What different “layers” of text are revealed by the use of setting? Consider cultural values, augmenting characterization, imagery, tone, irony, theme, etc.
As a play, Equus was written to convey messages through setting, theme and costumes. As the play continues, layers are exposed, revealing information about the characters and motifs that might not be as obvious. With costume design such an apparent part of setting, personally the most interesting aspect of this area was the horses. According to the costume directions that the horses should be made with wire and the heads should be large and life-like. Shaffer wrote in the foreword of the play, “The actors’ own heads are seen beneath them: no attempt should be made to conceal them” (Shaffer 5). This could be seen as a metaphorical representation of the innocence behind the horses. These beautiful animals have nothing to hide. It can also be interpreted as the part of man that is in all horses and the beauty in innocence of horses that is in all man. Throughout the play there is not much insight on how the setting changes, but the foreword of stage directions at the beginning of the work gives a description. Shaffer instructs “A square of wood set on a circle of wood” (Shaffer 3). He goes on to explain that the setting including the wood should resemble a boxing ring, perhaps a representation of the war that will soon take place between Alan and the psychologist. An intriguing note in the forward is that the entire cast of Equus will sit on stage, in plan view of the audience, to watch the play all evening. In this unique representation it exemplifies the Shaffer, the cast, or the theme all have nothing to hide. The openness of the horses combined with the apparent cast is unconventional. There is one setting, one cast, no costume changes, everything is out in the open, the audience members are the jury to the case. As previously mentioned in other my blog posts, the less physical and more metaphorical analogy of religion also has a great toll on the setting and character development. It is within the space of his childhood home the main character has been shaped, and as a possible result, has committed the crime. The setting of the home is intentionally obvious. A young boy grows up in a household of tension with a mother filled with guilt and denial and a father who is burdened by anger. The psychologist pushes the parents to reveal anything about the up bring both in the home and his office. When first entering the house he is careful to notice the small hints of religion and the hostility against them by the father. The psychologists room is a safe place, it allows the boy to become comfortable while telling his story. It also provides him an escape from his angry household and the loneliness of the cell room. Watching the play version of this script would reveal a vast amount of character and themes through setting. Shaffer is greatly aware of the variation of communication through literature and theater, and how sometimes the most important messages may get lost in translation.
Not much of "Catch-22" is away from the island of Pianosa in the Mediterranean Sea near Italy where all the soldiers live. Pianosa is large and some characters live in different areas from each other. For example the chaplain lives on the outskirts of the headquarters where many of the soldiers live. When the chaplain is in public he often feels scared in front Colonel Cathcart. The chaplain fails to voice his opinion and show dominance, "He hated himself for what be construed to be his own cowardice. He had intended to take a much stronger stand with Colonel Cathcart. Instead he failed miserably, had choked up once again in the face of opposition from a stronger personality" (Heller 199). When the chaplain is outside the headquarters and in his tent he worrisome and feels free to question. In the beginning of Chapter 25 he questions if God even exists, "Was there a God? How could he be sure?" (Heller 277). This is a question he could never ask in public; after all he is the representation of religion on the base.
Since the story is based around World War II pilots some of the story does take place in the air. The air represents absurdity and death. An example of absurdity comes when Yossarian and a few other men were on the Bologna mission. Their mission was to bomb German ammunition dumps. While on the mission another pilot Aarfy began bullying Yossarian. Part of the absurdity is that no one ever spends the time to bother Yossarian. What was shocking to me as I read this chapter was the affect Aarfy was having on Yossarian, “Yossarian shouted, and broke into tears. He began punching Aarfy in the body with both hands as hard as he could. ‘Get away from me Get away!’” (Heller 148). This coward side of Yossarian was something I had never seen before because he was never put in a situation like this. I also did not expect him to cry and be defeated because he was the protagonist.
The different settings in the novel reveal some of the traits of the characters I had not and would not have expected to see. Throughout the novel the setting continues to show the many sides of the many characters. Like the example with the chaplain, I have noticed how character’s change in different settings.
The setting in “Daisy Miller” not only helps to characterize the characters in the story but also foreshadows the end of the novella. The book is set in both the capital of Italy, Rome, and areas of Switzerland, Vevey and Geneva, for various important reasons. The noticeable traits of each city pertain to some of the characters as well, and given that they are so different, it further divides the main characters, Winterbourne and Daisy. The cultural values of each location draw attention to the status and rank of characters while also explaining Winterbourne’s captivation for Daisy. Layers of details can be revealed once readers acknowledge how the setting and characters relate to each other. Although the characters are never actually situated in Geneva for any extended period of time, the important features it contributes to the story are very significant. Winterbourne, as explained early in the novella, resides in Geneva which he describes as having a stuffy society. Once Winterbourne arrives in Vevey to visit his aunt and meets Daisy, he immediately notices the contrast between settings when he explains “In Geneva…a young man was not at liberty to speak to a young unmarried lady except under certain rarely occurring conditions; but here at Vevey, what conditions could be better than these? – a pretty American girl coming and standing in front of you in a garden” (James 6). Clearly, Vevey is a place of freedom whereas Geneva, where Winterbourne has been living for so long, is considered stiff. As a result of living in Vevey, Winterbourne embraces the slight rebellion that Daisy has always been used to. Additionally, Daisy and her family do not live in one spot for too long as they are constantly traveling; however, given that their roots are in America, a country known for its freedom and liberty, Daisy reflects that same independence wherever she is. Furthermore, the capital city of Rome foreshadows the end of the novel (although I haven’t finished the novel, I found out what happens). Rome, with the Colosseum and other ruins left from ancient times, could easily represent or suggest death. Ultimately, Daisy does die of an illness. While Rome represents decay, it was also considered a sophisticated area, so Daisy’s flirtatious antics were unwelcome by Mrs. Walker and she says as such when she scolds “it is not the custom here” (James 54). Overall, Rome signifies almost everything that Daisy isn’t (decay and class – she is youthful and a flirt). The story “Daisy Miller” would fail to exist without the setting, as it contributes to the underlying themes and creates the dynamic between characters in the novella. James using setting, including places like Geneva and America even though the book never takes the readers to those locations, to add purpose to the actions of the characters; no one would care if Daisy walked with men on either side of her in America, but society does notice in Rome. Although Rome itself was not the cause of Daisy’s death, living in a place with values so opposite her own may have contributed to her death figuratively.
"[T]hey . . . hinted that he was about to build his house over an unquiet grave. . . . The terror and ugliness of Maule’s crime, and the wretchedness of his punishment, would darken the freshly plastered walls, and infect them early with the scent of an old and melancholy house."
Hawthorne brilliantly uses the a Puritan era New England setting as a segue into his criticism of the ideals in that time period as well as other themes in the novel. The novel revolves around this single building and the past that haunts it. The original proprietor of the land has it stolen from him. The new owner is then cursed by the former and the curse is passed on to the following generations. The idea works incredibly it occurs right after the end of the witch trials. It makes the story more believable.
