【導讀】Doesthischaracterarriveatanyeventualrealizationorunderstanding?Areyouleftwithanyrealizationorunderstandingafterfinishingreadingthestory?Doestheauthor(throughthenarrator)makeanygeneralobservationsaboutlifeorhumannature?summary?

　　

【正文】 ows and door s in a room。 ( 2) t he occupati ons and dail y manner of l iving of t he char acter s。 ( 3) the t ime or peri od in which t he act ion t akes place, f or exampl e, t he late ei ght enth cent ur y i n histor y or wint er of t he year 。 ( 4) the gener al envir onment of t he character s, f or example, r el igi ous, mental, mor al , social , and emot ional condit ions thr ough whi ch char act er s in the stor y move. ( Hol man and Harman, A Handbook to l it erature, 1986) But of ten, in an ef fecti ve st ory, set ting may fi gure as mor e than mer e background. It can make thi ngs happen. I t can prom pt characters to act, bri ng them to r eal izati ons, or cause them to r eveal their i nner most natur es, as we shal l see i n John Cheever’ s shor t st or y “The Swimmer”. Fir st, as we have said, t he idea of set ti ng incl udes t he physi cal environment of a st ory: a r egi on, a landscape, a cit y, a vi l age, a str et , a house—a part icular place or a ser ies of places wher e a stor y occur s. ( Where a st ory t akes pl ace i s somet imes cal ed it s locale.) Pl aces in fi ction not only pr ovi de a l ocat i on for an acti on or an event of t he st ory but also pr ovoke f el ings in us. A sight of a green f ield dot ted wi th f lut ter ing daf odi ls af fects us very di f erentl y fr om a si ght of a di ngy al ley, a tr opi cal j ungl e, or a smal house cr owded wit h f ur nit ur e. In addit ion t o a sense of beaut y or ugl ines, we usual ly bui ld up cert ain associat ions when we put our sel ves in such a scene. We are depressed by a di ngy al ey, not only because i t is ugly, but because i t may arouse a feeli ng, perhaps som et im es unconsciously, of povert y, m iser y, vi olence, viciousness, and t he st ruggles of human beings who have to l ive under such condi tions. A t ropical jungle, for exampl e, i n Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darknes, might involve a pl icated anal ysi s: t he pleasur e of the colours and f orms of veget ati on, the di sf ort of humidi ty, heat, and i nsects, a sense of myst er y, hor ror , et c. The populari ty of Si r Walt er Scott ’s “Waverl ey” novels i s due in par t o t hei r evocation of a r omanti c mood of Scot land. The Engl ish novel ist Graham Gr eene apparentl y needed t o vi si t a f resh scene in order to wr i te a f resh novel . His abil it y t o encapsul at e the essence of an exot ic set ing i n a single book i s exempli f ied in The Heart of the Mat ter 。 hi s cont em por ary Evel yn Waugh st ated that the West Af ri ca of t hat book r epl aced t he tr ue remembered West Af ri ca of hi s own exper ience. Such power i s not unmon: the Yor kshir e moor s have been romant icized because Emil y Br onte wr ote of t hem in Wutheri ng Heights, and li terar y tour ists have visit ed StokeonTr ent i n nort her n England because it pri ses t he “Fi ve Towns” of Ar nol d Ben ’s novel s of the earl y twent ieth centur y. Thus, a reader ’s r eact ion t o a place is not mer el y based upon the way it looks, but upon the potenti alit ies of act ion suggested by it. Pl aces mat t er great l y to many writ ers . For instance, the Fr ench noveli st Balzac, bef or e wr it ing a st or y set in a t own, he woul d go and visit t hat t own, select a few lanes and houses, and descr i bes t hem in det ai l, down t o their ver y smels. In his view the place i n which an event occur s was of equal m om ent wi th t he event it sel f, and it has a par t to pl ay. Another exam pl e is Thomas Har dy, under whom the pr esentati on of set ting assumes an unusual i mport ance. His “Wessex” vil lages cast int angibl y such as spel l upon the vil lagers t hat once they leave their hometowns t hey wil l inevit abl 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 ibl e their disast ers wi l be. For example, in the Tes of t he D’ Urbervi l es, the Val e of Blakem ore was t he place wher e Tes was bor n and her l if e was to unf old. Ever y contour of the sur r ounding hi l s was as per sonal to her as that of her rel at ives’ f aces。 she l oved t he place and was loved in the 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 wi th t he nat ural hue of t he val e and bound cl osely to t his wor ld of simpl ici ty and secl usi on, exper ienced her own deli ght and happi nes t hough her fami ly was poor . I t was, t o some ext ent, her depar t ur e f rom her nati ve place that led t o her t r agedy. In The Ret urn of the Nat ive, t he atmospher e of Egdon Heat h prevail s over t he whol e book。 as an envi ronment, i t absorbs some and repels ot her s of the char act ers: those who are absor bed achi eve a somber integr at ion wi th it , but those who ar e repeled and r ebel suff er di saster. Someti mes an environment serves as m ore t han a m ere pl ace t o set the story. Oft en, i t is i nextr icably ent angled wi th the pr ot agoni st , and even car r ies st rong symboli c meani ngs. Cathy as an i mage of the f em inine personalit y, f or exampl e, i n Emi ly Bronte’s Wutheri ng Heights, is not supposed to possess the “wi lderness” character isti c of masculi nit y and symbol ized by the l ocal es of Heathcli f and Wut heri ng Height s. I n som e fi ction, set ti ng is cl osely bound wi th t hem e. I n The Scarl et Let ter , even smal detail s af f or d powerf ul hi nts at the t hem e of the stor y. At t he st ar t of the stor y, t he nar rat or descr ibes a colonial jai lhouse: Bef ore this ugl y edi fi ce, and between it and t he wheel tr ack of t he st reet, was a gr assplot , much over gr own wi th bur dock, pi gweed, appl e peru, and such unsi ght ly vegetati on, whi ch evi dent ly found som et hing congenial i n the soil t hat had so ear ly bor ne the