|
The Importance of Setting Setting is the psychological time or place in a
story. Setting plays an important role in the success of stories. Three examples
of this importance can be explained through “To Build a Fire” by Jack London and
“The Cask of the Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe and “A Worn Path” by Eudora
Welty. The settings used in these stories set the reader’s mood. A good writer’s
depiction of setting puts the reader right into the story. “To Build a Fire” by
Jack London takes place on a trail in the Yukon. This setting is vital to the
story because nature, the cold and the snow become the the main character’s
worst enemy. Nature is flatly indifferent to mankind’s survival. The cold will
not change because of man nor does it care about human existence. The
temperature in this story is set at a frigid seventy-five degrees below zero.
The main character is a man who is walking a trail by himself trying to make it
to a camp near Henderson Creek where other men are staying. He was warned not to
go out into the cold, especially alone, if it is fifty degrees below zero or
more. The man is ignorant to reality. His only companion is a dog who is almost
smarter than the man.
The dog knows what he must do to survive and is the only
one who succeeds. The man has to build a fire in order to dry his boot that had
gotten wet. At one point in the story, the man wants to gut the dog and put his
hands inside the carcass for warmth. The last fire that the man builds is what
kills him. The fire is put out by snow that has fallen down from a pine tree
branch. The man freezes to death. He dies with dignity. Setting is very
important to this story, without it, the reader would not learn of the common
ignorant human behavior when it comes to survival in an indifferent environment.
The setting of this story does not regard the man as important and is
unconcerned with his suffering and death. Mankind can not control nature and our
survival in it. We can heed warnings though and not chance our survival in
horrible natural weather conditions. Setting in “The Cask of the Amontillado” by
Edgar Allan Poe plays an important role with the development of horror and
tension necessary for readers to feel. This story is perfectly set in catacombs
with the walls lined with human remains. The cavern walls are also described to
have “white web-work”. Told through first-person narration by our main
character, Montresor, it is a story about revengeful murder. Montresor deviously
leads his “friend” Fortunato through the vaults down the long and winding
staircase to the “damp grounds” of the catacombs of the Montresors. A bottle of
wine is opened and Fortunato drinks to “the buried that repose around us” as the
scheming Montresor drinks to his friend’s “long life”. The intense description
of setting in this story is very suspenseful and eerie. Poe describes the men
passing “long walls of piled skeletons, with casks and puncheons intermingling,
into the inmost recesses of the catacombs.” Montresor buries his friend inside
the wall of the catacomb and finally finishes his work around midnight. The last
line of the story is “In pace requiescat” which means “may he rest in peace”.
The setting is absolutely necessary to base this story on. The catacombs of
death provide an appropriate setting for the story’s suspense and inevitable
ending. There is situational irony in the fact that the crime takes place during
a celebration, that Fortunato’s name means good luck, and that Fortunato is
dressed like a jester. What is about to happen is just the opposite of what you
would expect. Just about everything Montresor says is ironic. He says just the
opposite of what he means. He keeps inquiring about Fortunato’s health and says
he will not die of a cold. The greatest use of irony is when Montresor says he
is a member of the masons. Fortunato thinks he means he is of a fellow member of
a society when what he really means is that he is a bricklayer about to brick
him in for all eternity. This conversation also provides foreshadowing in the
story. This is the first clue the reader gets about how Montresor will kill
Fortunato. The overall mood of the story is one of impending evil. The ending of
the story is filled with suspense. You see Montresor carefully construct each
row of stone. At this point Montresor is fully committed to finishing his
horrifying deed even at the desperate pleas from Fortunato. When the last brick
is set in place, we know Fortunato’s fate has been sealed. “A Worn Path” by
Eudora Welty is set in December at the first stirs of morning. The story
features main character, Phoenix Jackson’s, journey through the woods to a town
called Natchez. The story describes Jackson with words such as “granny”, “old
Negro woman” and “a hundred years old.” The setting plays an important role in
this story with its black imagery. Not only is the tone and the setting draped
with a black overtone, but the main character is as well. The setting helps
establish the strong theme of dedication, love and selflessness.
A horrible dark
and scary setting must be traveled by this old woman in order to receive
medication for her grandson. The hardships of the setting show us just how
dedicated this grandmother is to her grandson. Not only is her vision poor, but
at one point in the story she falls down. Phoenix Jackson is a symbol of
charity. Her periodic journey is all for her grandson who swallowed lye two to
three years ago. The dark and dreary forest setting is a tribute to the theme of
maintaining dignity even when physical and mental abilities are diminished. Some
critiques say that objects in the setting such as the scarecrow, the vultures
and the mourning doves symbolize that the grandson is already dead. This would
mean that Jackson is so mentally diminished that she does not even realize this.
The term “Phoenix” is a mythological bird that dies and is reborn out of its own
ashes.
This is a very symbolic name for the grandmother as this strongly
emphasizes her determination. The setting is very significant to the story as it
creates a trial for Jackson. Details such as the bushes that “grab” at her
dress, silver grass, the cabin boarded shut, dead trees and the shadows hanging
from the oak trees “like curtains” help explain the hardships of the mission
Jackson must complete. She coaches herself through the maze to town and finally
makes it to see the nurse with the medication for her grandson. “To Build a
Fire” by Jack London and “The Cask of the Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe and “A
Worn Path” by Eudora Welty are three good examples of how setting plays an
important role in a story. The setting of a story helps to outline the general
theme. It may even be an important symbol or help develop symbolism. Setting may
also able a reader to relate to hardships or situations. This helps the story to
become more powerful. The settings used in the three stories above were the
foundations of success in these works.
|