The time period also houses Hawthorne's criticisms. We see the high value on social class to the characters in the novel. Hepzibah is distraught at the fact that she is no longer a lady and has been reduced to shop keeping due to her new found poverty. She glares as wealthy women walk by and scowls as gentlemen stroll the streets. This obsession with class structure by the characters occurs at an even deeper level as we notice the feud originally exists between a modest family (the Maule's) and a wealthy family associated with the church and the law (the Pyncheon's). Much like The Scarlet Letter, many characters placed in positions of power fall. Hepzibah was once wealthy but is now a lowly shop-keep. Colonel Pyncheon essentially was the head of the town but mysteriously died. Even Judge Pyncheon meets his demise at the hands of Clifford.
Essentially, like the quote above demonstrates, the location in this novel reveals the underlying plot quite blatantly.
I love the irony in how Hawthorne weaves his puritan heritage into many of his books just to dehumanize it in any way possible, especially when it comes to the societal values of puritans. In "The Scarlet Letter" Hawthorne establishes the same type of society within the colony. Along with the "hauntings" of the house in this story, Hawthorne also uses the superstition of the puritans to make the woods and what they contain haunted to their society. Even though I am not a fan of his prose, Hawthorne expertly uses figurative literary devices to convey his points of interest.
It's great that you mentions the woods. The edifice (as Hawthorne would call it), the house of the seven gables, was forged out of the woods. The original owner, the one who made the curse, labored over clearing land and forest. Can anyone smell the foreshadowing?
Jacob Dowdal Ms. Barnhart English 141 13 December 2014 I Offer This Title as Sacrifice to the Gods of MLA Formatting
“Billy is spastic in time, has no control over where he is going next, and the trips aren't necessarily fun…he never knows what part of his life he is going to have to act in next.” (Vonnegut 23)
Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five is written with an abundance of setting along with an even larger abundance of meaning behind it. What makes Vonnegut’s novel unique is the main character Billy Pilgrim’s ability of time travel. Billy describes himself as someone who is unstuck from time, traveling from point to point in his life at random. Due to Billy’s special ability, the story changes settings every couple of paragraphs. However, Vonnegut does not merely change only the setting but also regulates anything from the weather or season to something as simple as the time of day, with each contributing to the underlying importance of each location in the novel. However, due to the story’s sporadic nature a better way to analyze each setting, rather than by chronological order, is to compile the information for each setting together and pinpoint each important measure of setting.
The War:
Winter/Cold: Winter often most times in literature represents death, which is fitting for the battlefields of Germany in World War II. With each day of the war more and more soldiers die on each side, making survival an endless struggle. Cold generally is associated with winter, as the colder the body gets the closer it is to being a corpse. In addition, each corpse described in the book during the winter is said to have “bare feet that were blue and ivory” (Vonnegut 48) as well as the soldiers that are freezing as they move closer to death. Therefore, whenever winter is mentioned in the story, readers will know death or suffering is soon to follow.
Spring/Warm: When the soldiers first arrive in Dresden it is still winter, personifying their hatred of being prisoners of war. However, after an unsolicited amount of time, spring arrives and the soldiers seem more contempt with their place as servants in Dresden working at a factory. Accompanying the soldiers’ newfound comfort is the warmth associated with the season. Yet along with the feeling of comfort, this warmth carries another meaning. As the temperature rises, it foreshadows the fire-bombing of Dresden that occurs later in the story, which is ironic as the people in the town that were hot before are now definitely hot. In addition, the warmth acts as a plot device as it drives the soldiers down into the meat fridges to cool off, later saving their lives during the air raid. Therefore, the warmth of spring can be seen as the resolution of one conflict and the building of suspense for another.
Night: For settings with nighttime in the story, there is a certain mystery behind the events taking place at the time. Whether Billy is in a POW camp sedated or after the war when Billy is abducted by Tralfamadorians, otherworldly or plot-important events come into play. When Billy is sedated the night in the POW camp, readers meet the two other characters mentioned at the beginning of the novel, and are given a proper introduction to Billy. When he is abducted by the Tralfamadorians, both Billy and the readers are given an explanation as to why Billy is unstuck in time and how he is able to jump from point to point in his life. Therefore, under the shroud of night answers are revealed through mysterious circumstances. (continued)
(continued) Other Settings: Most of the other settings in the novel serve as small intermissions form the larger story, thereby adding to the overall story and contrasting from the harshness of war with their comfort. Along with serving as anecdotes separating different stories in the war, the settings also resolve outer points of conflict as well as give more insight into foreshadowing from the beginning of the novel. With smaller stories such as the time spent on Tralfamadore or the story of Billy’s death, the reader is given more insight into the inner workings of the story. On Tralfamadore, the perception of the universe through the fourth dimension is explained as well as the lack of importance with death, as within the fourth dimension time becomes a visible plane of existence able to be viewed. With the death of Billy Pilgrim, the story arc following his interactions with two characters Roland Weary and Paul Lazzaro is resolved as Paul vowed to get revenge on Billy because Roland said “Who killed me…Billy Pilgrim” (Vonnegut 57) and Roland was Paul’s only friend when they were traveling by train to the POW camp. Therefore, each outlier setting separate from the war contributes in some way to the story of the war.
Jennifer Page Algieri Ms. Barnhart AP Literature and Composition 13 December 2014
Madame Bovary uses setting as a juxtaposition between the life Emma Bovary wants and the one she has. Her life with Charles is filled with an inescapable dullness. Often the simplicities of her life are described in relation to settings, for example “Charles’s conversation was commonplace as street pavement” (Flaubert 25). She thinks of such a setting because of it’s regularity and normality. There is no other way to describe Charles than street pavement. He is ordinary and usual and will eventually bore Emma Bovary to death.
Adding onto that same idea of showing her life as it is and as she desires it to be, when Emma saw the way some ladies and gentlemen of higher stature maintained their houses she immediately tried to replicate that behavior. She gave her meals fancier names, arranged paper scones around candles, and slightly altered parts of her home, or homes, to try and create for herself the life she longed for. Many times during the story when in her own house the reader follows the subtle to major changes she makes within her house. But her home is not what really bothers her, so altering it in any way will never please her, and to some degree she does understand this. Even after so many changes she still is forced to create a fantasy in her mind of how her life should have been.
Also, when Emma’s fits got too unnatural and violent a change of setting was considered the solution, and the two, Charles and Emma, moved to a different location. This, however, really did no good. Nowhere would ever be good enough for Emma. Yes, castles and mansions pleased her, but her home with Charles pleased her once as well. One day she would tire of it. Tire of conversation with dukes as well. Should she have gotten her way, one day she might have said “The dukes conversation was commonplace as a marble staircase” for that too would be to normal for her.
The use of scenery in Madame Bovary is not a major part of the novel, but one of the little hints pertaining to Emma’s character and the idea that nothing will ever satisfy her. She can change anything around her and she will still want more. She cannot decide what will make her happy so she settles. Her best descriptive quote is “She wished at the same time to die and to live in Paris,” (Flaubert 25) because it perfectly relays to the reader how she feels and behaves. She will raise herself to a higher stature and live somewhere extravagant or she will die. Foreshadowing and character exposition all at one.
