and tenuty

The pearl and ruby door The mans mouth (red lips +pearly white teeth)

The beautiful Echoes which issuefrom the pearl and ruby door

The poetic utterances of themans harmonious imagination

The angel-guarded valley in which thepalace stands, the monarch

Thoughts dominion

The mans exclusive awarenessof exalted and spiritual things

Stanzas 5-6: description of the physical and spiritual corruption of thepalace and its domain

The monarch is disrupted by civil war

everything alters for the worse

acute bodily illness [] a mentaldisorder which oppressed R. U.

The valley becomes barren the domain of Roderick Usher isalso barren and deary

The windows which have becomered-litten

The bloodshot eyes of a madmanor a drunkard

the now miraculous luster of[Roderick Ushers] eye

The door has turned pale andthrough it come no sweet Echoes butwild laughter

Discordant mind lips somewhat thin and very pallidghastly pallor of the skinthere was a species of madhilarity in his eye

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4. Conclusion

As I have demonstrated with the help of these two examples, setting plays as much of animportant role in literature as characters or plot. Setting, which includes scenery, time periodand moral or intellectual environment, creates the stage on which characters move and act.

Therefore analyzing the setting in a piece of literature can produce a lot of information aboutits themes.In Sir Orfeo, we have seen that the loss of his wife was accompanied by the leaving of hiskingdom. That is, we have seen how Sir Orfeo left his beautiful kingdom and chose thewilderness as a place, a setting more appropriate to his uncontrollable grief.As opposed to this usage of setting, the gloomy and dark setting in Poes The Fall of theHouse of Usher represented a state of mind from the outset as it functions as theexternalisation of Roderick Ushers mind.

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the use and function of the setting

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