【正文】 le t he events in t he novel. I n f act , an exposi ti on must have a set ti ng. But seti ng goes al ong wit h ever y event i n the novel wher eas exposi ti on is only the ini ti at ing acti on. 1. The element s making up a set t ing By the set ing of a st ory, we sim pl y mean i ts place and ti me, the physi cal , and someti mes spi ri tual, backgr ound agai nst whi ch the action of a nar rati ve takes place. Every a st ory as shor t as the one at the begi nning of the i ntr oducti on must be set in a cer tain pl ace and t im e: we have an “old, shut tered house” and t he present tense suggest s ti me ( though the pr esent t ense i ndi cat es much more than ti me i tself in the stor y). The elements m aki ng up a set ti ng ar e gener al y: ( 1) the actual geographical ocat ion, it s topogr aphy, scenery, and such physi cal ar angements as the locat ion of t he windows and doors i n a r oom 。 ( 2) the occupati ons and dail y manner of l ivi ng of t he char act er s。 she l oved t he place and was loved in t he place. The vale, far f rom the m adding cr owd of the ci vi li zed ci ty, was as serene and pure as t he inhabi tants. Tess, imbued deepl y wit h t he nat ur al hue of t he val e and bound cl osely t o t hi s wor ld of sim pl icit y and secl usi on, exper ienced her own deli ght and happi ness t hough her fami ly was poor. I t was, t o som e ext ent , her depar tur e f rom her nati ve place that led to her t ragedy. In The Return of the Nat ive, the atm osphere of Egdon Heat h pr evail s over t he whole book。 (3) the t im e or per iod i n which t he act ion t akes place, for exampl e, t he late ei ghteent h cent ury i n hist or y or wi nt er of t he year 。 as an envir onm ent , i t absorbs som e and repels other s of t he char act er s: those who ar e absor bed achieve a somber integrat ion wi th it , but those who are repel led and r ebel suf fer disaster. Someti mes an environm ent serves as m ore t han a m ere pl ace t o set t he story. Of t en, i t i s inextr icably entangled wi th the prot agonist , and even car ri es st rong symboli c meani ngs. Cathy as an i mage of t he femi nine personal it y, f or exampl e, i n Emi ly Br onte’s W utheri ng Heights , is not supposed t o possess the “wil derness” character isti c of masculi nity and symboli zed by the l ocales of Heathcli f and Wut heri ng Heights. In some fi ct ion, set ti ng is closely bound wi th t hem e. I n The Scarl et Let ter, even smal l det ail s af for d powerf ul hi nts at the t heme of the story. At the st ar t of the story, t he nar rator descr ibes a colonial jail house: Bef ore t his ugly edi fi ce, and bet ween it and the wheelt rack of the str eet, was a grass plot , much overgr own wi th bur dock, pigweed, appleper u, and such unsightl y veget at i on, which evidentl y found something congeni al i n。 his contemporar y Evelyn Waugh stated t hat t he West Af r ica of that book replaced the tr ue r em em ber ed West Af r ica of his own experi ence. Such power i s not unmon: the Yor kshi re m oor s have been r om ant icized because Emi ly Br onte wr ote of t hem in Wuthering Hei ght s, and li ter ar y t our ists have visit ed StokeonTr ent i n nort her n England because it pri ses t he “Five Towns” of Ar nol d Ben ’s novels of the earl y t went ieth centur y. Thus, a reader ’s r eact ion t o a place i s not mer el y based upon t he way it l ooks, but upon the potenti ali ti es of acti on suggest ed by it . Pl aces m att er greatl y to many writ ers. For instance, the Fr ench noveli st Bal zac, bef ore wr it ing a st ory set in a town, he would go and visi t hat t own, select a few lanes and houses, and descri bes t hem in det ai l, down t o t hei r ver y smel s. I n his view the pl ace i n which an event occurs was of equal moment wi th t he event it sel f, and it has a par t to pl ay. Another exampl e is Thomas Har dy, under whom the pr esentati on of set ti ng assumes an unusual i mport ance. His “Wessex” vi lages cast int angibl y such as spel l upon the vi l l ager s t hat once they leave their hometowns t hey wil l inevitabl y suf fer f rom disast er s, and t he fart her t hey ar e away f rom their hometowns, the mor e, t er ible their disast ers wi l be. For example, in the Tes of t he D’Urbervi l es, the Val e of Bl akem ore was t he place wher e Tes was bor n and her l if e was to unf old. Ever y contour of t he sur r ounding hi l s was as per sonal to her as that of her rel at ives’ f aces。 P, and Faulkner’ s Barn Bur ning concer n t he theme of “init iati on int o matur it y.” Such gener al descr ipti ons of t hem e can be useful , especi al ly if we want t o sor t a lar ge num ber of stori es and novels i nto r ough categori es, but the f act that they ar e si mi lar in t hem e does not mean that they mean t he same t hing. The at ti tude t owar ds the t hem e may be very di f erent: the t one of tr eatm ent m ay be, for example, either ic or t ragic, str ai ght for ward or i roni c. The wr it er ’ s vi sion of li fe is t he special underl ying f act of a stor y, and a t heme, abst rac tl y stated, is not the same thi ng as a vision of l if e. And we suggest anyway that, i n the beginning, you look f or what ever tr uth or i nsi ght you t hi nk the wr i t er of a stor y i nt ends t o r eveal. Try to st at e a theme in a sentence. By doing so, we wi l f ind our selves looking cl osely at t he st ory. Kennedy and Gi oia make a helpf ul suggesti on to consider the f oll owi ng point s when we thi nk about the t hem e of a st ory: Look back once mor e at the ti tl e of the stor y. What does it i ndi cat e in relat ion t o the whol e st ory? Does the m ain character in any way change in t he st ory? Does t hi s char act er ar ri ve at any event ual r eal izati on or understanding? Ar e you lef t wi t h any reali zat ion or under st andi ng aft er f