Jessica Algieri Ms. Barnhart AP Lit. and Comp. 13 Dec. 2014
I have already examined the presence of flowers in “The Picture of Dorian Gray” so instead I want to examine the Theatre in which Dorian finds Sybil Vane. The theatre seems a terrible place where “the heat was terribly oppressive, and the huge sunlight flames like a monstrous dahlia with petals of fire. Some women were laughing in the pit: their voices were horribly shrill and discordant. The sound of the popping of corks came from the bar.” (Wilde 145) The place is rather seedy, almost Vaudeville in its appearance and in regard to the types of people who show up to see the plays. Yet Dorian explains to Lord Henry how he discovered the love of his life, Sybil Vane, in that theatre.
Dorian declares that Sybil Vane has the most extraordinary acting ability. She can play Rosalind, and Juliet, and Imogene and every performance brings tears to Dorian’s eyes. But I am inclined to believe his compliments are reflections of his own admiration for her, not her actual talent as an actress, based on the setting of the theatre. If Sybil truly were as magnificent as Dorian claims she was she would not be performing in such a shoddy place. I can understand that there are many great actors who never succeed, and spend their whole lives in theater's like the one Sybil is in, but those people are merely great actors. Sybil, according to Dorian, is the greatest actress to ever grace the stage. His expression of her magnificence is lessened and becomes unreliable because of where she is still performing. Although she does have a contract with the manager he explains how easy it would be for someone of good means to buy out the contract. He is infatuated with Sybil, most likely because of the beauty which he describes as “the loveliest thing I had ever seen in my life…Her beauty, her mere beauty, moved me to tears.”(Wilde 119) and so everything she did from the moment he laid eyes on her was biased.
In another way the setting changes how Dorian see’s Sybil, because the theatre truly is a deplorable place with third rate actors. Anything above a third rate actor would have seems superb in comparison. Dorian is young; he cannot distinguish good art from great art because he has not seen enough of either. A person can appear talented many times over if their co-star is far enough beneath them, but Dorian has probably never seen such a thing occur because he'd never been to such a theatre. It’s very possible the Sybil may have been the greatest actress he had ever seen, but that is only because he has seen so few actresses.
In the 2001 movie Shrek, Shrek states “Ogres are like onions…We both have layers.” The same can be said about the function of the setting of Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms. A war in Europe may be the red surface of an onion, but as layers get peeled back, the actual complexity of the setting is revealed. Each sweet portion of this vegetable allows the development of many elements, such as characters’ relationships and an autobiographical nature.
Perhaps the first few layers of the onion represent how the setting directly impacts characters and their relationships. Italy and southern Europe from 1914 to 1918 was a region engaged in war. From the perspective of a historian, the war brought unrest to Europe. However, from the perspective of a literary scholar, the war caused unrest in the relationship between Catherine and Frederic. Despite loving each other and moving to new posts together, the two spent much time apart. Frederic traveled with the ambulance units to the front lines, while Catherine remained in cities such as Milan and Gorizia to tend to the sick and wounded. While in the war, Catherine refuses to marry Frederic out of fear of losing another loved one. The two spend hours together in a Milan hospital after Frederic’s injury, until he is rested and called to duty once more. The two move to Gorizia, Caporetto, and Milan before fleeing to Switzerland. The war places a tremendous amount of stress and tension upon their relationship, yet the two stay together until Catherine’s death. Through the test of war, Frederic and Catherine exhibit resiliency and devotion to one another.
Towards the onion’s core, evidence arises from both the description of setting and lack thereof. Hemingway, unlike other blog posts, writes little concerning the environment. For example, Hemingway produces the first reference to war with “Sometimes in the dark we heard the troops marching under the window and guns going past pulled by motor tractors” (Hemingway 1). At no point during the novel does Hemingway reveal a world war or a realistic image of war. In other words, he does not fully develop an image of real war. Seeing as the book was published in 1929, he assumed readers could fully understand the scene of war, only 11 years removed from of WWI. He also withholds description in order to portray autobiographical qualities. Besides the love interest, A Farewell to Arms closely resembles Hemingway’s experience as an ambulance driver. The injuries, the city of Milan, and duties all allude to a memory of his past life. The core of the onion, the center from which the food grows, is Hemingway’s story. The time and place components of setting wrap around this central idea to form A Farewell to Arms.
Kip, I think the onion analogy worked really well with what you were trying to convey with Hemingway's piece. The different layers of the onion and the different layers of the text work hand in hand. I never thought of it this way.
I saw a Shrek quote and naturally needed to keep reading. (Bravo for incorporating ogres into AP Lit.....and even more for doing it well). I like this onion method of looking at a text. I feel that I could apply the same technique to chapters of my novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, namely those which center around a dictator ruled Dominican Republic. The red skin would be the dictatorship, closely followed by the obvious disruption caused--such as the obedience of the people and the fear of misstepping. Further into the onion would be the more personal results of the tyranny-- such as La Inca's protectiveness over Belicia, or the tense union of the Dominican people. Towards the core would be the true conflict in the novel--the division of the individual and the collective, how Belicia can remain in individual in a nation where civil liberties are stripped and the "collective" must be ideal. Interesting technique, I'll definitely consider it in the future.
Charlotte Brontë, in her novel Jane Eyre, writes Jane in three distinct settings, Gateshead Hall, Lowood, and Thornwood. Notably, the settings prove to challenge Jane to continue on her journey from childhood to womanhood throughout the novel.
The reader meets Jane at Gateshead Hall, where she lives with her aunt, Mrs. Reed, and her three cousins. The “very beautiful house” (Brontë 18), filled with rooms and ‘family’, actually symbolizes Jane’s isolation. In such a great house, she takes refuge in hidden corners, such as the window-seat in the breakfast room, because she knows and believes herself an outlier. The family rejects Jane and leaves her corned (literally and figuratively), forced to move around the house excluded, “from privileges intended only for contented, happy, little children” (Brontë 1). As Jane states, “I was a discord at Gateshead Hall” (Brontë 10). Although Brontë mainly focuses on forming and revealing Jane’s character to the reader at Gateshead, the setting also contributes to the progression of Jane’s personal journey, specifically her experience in the red-room. The red-room, the most detailed room recalled by Jane at Gateshead, marks the ‘Call of Adventure’ in the hero’s journey. Described by Jane as, “seldom, “silent,” and “solemn” (Brontë 8), the red-room also marks the death place of Jane’s uncle, Mr. Reed. While locked in the room by her aunt, Jane experiences a supernatural experience, causing her to panic and call out for help. When Mrs. Reed fails to provide assistance, Jane’s journey begins. Her experience in the red-room provides her the strength to speak out against her oppressor and insist she gets sent away to school. Without the room’s eerie setting or past, Jane may have accepted her current state at Gateshead and never left. In fact, Gateshead almost acts as a gateway to Jane’s future. Additionally, the red-room may also symbolize Jane’s personal hell, as literary experts often associate red with the underworld or evil. Mrs. Reed locks Jane in Hell, and, in order to escape, Jane must speak out against the devil herself.
