【正文】 ei r hometowns, t he mor e, t er ri ble t hei r disast er s wi l be. For exam ple, in t he Tess of the D’ Urbervil les, the Vale of Bl akemor e was the pl ace wher e Tess was born and her li fe was to unf ol d. Ever y cont our of t he sur rounding hil ls was as personal t o her as t hat of her relat ives’ f aces。 as an envir onment , it absor bs some and r epel s others of the character s: t hose who ar e abs orbed achieve a som ber i nt egrati on wit h i t, but t hose who ar e r epel ed and rebel suf fer disast er . Som et im es an envi ronment serves as more than a mere place to set t he st ory. Of ten, it i s inext ri cabl y entangl ed wit h t he pr otagonist, and even car ies str ong sym bol ic m eanings. Cat hy as an im age of the f emi ni ne per sonali ty, f or example, in Emil y Br ont e’s Wut hering Hei ght s , i s not supposed t o posses t he “wi l dernes” char act eri st ic of mascul ini ty and symboli zed by t he locales of Heat hcl if f and Wuthering H ei ghts. In some f icti on, set ing i s closel y bound wit h theme. In The Scarlet Let er, even smal l detai ls af ord power ful hint s at t he theme of t he st ory. At the start of t he st ory, the nar ator descri bes a col oni al j ailhouse: Befor e t hi s ugly edif ice, and between i t and the wheeltr ack of the str et , was a gr as pl ot, much overgrown wit h burdock, pi gwed, appl e peru, and such unsi ght l 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 l ower 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 agile beauty t o t he pr isoner as he went in, and to the condemne d cri mi nal as he cam e for th t o hi s 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 aut hor makes a cont rast bet ween the ugly j ail house wi th a t angl ed grass plot over grown wi th bur dock and pi gweed and somethi ng as beauti ful as a wil d r ose. As the stor y unfol ds, he wi l f ur 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 roses. In this ar tf ully cr aft ed novel, set ing i s inti matel y blended wit h char act er s, symboli sm, and t hem e. I n addit ion t o place, set ti ng may cr uci al ly i nvol ve the t ime of the stor y—cent ury, year , or even specif ic hour. I t may mat ter greatly that a st ory takes pl aces in the mor ning or at noon. The medieval backgr ound infor ms us dif fer ent ly f r om t he twenti et h century. Kennedy and Gi oia note that in The Scarlet Let ter, the nieenthcentur y aut hor Nat hani 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 seventeent h century. This set ing, to whi ch Hawthor ne pays so much at ent ion, together wit h our schemata concer ni ng 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 ormat ion about the seventeenthcentur y Puri tan backgr ound, a reader t oday 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 in a t ime remot e fr om our own l eads us t o expect di f erent at ti tudes and customs of t he char act er s, i s str ongly suggest ive of the whol e soci et y, whi ch is cr uci al t o an esenti al under standing of The Scarl et Let er as a whole. Besi des place and ti me, set ting may also include t he weat her, whi ch, i ndeed, may be crucial in some st or ies. 2. Local col or writ ing / regionali sm and the wri ter, a regional writ er. When set ing domi nat es, or when a piece of fi ct ion i s wr it en lar gel y to pr esent the m anners and cust oms of a l ocali ty, the wr it ing i s oft en cal led l ocal col or wri ti ng or regionali sm and the wr i ter, a r egi onal wr it er . A r egi onal wr it er usualy set s hi s/her st ori es i n one geogr aphi c ar ea and tr ies to bri ng it ali ve to r eader s everywher e. Thomas Hardy, in hi s port rayal of l if e in Wesex, wr ote regional novels. Arnold Ben ’s novels of the “Fi ve Towns” are m arkedl y r egi onal . Wil l iam Faul kner , known as a di st inguished regional wri ter, alm ost always set hi s novels and stor ies i n his nati ve Mi sissippi. 3. The set ti ng of a novel i s not al ways drawn from a real l if e locale. The set ti ng of a novel is not always drawn fr om a r eal l if e locale. Lit erary ar ti st s som etim es pr efer to cr eat e t he totali ty of t hei r fi cti on—the set ing as wel as char act ers and t hei r act ions. …… The creati on of set ing can be a magi cal fi cti onal gif t in a noveli st or storyt el ler . But whatever the set ing of his/her work, a t rue novelist is concer ned wit h making an envi r onm ent 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 seem s 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 atm osphere i s a met aphor for a f eel ing or an i mpressi on which we cannot readi ly at tach to some tangi ble cause. We say t hat an old farm house set among l ar ge maples, on a green lawn, has an at mosphere of peace. Her e what we mean is t hat t he house, by r eason of the l ook of q