【正文】 must be set in a cer tain pl ace and t i m e: we have an “ol d, shutt er ed house” and the pr esent t ense suggests t ime (t hough t he present tense indicates much mor e than t im e it self i n t he st ory). The el em ent s making up a set ing are general ly: (1) t he actual geogr aphi cal locati on, i ts t opography, scener y, and such physic al ar rangem ent s as the l ocati on of the wi ndows and doors in a r oom。 she l oved t he place and was l oved in t he place. The vale, far f rom the madding cr owd of the civi li zed cit y, was as serene and pur e as the i nhabi tants. Tess, i mbued deeply wit h the natur al hue of t he val e and bound closely t o thi s worl d of simpl icit y and seclusion, exper ienced her own deli ght and happi ness though her fami ly was poor. I t was, to som e ext ent , her depar tur e fr om her nati ve pl ace t hat l ed to her t ragedy. In The Return of the Nat ive, the atmospher e of Egdon Heat h prevail s over t he whol e book。 ( 4) t he gener al envir onm ent of the characters, for example, reli gious, m ent al , moral , social, and emoti onal condi ti ons t hrough whi ch character s in t he story move. ( Holman and Har ma n, A Handbook t o li terature, 1986) But of ten, i n an ef ect ive stor y, set ing m ay fi gur e as more than mere background. I t can make t hings happen. It can prompt char act ers t o act , bri ng them t o r eal izations, or cause t hem t o r eveal t hei r innermost natures, as we shal see i n John Cheever ’s short stor y “The Swim mer”. Fir st , as we have said, the i dea of set ti ng includes t he physical envi ronm ent of a st ory: a r egi on, a l andscape, a cit y, a vi lage, a st reet, a house—a part icular place or a ser ies of places wher e a stor y occurs. ( Where a st or y t akes place is somet imes cal ed its l ocal e.) Places in fi ct ion not onl y pr ovi de a locati on for an act ion or an event of t he st ory but also provoke feeli ngs in us. A sight of a gr een fi el d dott ed wit h f lutt eri ng daf fodi ls af ect s us ver y dif f er ent ly fr om a si ght of a dingy al ey, a t ropical jungle, or a sm al l house crowded wi th fur ni tur e. I n additi on to a sense of beauty or ugli nes, we usual ly buil d up cert ai n associati ons when we put our sel ves i n such a scene. We ar e depresed by a di ngy al ley, not only because i t i s ugly, but because it may ar ouse a f eel ing, per haps somet imes unconsciousl y, of pover ty, mi ser y, viol ence, viciousness, and the st ruggles of human bei ngs who have t o li ve under such condit ions. A tr opi cal j ungl e, f or exam pl 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, t he 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 to t hei r evocati on of a romanti c mood of Scot land. The Engl ish novel ist Gr aham Greene apparentl y needed t o visit a f r esh scene i n order to wri te a fr esh novel. Hi s abi li ty t o encapsul ate t he essence of an exot ic set ing i n a single book i s exem pl if ied i n The Heart of the M att er。 (2) t he occupat ions and dai ly manner of li ving of the characters。sum m i ng up the plot . A theme is usual ly stat ed in gener al words. Anot her t ry sounds li ke this: “Sol it ar y peopl e need a orderl y place where t hey can dr ink wi t h dignit y. ” That i s a l it le bet ter. We have i ndi cat ed that Hemingway’s stor y i s more t han merel y about an old m an and two wai ter s. We remember that at t he end the stor y is enti rel y conf ined t o the ol der wai ter’ s thought s and per cept ions. How do we understand his medi ati on on “nada,” nothi ngnes, which bears so m uch emphasi s? No good statement of the theme of t he st ory can l eave i t out . Then we have sti l anot her tr y: “Soli tary people need a pl ace of r ef uge fr om t hei r ter ri bl e awarenes t hat t hei r li fe ( or per haps, hum an li fe) is essenti al y meani ngles.” Neither thi s nor any ot her statement of the stor y’s theme is unar guabl y appr opri at e, but the stat em ent at least t ouches one pr im ar y i dea t hat Hemingway sems t o be dri ving at . Af ter we read “A Cl ean, Wel Li ghted Place,” we feel that her e i s such a t heme, a uni fying vi si on, even t hough we cannot reduce it to a tag and we may st il l var y i n our opi ni on about , and stat em ent of , t he theme. Moral inf erences drawn from m ost stori es: Moral inf erences m ay be dr awn f rom most st or ies, no doubt , even when an aut hor does not intend his / her stor y to be read thi s way. I n “A Cl ean, Wel l Lighted Pl ace”, we feel that Hemingway i s indir ect ly gi ving us advi ce for pr oper ly r egar di ng and sym pat hi zing t he lonely, the uncer tain, and the ol d. But obviousl y t he st ory does not set for th a l eson that we ar e supposed t o put into pr act ice. We can say for sur e t hat “A Cl ean, Wel l Lighted Pl ace” cont ains sever al t hem es and other statements could be made to t ake i n Hemi ngway’s view of l ove, of munication bet ween people, of di gnit y. Gr eat stor ies, l ike gr eat symphoni es, fr equentl y have more t han one theme. When we say that the t itl e of Pri de and Prejudice conveys t he theme of the novel or t hat Uncl e Tom’s Cabin and The Gr apes of Wrat h tr eat t he t hem es of sl avery and m igr at ory l abor r espectively, t hi s is t o use theme i n a l ar ger and mor e abst ract sense than it i s in our discussion of Hem ingway’s “A Cl ean, Wel l Lighted Pl ace.” I n t hi s lar ger sense i t is r el ati vel y easy t o say that Mark Twai n’s Huckleber y Finn, Updike’s A amp。 P, and Faul kner ’s Bar n Burni ng concern the theme of “ini ti at ion i nto m at uri ty.” Such g