Jane then travels to Lowood, a school focused on providing education to orphaned children, and a new, unknown path of her journey commences. The school’s strict rule and harsh treatment greets Jane when she first arrives. Overseen by Mr. Brocklehurst, the children face intense religious ‘guidance’ and eat so little to the point of starvation, with Jane often describing the place as “dreary” (Brontë 39) and “gloomy” (Brontë 41). Essentially, Lowood parallels with Jane’s characters upon arrival at the institution. At Gateshead Hall, the girl experiences hatred and disapproval, lacking the feel of love from Mrs. Reed or her cousins, so Jane has become cold to her past and has lost trust in the goodness of most adults. Unlike Helen, she believes in submitting, “punishment when I feel it is deserved” (Brontë 54) rather than channeling compassion and love in certain situations. Mr. Brocklehurst and his dictations over the girls illustrate the exact traits Jane attributes to adults in power. Even the season, winter, represents Jane’s coldness and isolation. As for her journey, Lowood symbolizes the unknowns of the future, demonstrated when Jane travels, “from compartment to compartment, from passage to passage” (Brontë 39) unknowingly and points out the garden’s high wall which prevents her view. Symbolically, Jane’s future appears a maze, and she remains blinded to what the future holds. Regardless, Jane’s prolonged stay eventually causes a change in the nature of Lowood. After a vicious disease wipes out a significant percentage of Lowood’s students, including Helen, a committee forms to monitor the treatment of the girls and Mr. Brocklehurst loses a significant portion of his power. The transformation of Lowood once again parallels the transformation of Jane herself. She follows the guidance of Miss. Temple, finds friends to spend her days, and loses the rebellious streak once present in her youthful form. And, while her life at Lowood “was uniform,” Jane considered it, “not unhappy” (Brontë 83). Jane required the help of Lowood to transform into a successful woman. Yet, Jane also seems to embody a character who chases adventure and the unknown, so, when “destiny” (Brontë 83) caught up, Jane found herself wishing to find more in life beyond the comfort of Lowood. Eventually, the girl packs her items and travels on to Thornwood.
Since I addressed the importance of Thornwood in my previous blog, I will not go into great depths here. Nevertheless, Thornwood, once again, represents another path on Jane’s journey. The girl overcame her abusive aunt and transformed under the strict rule of Lowood’s teacher, but no, she must uncover the mystery behind the rude and strange behavior of Mr. Rochester. Jane description of the house, including the statement, “a very chilly vault-like air pervaded the stairs and gallery, suggesting cheerless ideas of space and solitude” (Brontë 97), foreshadows the mysteries hidden within Thornwood’s walls. Thornwood represents Jane’s upcoming challenges in the novel, and the struggles she must eventually face in life and womanhood.
The three settings so far in Jane Eyre reveal Jane’s journey through life and often symbolize Jane character and mental state at that time in the novel. Therefore, without setting, many levels of Charlotte Brontë’s novel disassemble and disappear.
In Pride and Prejudice, the theme of marriage and love is no doubt prominent. Jane Bennet is engaged to Mr. Bingley, Elizabeth Bennet was offered marriage by Mr. Collins, and Charlotte Lucas accepted to be wed to Mr. Collins a few days after his initial proposal. The theme of marriage brings out a particularly rotten side of Mrs. Bennet. She wishes for all of her daughters to be wed and it becomes more evident that she prefers for everything to go her way. Elizabeth rejecting Mr. Collins went against what she wished. Mr. Bennet siding with Elizabeth went against what she wished. Mr. Collins marrying Miss Lucas went against what she wished. The prominent mother figure was ultimately shattered by the swarms of marriage around the family.
Not to mention, Darcy and his proposal added to the mix. Love is remarkable between Elizabeth and Darcy. A man hidden by such pride on the outside of his demeanor is truly filled with love on this inside for this one woman. "'In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you'" (Austen 128-129). Love brings out another side of Darcy. A proud man, he is honest with Elizabeth, expressing his honesty through the works of a letter. In this letter, Darcy expresses the plan to separate Mr. Bingely from Jane, a plan he does not show any remorse for. He also discusses Wickham's connection to him, proving the man to be much worse than Elizabeth expected. His openness towards her is something that he does not share with such extent to any of the other characters.
The love Austen depicts is one that overcomes several roadblocks. Darcy and Elizabeth fall victim to Austen's stumbling blocks including the immense pride delivered by Elizabeth due to a terrible first impression of Mr. Darcy. Then, it's Elizabeth's social rank that Darcy is clouded by in the beginning considering she and her family is much poorer than he has built himself to be. Ultimately, and as cliche as this may sound, Austen has formulated her characters to be blinded and blocked from time to time by pride and prejudice.
The themes of our novels are incredibly different yet similar in certain ways. In "A Thousand Splendid Suns" the protagonist, Mariam, is forced into an arranged marriage at the age of twelve, and it is not a marriage based on love, but regardless, she has no say in the matter, so she must commit to the man her father has chosen for her. Their society is strongly revolving around religion and the men rule over the women for the most part. While your novel seems to represent the strength love has when two people who are "meant to be" find each other and marry, my novel stresses that marriage is about starting a family and having kids and society and politics, not about love. As my novel progresses though, women begim fight for the rights the women in "Pride and Prejudice" seem to have already obtained. Even though these themes are different, they both are allowing the characters of the novels express themselves and fight for themselves. In the way you have described your characters, it seem they are progressively making more and more of their own decisions based on their thoughts and feelings and that is exactly what is happening in my novel too. Although love can be portrayed in different ways, whether it is forced or found, it can impact different peoples lives in similar ways.
The setting in A Thousand Splendid Suns helps to characterize the characters to show their similarities and differences and also to strengthen the theme of the novel. The setting of Mariam’s new home town helps to show how she is much she changes from her childhood self to her present self. Before she was incredibly religious and outgoing, always speaking her mind and Hosseini, the author, uses irony to show her personality shift. She used to complain about her father bringing her meaningless gifts, gifts so that he would feel better about himself, not to make Mariam happy. Now she sees gifts that her husband gives her and she believes the same thing she believed about her father when she was younger- the gifts were meaningful and love was why she was receiving these simple presents. She thought of the love behind her husband’s gift and how even though her husband made her wear a burqa to cover and hide herself, even though he changed who she was she loved it and him because she thought he was different and wonderful, unlike her father. The irony comes in when she discovers her husband is not the man she thought he was and all this changing she did was yet another mistake. The next character Hosseini describes through setting is Laila. She is the youngest child in her large family. She describes walking into her mother’s room seeing pictures of people she does not recognize. Her older brothers, who are now off at war, and her parents, happy together, a sight she barely ever witnesses. She tells the differences between her childhood life and her older siblings. She is stuck with parents who fight and with no other siblings in the house with her, while her older brothers and sisters all lived together and her parents were madly in love with each other back then. The only person Laila is truly friends with is a little boy named Tariq with whom he has a crush on. When Tariq leaves for a trip for almost two weeks, Hosseini shows how different her life is without him. When her mother does not pick her up from school, she usually walks home with Tariq, but with him gone she is on her own and is attacked by a group of boys from her school who have filled water guns with urine and sprayed her. This event shows how boys/men still pick on the girls/women and think of them as less and even in childhood, do not treat women as they would treat another man. These boys would not have attacked Laila if she had been with Tariq, which emphasizes the fact that boys would not harass another boy in a way they would harass a girl. During this time women are fighting for equal rights and equal treatment and Hosseini shows how difficult of a fight this will be for women because even young kids are discriminating against the female population, and they have their whole lives ahead of them and it will be difficult to change their views and keep them in “the loop” about the politics and reasons for why women should be seen and treated as equals. This foreshadows the wars to take place and the difficult events and decisions the women in this novel will have to face.
