【正文】 hat the house, by r eason of the l ook of qui et ness and by r eason of a num ber of pleasant asociati ons we have wi th the kind of l if e li ved there, stir s a cert ai n r eact i on i n us whi ch we do not at t ach t o any si ngl e i nci dent or obj ect , but gener al l y t o t he whol e scene. I n t he sam e way we m ay say t hat t he set t i ng of a st or y cont r i but es t o def i ni ng i t s at m ospher e. For i nst ance, i n “The Tel l Tal e H eart , ” Poe’ s set t i ng t he act i on i n an ol d, dar k, 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 Hem ingway 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 hem e, a uni fying vi si on, even though we cannot r educe it t o a t ag and we may sti l vary i n our opi nion about, and st atement of , the t heme. Moral i nf erences drawn from most st ori es : Mor al i nf erences m ay be drawn f rom most st ori es , no doubt , even when an author does not intend hi s/ 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 advice for pr oper ly r egar ding and sym pat hizing t he lonely, the uncer tai n, and the ol d. But obviously t he st ory does not set for th a leson t hat we ar e supposed t o put into practi ce. We can say for sure t hat “A Cl ean, Wel l Lighted Pl ace” contains sever al t hem es and ot her statements could be made to t ake in Hem ingway’ s view of l ove, of municati on bet ween people, of dignit y. Gr eat stor ies, l ike gr eat symphoni es, fr equentl y have more than one theme. When we say that the t it le of Pri de and Prejudi ce conveys t he theme of t he novel or t hat Uncl e Tom ’s Cabin and The Grapes of Wrat h tr eat t he themes of sl aver y and mi gr atory labor respecti vel y, t his i s to use t heme in a l arge r and m ore abstr act sense than i t is i n our di scussi on of Hemingway’s “A Clean, Wel l Light ed Pl ace. ” In t his l arger sense it is r elati vel y easy to say that Mar k Twain’s Huckl eber r y Finn, Updike’s A amp。 (2) the occupat ions a nd dai ly m anner of li vi ng of the char act ers。 (4) t he general envi ronment of the char act ers, for exampl e, reli gious, ment al , moral, soci al, and emoti onal condi ti ons t hrough which characters in t he st ory move. ( Holman and Har man, A Handbook t o li terat ure, 1986) But of t en, i n an ef ect ive stor y, set ing may f igur e as more t han mere backgr ound. I t can m ake t hings happen. I t can pr ompt char act er s to act , br ing t hem t o reali zat ions, or cause t hem t o reveal t hei r innermost nat ures, as we shal see in John Cheever ’s shor t story “The Swi mm er ”. Fi rst , as we have sai d, the i dea of set ing includes the physical envi ronment of a story: a region, a l andscape, a ci ty, a vil lage, a st reet, a house—a par ti cul ar pl ace or a seri es of pl aces where a st ory occurs. (Wher e a stor y takes place is someti mes cal led i ts l ocal e.) Places in f icti on not onl y provide a locat ion f or an act ion or an event of the stor y but al so provoke feeli ngs i n us. A si ght of a gr en f iel d dott ed wit h fl utt er ing daf fodil s af ect s us ver y dif fer ent ly f rom a sight of a dingy al ey, a t ropical jungle, or a smal l house crowded wi th f urni ture. I n addi ti on to a sense of beauty or ugli ness, we usual y buil d up cer tai n asoci ati ons when we put ourselves in such a scene. We ar e depr esed by a dingy al ey, not onl y because it i s ugl y, but because it may ar ouse a f el ing, per haps someti mes unconsci ousl y, of pover ty, misery, viol ence, vi ci ousness, and t he st ruggles of human beings who have to l ive under such condi ti ons. A t ropical jungle, for 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 m yst 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 o t hei r evocation of a romanti c mood of Scot land. The Engl ish novel ist Graham Gr eene 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 exempl if ied i n The Heart of the M att er 。 she loved the pl ace and was l oved i n the pl ace. The val e, f ar fr om t he m addi ng cr owd of t he ci vili zed ci ty, was as ser ene and pure as t he inhabitant s. Tes, imbued deepl y wi th t he nat ural hue of the vale and bound cl osely to t his wor ld of sim plici ty and secl usi on, exper ienced her own del ight and happines t hough her f am il y was poor . It was, t o some extent, her depart ure f rom her nati ve place that led t o her t ragedy. I n The Return of t he Nati ve, the at mosphere of Egdon Heath pr evai ls over the whole boo