【正文】 heir 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。 as an envi ronment, i t absorbs some and repels ot her s of the char act ers: those who are abs or 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 t h 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 black f lower of ci vil ized soci et y, a pr ison. But , on one si de of t he port al , and r ooted alm ost at the t hr eshold, was a wi ld rosebush, covered, in t his month of June, wi t h it s del icate gems, which m ight be imagined t o off er t heir fr agrance and f r agi le beaut y t o the pr isoner as he went in, and to t he condemned cri minal as he came f ort h t o his doom, in token that the deep heart of Nat ur e coul d pi ty and be kind t o him . Appar ent ly, the author makes a contr ast between t he ugl y j ai lhouse wit h a t angled gr as pl ot overgr own wi th bur dock and pigweed and som et hing as beaut if ul as a wi l d rose. As the stor y unf olds, he wil l fur ther suggest that secr et sin and a pr et y chi ld may go together li ke a pigweed and wil d r oses. I n t hi s art ful ly cr af ted novel, set ti ng is i nti mately bl ended wi th character s, symboli sm, and t heme. I n addi ti on to pl ace, set ti ng may crucial y i nvol ve the t ime of t he st ory—cent ur y, year , or even specif ic hour . I t may mat ter greatl y that a story takes pl aces i n the m or ning or at noon. The medieval backgr ound inf or ms us dif f er ent ly fr om t he twenti eth century. Kennedy and Gi oia not e that in The Scarlet Let ter , the nieenthcentur y aut hor Nathani el Hawt hrone, util izes a l ong i ntr oducti on and a vivi d descri pti on of t he scene at a pri son door to infor m us t hat t he events i n t he st ory t ook place in t he Puri tan munit y of Bost on of the earl ier seventeenth century. This set ing, to whi ch Hawthor ne pays so much at ent ion, together wit h our schemata concer ning Puri tan pr act ice, helps us under stand what happens i n t he novel. We can understand t o som e ext ent t he agi tati on in the t own when a woman i s acused of adult ery, for adul ter y was a f lagrant def iance of church f or the God feari ng New Engl and Pur it an m uni ty, and an il legit imat e chi ld was evidence of si n. Wit hout i nf orm at ion about the seventeenthcentur y Puri tan backgr ound, a reader today may be per plexed at 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 remote 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 wr it ng is of ten cal ed local color wr it ing or r egi onal ism and t he wr it er , 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. Thomas Har dy, i n his por tr ayal of li fe 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. Wi l 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 t i ng of a novel is not always drawn f rom a real li fe l ocal e. The seti ng of a novel i s not always dr awn fr om a real li fe l ocale. Li terar y art ists someti mes prefer t o create t he total it y of their f icti on—t he set ing as wel l as characters and t hei r act ions. …… The creati on of set ting can be a m agi cal f icti onal gif t in a noveli st or stor ytel er . But what ever the set ing of his/ her wor k, a t r ue noveli st i s concerned wi th m aki ng an envi ronment cr edi ble f or his/ her char act ers and t hei r act ions and in accor d wi th t he devel opment of the plot . In some stor ies, a wri ter sem s to draw a set ti ng mainl y t o evoke at mosphere. In such a story, set ti ng start s us feeli ng whatever t he st oryt el ler would have us f el. Thus atmospher e i s a metaphor f or a f eli ng or an im pr e sion which we cannot r eadi ly at tach to some t angi ble cause. We say that an old f armhouse set among lar ge maples, on a gr een lawn, has an at mosphere of peace. Here what we m ean is t hat the house, by r ea