Interestingly, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao not only takes place in New Jersey but also the Dominican Republic. Diaz uses the division of setting as a vehicle to express cultural values and the develop characters, tension, and irony--which in turn supports the thematic values. I feel this aids in forming the central ideas around the novel-- namely the the individual’s alienation (forming a motif of escape in TBWLO) from the collective.
The expression of cultural values via setting in my novel is quite blatantly the most direct response to this prompt. Although obvious, I would be dumb not to mention it, as these same cultural values form the “collective” for the protagonists to clash. The patriarchal, sex-charged Dominican culture serves as Oscar’s own enemy, the faceless standard of masculinity he does not live up to. Similarly, it also expresses the value of family. Lola feels alienated by her family, but her culture dictates the closeness and necessity of it. She also battles the authority of her mother and her own rejection of conventional femininity. This same value of family creates an irony. To say there is familial incohesion between the Casals is an understatement. Despite the Dominican necessity of heritage and family, they constantly clash, furthering the battle between each character and his or her own collective reality.
During the chapters surrounding Belicia, Rafael Trujillo dictated the Dominican Republic. His influence over the island country can be witnessed during Belicia’s chapters. This presence creates tension--people always must be careful of what is said or done, and their civil liberties are next to none. This is most prominently displayed when Trujillo’s very own brother-in-law impregnates Belicia despite his marriage…...the wife (Trujillo’s sister) orders her to be beaten to a pulp. Naturally, of course, a dictatorial presence corresponds with the motif of obedience. Belicia must obey her mother and her teachers, but most of all she must obey Trujillo. This strengthens the battle between the collective and the individual. Belicia must cohere to the established standards or their will be punishment.
Perhaps the most interesting, is the juxtaposition between America and the Dominican Republic. The Dominican is colorful and warm, yet traditional and small. America is average and cold, yet opportune and vast. Ironically, for Belicia, America is her escape. But when her children soon escape to the Dominican. No matter where--or in what decade--the characters reside, they witness the same incohesion between who they are and who they surround themselves with. It calls to question-- Does it matter where we are? Are we always trying to escape one reality? As individuals, can we really escape the collective?
Although unrelated to setting, I feel its interesting to note that although all of the characters feel alienated by their collective realities, instead of turning to their fellow escapee-individualist-outcasts, they are the people with whom they battle the most. It speaks to the close-minded, ego centric nature of humans… Belicia and Lola could not be more similar, yet they fight endlessly. Each individual clashes with a collective consistent of other individuals, all clashing with their own opposing collectives, whom which the original individual is a part of.
How many of you look outside the window on a rainy day? You'd love to go out but either the fear of getting wet or someone telling you that you'll become wet keeps you inside looking out.The hospital in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest works just like this. The patients are so in tuned with the way things are, before McMurphy, they do not even think to ask about how they are to get out of the hospital.
This hospital has an abusive relationship with the patients (this analogy is not meant to make light of domestic violence). While the hospital has come to be a home for many of these broken people, Nurse Ratched has turned into a place where she has power. Essentially, she is taking advantage of the patients. The hospital is repetitive, yet totalitarian in its ruling. It should be a place of healing for these WWII veterans but instead Nurse Ratched has made it a place of pain and suffering.
The Nurse’s abuse of the system has become so bad that even the patients come out in support of her, “When a completed product goes back out into society, all fixed up good as new, better than new sometimes, it brings joy to the Big Nurse's heart...." (Kesey 40). The real world keeps her in, but when she comes to this hospital, Nurse Ratched reigns supreme. If she has a co worker she doesn’t like, she can easily bully that person until they quit. If a patient acts out of term, she can easily control their fate. In the real world she is normal, but the hospital represents a throne for Nurse Ratched. It takes an RP McMurphy to expose her (literally and figuratively). When he rips her shirt open, the patients actually see what kind of person she is. Her breasts swelling up (yes leave it to Kesey to make this metaphor) shows how highly she thought of herself, like a swelled up head.
Hospitals should be a place of healing and respect for those who are sick. Yet in this book the hospital has come to mean oppression and suffering. Through one character’s actions, a multitude of others suffer.
In "The Color Purple" by Alice Walker, the narrator only describes an underwhelming amount of information about the setting. Instead of describing her surroundings, Celie instead spends more time explaining the events which happen around her. By placing more emphasis on actions instead of the setting, the author portrays Celie's mindset and feelings towards her situation. Considering Celie's father removed her from school, she leads a rather restrained and sheltered life. As such, her narration copies this. She fails to offer much description because most of her life revolves around the actions of others. She barely leaves the house and whenever she does, these places rarely recieve a description. Instead, Celie simply continues narrating the story with a portrayal of the setting. Although this may seem strange, the author purposefully leaves out the setting in order to portray Celie's sheltered existence. Additionally, this phenomenon reveals Celie's compliant nature and a sense of futility. In any household Celie resides in, the master of the house suppresses her and forces her to do whatever he pleases. In any situation, she has no say and cannot exert her own will. As such, she does not provide analysis of her surroundings. Instead, her narration relies mostly on the actions of others. She suppresses her own feelings towards a situation to reflect the inhibition she faces in her life. Overall, the author excludes the information about the setting from the narration to express information about Celie's character, thus eliciting pity and comprehension from the reader.
My book (Uncle Tom's Cabin) has times when setting is a physical backdrop, and when setting is created more by people's interactions, which is somewhat similar to yours. For instance, the "backdrop" setting isn't even mentioned when Tom talks to his wife and kids about the fact that he'll be sold in another day, but the reader gets a good idea of the setting created by characters, which I think reveals cultural values most often. But since you've already found what setting reveals in the case of your book (the setting created by characters' actions), I'll just say "happy reading!"
For Euripides, the idea of setting is a challenging one to portray, especially because his work “Medea” takes place on a stage. But the restrictions in no way prevent his work from having many deep layers of meaning. The setting is one left for the audience to interpret and as such is subject to many different points of view. But the fact that this piece takes place in one location, a royal household, makes the job much simpler. In fact, it is this royal household where the entire story unfolds and all of the characters and situations are acted out. Euripides takes this one location and allows it to serve many different roles. Euripides truly shows his artistic greatness in his ability to make such a limited setting provide so many roles.
Although “Medea” only takes place in the royal household, one can get a much greater understanding of the world in which they live in just by listening to the characters’ dialogue. For example, characters are often found referencing the many different kingdoms in Greece. This opens up whole world of the past with which to add context for the audience. We the audience get an understanding of where they live and who around them holds positions of power. Greece back in 431 BC ancient was far from being an established country, so there were many people who may have held power in different kingdoms. Euripides alludes to many of them in this piece and by doing so we get a broader perspective of the world around them. These allusions also provide some physical characters with which to discover. For example, Aigeus, King of Athens, makes an appearance in the play and although he is not from Corinthia, his presence adds a level of diversity to the text and helps to make it more interesting.
