【導讀】Doesthischaracterariveatanyeventualrealizationorunderstanding?Areyouleftwithanyrealizationorunderstandingafterfinishingreadingthestory?Doestheauthor(throughthenarator)makeanygeneralobservationsaboutlifeorhumannature?Dothecharactersmakeany(Caution:Charactersnowandagainwillutteropinionswithwhichthereaderisnotnecesarilysupposedtoagre.)Doesthestorycontainanyespecialycuriousobjects,mysteriousflatcharacters,significantanimals,repeatednames,specialalusions,orwhatever,thathinttowardsmeaningslargerthansuchthingsordinarilyhave?Inliterarystories,suchsymbolsormetaphorsmaypointtocentralthemes.Whenwehaveworkedourstatementoftheme,havewecastourstatementintogenerallanguage,notjustgivenaplotsummary?Doesourstatementholdtrueforthestoryasawhole,notjustpartofit?

　　

【正文】 or cause t hem t o r eveal their i nnermost nat ures, as we shal se in John Cheever’s shor t st or y “The Swi mmer ”. Fir st, as we have said, the i dea of set t i ng includes t he physi cal environment of a story: a r egion, a landscape, a cit y, a vi lage, a str et, a house—a parti cular place or a seri es of places wher e a story occur s. ( Wher e a story t akes pl ace i s sometimes cal led it s local e.) Places in ficti on not onl y provide a l ocat ion f or an act ion or an event of t he stor y but also provoke f eli ngs in us. A sight of a gr en f ield dott ed wi th flutt er ing daf fodils af fect s us very di f er entl y fr om a sight of a di ngy al ey, a t ropi cal jungl e, or a smal l house cr owded wit h fur ni ture. In addi tion t o a sense of beaut y or ugli ness, we usual y bui ld up cer tain associ at ions when we put our selves in such a scene. We are depr essed by a di ngy al ey, not onl y because it i s ugl y, but because i t may ar ouse a f eli ng, per haps sometimes unconsciously, of pover ty, misery, violence, vi ci ousnes, and t he str uggles of human bei ngs who have t o l ive under such condi tions. A tr opical j ungle, for example, in Joseph Conrad’ s Heart of Darknes, might i nvolve a pl icat ed anal ysi s: t he pl easure of the colours and for ms of vegetati on, the disf or t of humidit y, heat , and i nsects, a sense of mystery, horr or, et c. The populari ty of Sir Walt er Scott’ s “Waver ley” novel s is due in part to t heir evocat ion of a r omantic mood of Scotl and. The English noveli st Gr aham Gr ene appar entl y needed t o visit a f resh scene i n order t o wr ite a fr esh novel. His abil ity to encapsulate t he essence of an exoti c set ing i n a singl e book i s exempl if ied in The Heart of the Matt er 。 hi s contempor ar y Evel yn Waugh st at ed that t he West Afr ica of that book replaced the t rue remembered West Afr ica of hi s own exper ience. Such power is not unmon: the Yorkshir e moor s have been r omanticized because Emily Bront e wrot e of them in Wut heri ng Hei ghts, and lit er ar y touri st s have visi ted Stoke on Tr ent in nort hern England because it pr ises t he “Five Towns” of Arnol d Ben ’s novels of t he earl y twent ieth cent ur y. Thus, a r eader ’s r eaction t o a place is not mer el y based upon the way it l ooks, but upon t he potent ialit ies of acti on suggest ed by it. Pl aces m at ter greatl y to m any writ ers. For i nst ance, t he Fr ench novelist Bal zac, befor e writ ing a st or y set in a town, he would go and visit t hat town, sel ect a f ew l anes and houses, and descri bes them i n det ail , down t o t heir very sm el ls. In hi s vi ew t he pl ace in whi ch an event occur s was of equal mom ent wit h t he event it self , and i t has a part t o play. Anot her example i s Thomas Har dy, under whom the presentati on of set ti ng assum es an unusual im port ance. Hi s “Wessex” vi l ages cast i nt angi bly such as spel upon the vil agers t hat once t hey l eave t hei r hometowns t hey wi l i nevi tabl y suf fer fr om disasters, and t he fart her t hey ar e away fr om t hei r hom et owns, t he m or e, t er ri bl e thei r di sast er s wil l be. For exam pl e, i n the Tes of t he D’ Urbervi l es, the Val e of Blakemore was t he pl ace wher e Tess was bor n and her lif e was to unf ol d. Ever y contour of t he surr oundi ng hi l s was as personal t o her as t hat of her r el ati ves’ faces。 she l oved the place and was loved i n t he pl ace. The val e, f ar f rom the madding crowd of the civil ized ci ty, was as ser ene and pur e as the inhabit ants. Tess, imbued deepl y wit h the natural hue of the vale and bound cl osely t o this wor ld of simplicit y and secl usion, exper ienced her own del ight and happiness though her famil y was poor. It was, to some extent, her depart ur e f rom her nati ve pl ace t hat led to her t ragedy. I n The Ret urn of the Nati ve, the atmospher e of Egdon Heath pr evail s over the whol e book。 as an envi ronment, it absorbs some and r epels other s of the characters: those who are absorbed achieve a somber i nt egr at ion wit h it , but those who ar e repel ed and r ebel suff er disaster. Somet imes an environment serves as more t han a mere pl ace t o set t he story. Of ten, i t is i nextr icably entangled wi th t he pr ot agoni st , and even cari es st rong symbol ic meanings. Cathy as an image of the feminine personal it y, f or example, in Emi ly Br ont e’ s Wut hering Hei ght s, is not supposed to possess t he “wi lderness” char acteri st ic of mascul init y and symboli zed by t he locales of Heathclif f and Wut hering Height s. I n some ficti on, set ing i s cl osely bound wi th t heme. In The Scarlet Let er , even smal l detail s af ford powerful hints at the t heme of the story. At the start of the story, the nar rator descr ibes a col onial jail house: Before t hi s ugl y edi fice, and bet wen i t and t he wheel tr ack of the str et, was a gras plot, much overgrown wi th burdock, pigwed, appl e peru, and such unsight ly vegetati on, which evi dent ly found somethi ng congeni al i n the soil that had so ear ly borne the black fl ower of civili zed society, a pri son. But, on one si de of the por tal, and root ed al most at the threshold, was a wild rosebush, cover ed, in t his mont h of June, wi th i ts delicate gems, which might be imagi ned t o offer t heir f ragr ance and fragile beaut y to the prisoner as he went in, and to t he condemned cri minal as he came fort h to hi s doom, in token t hat the deep hear t of Natur e could pit y and be kind t o hi m. Appar entl y, t he author makes a contr ast bet ween the ugly j ai lhouse wit h a tangl ed gr ass plot overgrown wit h bur dock and pi gweed and somet hi ng as beauti ful as a wil d rose. As t he st or y unf ol ds, he wil l furt her suggest that secret sin and a pret y chi ld may go t ogether l ike a