1. Literary Elements Setting
is the time and place of a story’s action.
Setting refers not only to time of day or season but also to the historical period and circumstances, weather conditions, and circumstances of place.
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2. Elements of Setting
Holman’s A Handbook to Literature divides setting into four main elements:
Actual geographical location
Occupations and “daily manner of living” of characters
Time or period in which the action takes place
The general environment of the characters – religious, mental, moral, social, emotional
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3. Thinking about setting
I like to think of setting in a story as the combination of all the elements which go into the making of a scene – elements that give the story a visual impact and a sense of being real.
Such elements might include not only the large circumstances but also the “props.”
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4. Props
When I consider setting, I think of the staging of the story, not only of time, place, and weather, for example, but also of “props” or “stage set”– furniture, accessories important to the story, floor plans.
Imagining that I am a stage manager, I ask myself what parts of the set are crucial to the story or if there are parts which can be omitted without vast change to the story.
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5. Setting and Symbolism
Writers often use setting in a symbolic way: a desert may convey sterility, for example, or a thunderous downpour may show new life or growth.
Example: In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour,” the stairs indicate up and down, or rise and fall – Mrs. Mallard’s rise to freedom and victory or her descent to death and defeat. (See textbook, pp ) What do the doors in the story seem to represent?
When a setting seems to be particularly symbolic, we might consider its examination important to discovery of ideas about the story’s theme.
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6. Atmosphere
A word often associated with setting is atmosphere, the “emotional aura that helps to establish the reader’s expectations and attitudes” (“Atmosphere”).
A master of atmosphere is Edgar Allan Poe, whose tales evoke a sense of forboding or impending catastrophe. Poe takes great care in creating and describing his scenes in order to influence the reader’s response to a particular setting or situation.
Consider the atmosphere of the following places you might go in your everyday life: a church, a tavern, a greenhouse.
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7. Works Cited
Kennedy, X. J. and Dana Gioia, eds. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. New York: Longman,
“Setting.” A Handbook to Literature. Holman, C. Hugh and William Harmon, eds. New York: MacMillan, 1986.
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8. CREDITS Developed and prepared by Dr. Linda Lovell
NorthWest Arkansas Community College
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