Also manipulated by setting is characterization. Due to the limited number of characters and the restriction of the setting, characters are often allowed to reveal personal information through monologues. One character who uses these monologues often is Medea. For much of the play the audience is confronted with Medea on her own, speaking to herself or the chorus. She often reveals her intentions and emotions. For example, in Episode IV, Medea reveals her plot to kill her children. “I shall kill my children,” She says, “There is no one who will rescue them” (Euripides 20). After being angered by her former husband Jason, Medea goes off on a rant about how she will seek revenge. Without the enclosed environment of the stage, it is not certain if Medea would still speak so boldly out loud. Her place in a room in the royal household cuts off all other characters from her and allows her the freedom to speak her mind.
The tone of the piece is also impacted by the limited setting. Due to its small size, the stage provides a sense of tension and urgency which allows actions to move more quickly than they would if they were perhaps somewhere else. For example, in the Exodos Medea kills her children. Jason, both infuriated and sad, runs up the stairs to the locked room which she has committed the act. In this moment, when the two individuals are separated by the locked door, the audience gains the feeling of both sadness and anger. We, in a sense, share the emotions of Jason. The locked door traps us, and keeps us on the side of Jason, allowing us to feel his emotions more strongly.
A simple stage prop such as a door can go a long way when even when it comes to manipulating emotion. Euripides uses his limitations to the best of his ability in order to create a play which has truly stood the test of time.
Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, uses setting to reinforce the presentation and understanding of black slaves as truly human to the reader. As this is one of the most important points Stowe conveys through her novel, setting can serve as a starting point for readers to understand this message.
Stowe spends a large part of Chapter 4 introducing the reader to the titular location, presenting the physical aspects of the cabin as the cabin’s inhabitants interact with them. The cabin, although a “small, log building” (Stowe 19), seems as hospitable as any free man’s home. Uncle Tom and his wife, Aunt Chloe, tend vegetables and flowers in a small garden outside their home. Inside, most of the activity occurs near Aunt Chloe’s stove in the small kitchen, where the many members of their family would gather for meals. Stowe describes the decor of the cabin in this way: “In one corner of it stood a bed, covered neatly with a snowy spread; and by the side of it was a piece of carpeting, of some considerable size...the whole corner, in fact, [was] treated with distinguished consideration...In fact, that corner was the drawing-room of the establishment” (Stowe 20). Although the reader knows from the description that Uncle Tom lives with modest means, he also sees that Tom and Chloe (who are both slaves) have made a home comparable to any free man’s home, since they had the freedom to do so. The cabin was not described in this way simply to inform the reader of Tom’s living quarters; rather, to employ setting as another avenue upon which Stowe’s great message could travel to readers -- that the people held as slaves were just as human as free men. In the description of Tom’s cabin, I believe Stowe wants readers to see that slaves would “prove” their humanity, if given the chance (bear in mind that this novel was written for a very different audience, an audience living in a society that held slavery legal in some states).
While setting builds characterization in such a backdrop as Tom’s cabin, his home, it also reveals theme on a larger scale. As I’ve seen in my reading, Stowe has one main message she wants to get across: that slaves are as human as free men and, by extension, that the only true inequality existing in society is the institution of slavery. In the many instances of a slave being separated from his or her family -- when Eliza’s young son is almost sold away from her (she escapes with him), when Tom is sold away from his family and his life, when young Albert is sold away from his old slave mother Hagar, Cassy’s loss of her children, the list goes on -- setting is intertwined with theme. The slave to be separated suffers great emotional trouble, as would any normal human being, at the thought of having to leave behind his or her family. And that’s just it -- setting becomes a barrier that separates loved ones. Although it’s an awful situation to put a person through, Stowe shows readers by the way the slaves behave that they really are human. They show human understanding, human concern. They show that they are, indeed, human.
Lastly, I believe that Tom is affected by a sort of internal setting in his own mind. This setting speaks volumes about Tom’s values. Throughout his journey from his home, with different owners, Tom’s faith in God drives him to persevere through every hardship. As Stowe writes, Tom reflected on the following words from the Bible (Hebrews 13:14; Hebrews 11:16): “"We have here no continuing city, but we seek one to come; wherefore God himself is not ashamed to be called our God; for he hath prepared for us a city" (Stowe 120). Tom’s personal values are important to the story and its message; Tom has a stronger sense of morality than his free (and evil) master, Simon Legree. Tom is a better man, a better human being, than the free men discussed in Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Stowe clearly reveals her message through setting, since setting reveals characterization, theme, and values in this novel.
"He was spending his summer vacation, as he always did, with his mother at Grand Isle. In former times, before Robert could remember, 'the house' had been a summer luxury of the Lebruns" (Chopin 46-47).
Throughout "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin, the setting is used to advance both the plot and the characters in the novel. If it wasn't for location in which Edna lives, there would be no self-discovery, for it's the society that Edna is surrounded by that places pressure on her and ultimately pushes her to realize her true self.
When the novel first opens, Edna is with her husband and children at their vacation home in the Grand Isles. The area is filled with people in the same societal positions as her, and most of Edna's days are spent dealing with her peers, and subsequently, their pressures. Coming from a Creole background, the characters in "The Awakening" have a strict view on how an individual should conduct themselves. In fact, when Edna begins to gain some independence and starts to speak up for herself, her husband goes to their doctor believing she had some sort of mental illness. It's thoughts like these that forced Edna to put aside her needs and desires in favor of tradition and responsibility. And Edna adheres to this, that is until she meets Robert. As soon as he enters the picture, Edna begins to forgo what’s expected of her in favor of spending her days at the beach with Robert. For the longest time Edna didn't know how to swim, and so she stayed away from the water. But with Robert teaching her, she learned how not to be afraid of the water, and of her desires. None of this would have occurred had it not been for Edna being in the Grand Isle, a place where wealthy, traditional, proper people go to spend their summers. The pressures that they put her under to be who they want her to be are what propel Edna to do the exact opposite.
As the summer ends, Edna and her family travel back to their home in New Orleans. At this point, Robert has gone to Mexico to get away from the temptation of an affair with Edna, and Edna is on the road to full independence. Despite this, the pressure is on her more than ever to conform to the standards set by society. As a wife and mother, Edna is expected to devote herself entirely to her family. The fact that she would rather spend her days making artwork instead of taking care of her husband and children are incomprehensible to the people she is surrounded by. Edna doesn't let this stop her however. Instead, she turns her back on what society deems acceptable and invests only in what she finds important. The society in New Orleans pushes her to be “traditional” but this time, Edna pushes back.
In Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, the use of setting is most prominent in the use of each house. So we begin the novel in Longbourne House, the manor of the Bennett’s, and the Bingley’s move in down the street to Netherfield Park. Pemberley is the home of Mr. Darcy, and Lucas Lodge is where Lizzie’s best friend Charlotte lives. In terms of main plot devices, the usage of setting isn’t a huge factor, but it certainly plays a role in letting the multiple romances blossom in the novel. The Bingley’s live about three miles away, but in the hopes of setting Jane and Bingley up together, Mrs. Bennett sends Jane anyways. In fact, because of the fact that it is supposed to rain later on in the day, she refuses to send Jane in the carriage and instead just on horseback so Jane is forced to stay at Netherfield Park longer than she was planning, and in fact, she falls ill and ends up staying at Netherfield Park with Bingley and his snotty sisters and mother for almost a week. When she comes home before a full week has passed, Mrs. Bennett is actually upset! So while the reader is mainly focused on the blossoming tension between Lizzie and Darcy, as well as Lydia’s exploits with Wickham and Jane’s romance with Bingley, we’re watching mainly Mrs. Bennett use setting (such as forcing Jane and Lizzie to stay at Netherfield Park for almost a week, or the many balls they attend) to force these couples together, as her main goal in life is to make sure her daughters end up married with well-off men. The setting and the use of the mansions, especially when it comes to the distance between the mansions, is a setting ploy that Mrs. Bennett definitely uses to her advantage not only to force her children into good marriages but to unknowingly provide the platform on which Darcy and Lizzie fall in love with each other. Setting slowly peels back the layers on which Darcy and Lizzie discover each other and showcases one of the greatest romances ever written.
“Respect was invented to cover the empty place where love should be” (Tolstoy 456).
Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenin is mainly set in the Russia of the 1860s and 1870s, in the cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg. This was a time of incredible intellectual debate about the modernization of Russia and its direction into the future. During a time of economic and political issues, Russia was trying to catch up with Western Europe and prove itself. Most of the wealth of the nation lied in the hands of a few nobles. Citizens attempted to reform such ideas.
Levin considers these underlying issues in the story, but only when he is in the countryside, unaffected by the hustle and bustle of the cities. He too tried his way of reform. Levin attempted to change the farming techniques which had been used for hundreds of years, in order to make the country more agriculturally productive to help with the distribution of wealth. Also, in the country, Levin seems more comfortable, more attached to his ideals of family and such, remembering his mother as the ideal woman and hoping for the ideal wife. When he is in the city, Levin acts more rashly and gets drunk. The setting, like in this case brings out different sides of characters.
Also, in the countryside, the tone is a bit more whimsy and there is far more imagery, “Invisible larks broke into song over the velvet of the young, sprouting corn and the ice-covered stubble; peewits began to cry over the marshes and the low reaches of the rivers and streams, still overflowing with brownish water, and cranes and wild geese flew high across the sky, uttering their loud, spring cries. Real spring had come” (Tolstoy 178). Perhaps Levin finds peace in this place because it embodies traditional Russian values like purity, family, hard work, and religiosity. Contrastingly Oblonsky prefers the city. This use of setting widens the gap between the two old friends, and depicts their differences further.
Now, the two cities, as mentioned before, St. Petersburg and Moscow represent two opposing ideas imminent in Russia’s society at the time. Moscow was more traditional and conservative, whereas Petersburg was more fashionable and hedonistic. Moscow represents old Russia and Petersburg represents new Russia. It is in Petersburg where Anna Karenin herself lives. Anna Karenina embodies the new beliefs in Russia, much like the more modern France. In this notion, love trumps marriage, and happiness is not found only in status. The Princess in Moscow believes the opposite.
Through setting alone, multiple layers of Tolstoy’s thought are translated to his readers.
So with the differences in ideology between Moscow and Petersburg - do these beliefs clash at some point, or do they remain separate for the most part? If they do clash (by perhaps the two princesses interacting, some sort of civilian/protest altercation, etc.), how does this add to the contextual layer of setting? I ask this because it makes me think of the part in Pride and Prejudice where Lydia runs off with Mr. Wickham despite being unmarried, which is definitely a huge scandal for the time and place they're in. :)
Characterization, cultural values and theme are connected through setting. Setting is important in Anna Karenina. The novel takes place all over Russia with each place representing a different facet of the novel. At the time the novel takes place, which is also the time it was written, there is much political, economic and social upheaval in Russia. The year is around 1870. Those familiar with Russian history may note that the Russian Revolution and overthrow of the Czar came shortly after. Therefore the novel contains and exhibits all the commotion leading up to the revolution. The book centers around Moscow, home of Oblonsky and the Scherbatskys. Moscow represents “Old Russia.” The people there are traditionally of old money. The city exhibits many of the cultural values associated with traditional Russia including the views on marriage proposal, government and commitment. Moscow and all it represents, clash with the remaining Russia. St. Petersburg is known as “New Russia” and hosts many of the new ideals and opinions of the time. Vronsky and Anna are both from Saint Petersburg which facilitates their affair. Unlike the Scherbatsky’s who believe Vronsky’s interest to be a sure sign of future marriage, Vronsky feels no obligation to Kitty. He also feels inclined to pursue Anna who is married with a child. The countryside is also important, representing an isolation and simplicity not found in the two major Russian cities. Levin resides in the countryside and considers much of Moscow to be superfluous. He is unable to comprehend their way of life or thought process. Tolstoy illustrates Levin through the countryside as an outsider. Setting reveals the ideals and relations among characters and also helps to justify their opinions. It is interesting to see how the characters interact and live based off of setting as it is what moves the plot along.
Forster utilizes setting throughout “A Room with a View” to reveal various layers of text, and mainly Lucy’s character development.
As Lucy spends time in such a foreign, beautiful place outside of the home she has known all her life, she strays from her normal ways. Forster hints at her confliction numerous times, such as when the Lucy finds herself “relapsing into the old chaotic methods” (Forster 59) after speaking up about her opinions to another person, and a gentleman for that matter.
Another one of the moments where Lucy loses her inhibition and embraces her life is her first kiss with George. Forster paints a picture of the scene, describing how “violets ran down in rivulets and streams and cataracts, irrigating the hillside with blue, eddying round the tree stems, collecting into pools in the hollows, covering the grass with spots of azure foam” ( Forster 73) around the terrace where George stands waiting for her. Lucy’s adventure in Florence causes her to begin thinking for herself instead of staying “in her cousin’s power” (Forster 80) and adhering to the societal norms.
The parallel between Lucy’s life inside and outside of her adventure in Florence highlights how the setting has an effect on how she acts. In the beginning of the novel, she arrives to Italy in low spirits, believing from the views of the inn that the new place was exactly like the place she had temporarily left. However, as she experiences the true Italy, in Florence and Santa Croce, Lucy is, to some degree, set free. In one instance, she becomes rebellious against Mr. Eager, and “met him with equal indignation” (Forster 60) after confronting him about his rude comments.
Upon her manipulated return to Rome, Lucy eventually becomes engaged to Cecil Vyse, a wealthy, relatively kind gentleman (even though I don’t approve of him AT ALL) who is almost completely parallel to George. The change in setting thrusts Lucy back into her former life, where she appears submissive and obedient. Forster even writes how “Cecil laughed at her feminine inconsequence” (Forster 106) when she talked about Mr. Emerson. Through the changes in setting, readers witness Lucy’s growth as an independent young woman when in the company other characters.
