【文章內(nèi)容簡介】 ot ed al most at the t hreshol d, was a wil d r osebush, covered, in this m ont h of June, wit h i ts deli cat e gem s, whi ch might be im agi ned t o of fer their f ragr ance and fr agi le beauty t o t he pr isoner as he went in, and to the condemned cri mi nal as he cam e for th t o his doom, i n token that the deep hear t of Nat ure could pi ty and be ki nd to hi m. Appar ently, the author makes a cont rast bet ween the ugly j ail house wi th a t angl ed grass plot over gr own wi th bur dock and pi gwed and somethi ng as beauti ful as a wil d r ose. As the stor y unfol ds, he wi l fur ther suggest t hat secr et si n and a pret y chil d may go t oget her l ike a pi gweed and wi ld r oses. In this ar tf ul ly cr aft ed novel, set ing i s inti matel y blended wi t h char act er s, symboli sm , and t hem e. I n additi on to place, set ti ng may cruci al l y i nvol ve t he ti me of t he st ory—centur y, year, or even speci fi c hour . It m ay mater gr eat ly t hat a stor y t akes places i n t he morni ng or at noon. The m edi eval background i nf orm s us di f erentl y f rom the t went ieth centur y. Kennedy and Gioi a not e t hat in The Scarlet Let er, the ni enth cent ur y author Nathaniel Hawthr one, uti li zes a l ong int roduct ion and a vi vi d descr ipti on of the scene at a pr ison door t o inf orm us that the event s in the story took place i n the Pur itan m uni ty of Boston of t he ear li er sevent enth centur y. Thi s set ting, to which Hawt hor ne pays so m uch at tenti on, t ogether wi th our schemata concer ning Pur it an pr actice, hel ps us understand what happens in the novel . We can under st and to some extent the agit at ion i n t he town when a wom an is accused of adul tery, f or adult er y was a f lagr ant defi ance of chur ch for t he God f ear ing New Engl and Pur it an munit y, and an i legit im at e chil d was evi dence of si n. Wi t hout i nf or m at ion about t he seventeent hcentury Pur it an background, a reader t oday m ay be per plexed at t he novel. The f act t hat t he st ory i n Hawt hor ne’s novel t ook pl ace i n a t ime remot e fr om our own l eads us to expect di f erent at ti tudes and customs of t he character s, i s st rongly suggest ive of the whol e societ y, whi ch is cr uci al t o an esent ial under st andi ng of The Scarlet Let er as a whol e. Besides place and ti me, set ing m ay al so include t he weat her, which, indeed, may be cr uci al i n some stori es. 2. Local color wri ti ng /regi onalism and t he writ er, a regi onal wri ter. When set ti ng dom inates, or when a pi ece of f icti on is wr i ten l argely t o pr esent t he manner s and custom s of a local it y, t he wri ti ng is of ten cal ed local color wr it ing or r egi onal ism and t he wr iter , a regional wri ter. A regional wri ter usual ly sets his/ her stor ies in one geographic ar ea and t ri es to br ing i t al ive t o reader s ever ywhere. Thom as Har dy, i n his por tr ayal of li f e i n Wessex, wr ot e r egi onal novel s. Ar nol d Ben t’ s novel s of t he “Five Towns” ar e mar kedly regional. Wil li am Faulkner, known as a disti ngui shed r egi onal wr it er , almost al ways set his novels and stori es in hi s nat ive Missi ssi ppi . 3. The set ing of a novel is not always drawn f rom a real li fe l ocal e. The set ing of a novel i s not al ways dr awn f rom a real li fe local e. Li ter ar y art ists someti mes pref er t o create the tot alit y of their f ict ion—t he set ti ng as wel l as char acter s and their actions. …… The cr eat ion of set ti ng can be a magical f ict ional gi ft i n a novel ist or st or ytel er. But whatever t he set ti ng of hi s/ her wor k, a tr ue noveli st i s concerned wi th maki ng an envi ronment credible for his/ her characters and t hei r act ions and in accord wi th the devel opm ent of the pl ot. In some st ori es, a wr it er seems to draw a set ti ng mai nly t o evoke at mosphere. In such a stor y, set ing star ts us f eli ng whatever the storyt eler would have us f el . Thus atmosphere i s a m etaphor f or a feeli ng or an impr esion whi ch we cannot r eadil y at ach to some t angi bl e cause. We say that an old f armhouse set among lar ge mapl es, on a gr een lawn, has an atm osphere of peace. Here what we m ean i s that the house, by r eason of the l ook of quiet ness and by reason of a num ber of pleasant associ ations we have wi th the kind of l if e li ved there, st ir s a cert ai n r eacti on in us whi ch we do not at ach t o any si ngle i nci dent or obj ect , but gener al y to the whole scene. I n the same way we may say that he set ti ng of a st ory contr ibut es t o defi ni ng it s atmospher e. For i nst ance, in “The Tel Tale Heart, ” Poe’ s set ti ng the acti on in an ol d, dar k, l ant ernl it house gr eat ly contr ibut es t o t he reader ’s sense of unease, and so helps t o build the stor y’s ef ect iveness. Anot her example i s Lawrence’ s “The Horse Deal er’ s Daught er, ” the descr ipti on at the beginning of which contr ibutes much t o t he at mospher e of t he story. 4. The import ance of at m osphere in creati ng the set ing But i t is a m istake to say t hat t he at mospher e of a piece of f ict ion depends on t he set ing al one. (As il lustr at ed in Shakespeare’s Ham let, t he di alogue at t he ver y beginning of t he pl ay hel ps power ful ly t o establi sh t he atmospher e of uncert ainty, in addi tion to t he set ti ng—the cold midnight cast le.) The vocabular y, t he fi gur es of speech, and the r hyt hm of t he sentence also help defi ne the gener al at m ospher e, f or by t hese f act or s t he wr i t er m anages t o cont r ol t he ki nd of associ at i ons t hat e t o t he r eader ’ s m i nd. At m osphere al so depends on char act er and act i on. I n shor t , we m ay say t hat t he at m ospher e of f i ct i on i s t he per va