【正文】 mor e, t er ible their disast ers wi l be. For example, in the Tes of t he D’Ur bervi l es, the Val e of Bl akem ore was t he place wher e Tes was bor n and her l if e was to unf old. Ever y contour of t he sur r ounding hi l s was as per sonal to her as that of her rel at ives’ f aces。 as an envir onm ent , i t absor bs som e and repels other s of t he char act er s: those who ar e absor bed achieve a somber integrat ion wi th it , but those who are repel led and r ebel suf fer disaster. Someti mes an environm ent serves as m ore t han a m ere pl ace t o set t he story. Of t en, i t i s inextr icably entangled wi th the prot agonist , and even car ri es st rong symboli c meani ngs. Cathy as an i mage of t he femi nine personal it y, f or exampl e, i n Emi ly Br onte’s W utheri ng Heights , is not supposed t o possess the “wil derness” character isti c of masculi nity and symboli zed by the l ocales of Heathcli f and Wut heri ng Heights. In some fi ct ion, set ti ng is closely bound wi th t hem e. I n The Scarl et Let ter, even smal l det ail s af for d powerf ul hi nts at the t heme of the story. At the st ar t of the story, t he nar rator descr ibes a colonial jail house: Bef ore t his ugly edi fi ce, and bet ween it and the wheelt rack of the str eet, was a grass plot , much overgr own wi th bur dock, pigweed, appleper u, and such unsightl y veget at i on, which evidentl y found something congeni al i n t he soi l t hat had so earl y bor ne the bl ack f lower of civi lized soci ety, a pri son. But, on one side of the por tal, and root 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