So far in the novel, Lucy has bounced back and forth between gaining independence and remaining submissive to the mannerisms she grew up with. While in Florence, she finds some strength and freedom, especially on her adventures with George Emerson. However, she reverts back to her old ways when Charlotte convinces her to return to Rome, and when she finds herself engaged to Cecil. As I finish Forster’s lovely novel, I hope Lucy finally comes to her senses and realize she can find freedom without a high status or massive amounts of money and seek George instead.
Probably the most interesting layer of text found in the setting of “Pride and Prejudice” is the cultural values of the people. I, for one, love historical fiction like this, because I learn things about the characters in a subliminal way, and I can really become part of the story, albeit as an observer. No Mr. Darcy or Mr. Bingley for me! D: For one, we see that we are in Victorian England, which tells me several things – the kind of attire the people wear, the kind of language I can expect from the dialogue, the Christian-dominated society, etcetera. Therefore, when I read chapter where, out of wedlock, Lydia runs away with Mr. Wickham, I’m not surprised that the family is alarmed – not so much about the welfare of Lydia, but more so about the possibly ruined name of the Bennett family. For Lydia to run off with a man she is not married to alone is unacceptable in such a society, and not only brings shame on her, but also her family. Not only does the setting influence the culture, but it also influences characterization. Because of the setting, the reader also expects some things of certain characters based on a few known things about them – they aren’t always correct, but they’re educated guesses. In history books we read about these evil rich lords governing over poorer serfs. While this is a totally different era, the attitude of history books toward the rich and powerful gives readers the inclination that most of the richer and high class characters during this time will be… well, uppity, stuck up, and so on. Therefore it’s no surprise to see characters like Mr. Darcy – in the beginning anyhow – and Miss Bingley, Mr. Bingley’s sister who desperately needs an attitude adjustment… but I digress. Characters like Mr. Bingley are also present, breaking the mold of expected personalities, adding a balance to the dispositions of his high-class counterparts. Likewise, we see slightly lower class folk in the book as salt-of-the-earth, rational, realistic people, which pretty much describes Lizzie and Jane. This particular mold is broken by the boy-crazy Lydia, who strives to act as though she is higher class than she is. In other words, she’s the definition of “too big for her britches.” There are several motifs brought into play by setting – namely courting and marriage. These two motifs are so essential to the plot and help maintain the cultural values evident throughout the book. The courting appears in the short but eventful interactions between your favorite and not-so-favorite couples, such as Bingley and Jane, eventually Darcy and Elizabeth, and even, to an extent, the failed attempts of Mr. Collins to woo Elizabeth. Courting is extremely parent powered (despite the idea of courting that many girls, including myself, romanticize today), and as a young woman in Victorian England, Elizabeth was pushing the envelope just to refuse his proposal of marriage. As for marriage, it is, in this era, similar to courting in that it is very parent, rather than couple, centered. Though Elizabeth and her sisters seem to have a little more freedom in this instance, many girls at the time, like Charlotte, did not. Marriage was a way for parents to get their kids out of the house for good and reach financial stability. “Charlotte herself was tolerably composed. … [Mr. Collins’] attachment to her must be imaginary. But still he would be her husband” (Austen 104).
Heller’s Catch 22, set in World War Two, is mainly broken up into four collective settings. The four are the island of Pianosa, Rome, the hospital, and the planes during combat missions. On Pianosa, the characters are usually civil and, aside from several drunken misadventures and a bombing by Nately, remain safe and peaceful. Ironically, even though the entire squadron lives on an Island in the Mediterranean, there is nearly no mention of German troops and no actual Germans are ever even seen, (except during Milo’s bombing). With no real contact with the enemy in any of the various settings, Yossarian and his fellow squadron members remain detached from the war. Although they receive reports of German activities and often bomb German ammunition dumps, actual Germans are not seen. This is a point of confusion for Yossarian, as having never met any of the Germans, he’s a man dropping bombs on strangers while strangers try to shoot him down. Yossarian and many of the other men have no real desire to fight because they have never seen German soldiers and never mention any reason why they SHOULD fight in the war. In Pianosa, many of the men seem frightened of Yossarian because of his erratic actions, but during combat, they trust him to lead their squadron. In the hospital and on leave in Rome, the enlisted units stick together, most likely for a sense of protection and familiarity. In Pianosa, however, they often express dislike of each other that seems to vanish the second they enter combat. Heller does not focus on the setting during his novel, preferring to describe the setting solely because character actions pertain to new locations. Heller spends far more time describing the women of Rome than he does addressing the city itself.
As a play, Equus was written to convey messages through setting, theme and costumes. As the play continues, layers are exposed, revealing information about the characters and motifs that might not be as obvious. With costume design such an apparent part of setting, personally the most interesting aspect of this area was the horses. According to the costume directions that the horses should be made with wire and the heads should be large and life-like. Shaffer wrote in the foreword of the play, “The actors’ own heads are seen beneath them: no attempt should be made to conceal them” (Shaffer 5). This could be seen as a metaphorical representation of the innocence behind the horses. These beautiful animals have nothing to hide. It can also be interpreted as the part of man that is in all horses and the beauty in innocence of horses that is in all man.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the play there is not much insight on how the setting changes, but the foreword of stage directions at the beginning of the work gives a description. Shaffer instructs “A square of wood set on a circle of wood” (Shaffer 3). He goes on to explain that the setting including the wood should resemble a boxing ring, perhaps a representation of the war that will soon take place between Alan and the psychologist. An intriguing note in the forward is that the entire cast of Equus will sit on stage, in plan view of the audience, to watch the play all evening. In this unique representation it exemplifies the Shaffer, the cast, or the theme all have nothing to hide. The openness of the horses combined with the apparent cast is unconventional. There is one setting, one cast, no costume changes, everything is out in the open, the audience members are the jury to the case.
As previously mentioned in other my blog posts, the less physical and more metaphorical analogy of religion also has a great toll on the setting and character development. It is within the space of his childhood home the main character has been shaped, and as a possible result, has committed the crime. The setting of the home is intentionally obvious. A young boy grows up in a household of tension with a mother filled with guilt and denial and a father who is burdened by anger. The psychologist pushes the parents to reveal anything about the up bring both in the home and his office. When first entering the house he is careful to notice the small hints of religion and the hostility against them by the father. The psychologists room is a safe place, it allows the boy to become comfortable while telling his story. It also provides him an escape from his angry household and the loneliness of the cell room. Watching the play version of this script would reveal a vast amount of character and themes through setting. Shaffer is greatly aware of the variation of communication through literature and theater, and how sometimes the most important messages may get lost in translation.
Not much of "Catch-22" is away from the island of Pianosa in the Mediterranean Sea near Italy where all the soldiers live. Pianosa is large and some characters live in different areas from each other. For example the chaplain lives on the outskirts of the headquarters where many of the soldiers live. When the chaplain is in public he often feels scared in front Colonel Cathcart. The chaplain fails to voice his opinion and show dominance, "He hated himself for what be construed to be his own cowardice. He had intended to take a much stronger stand with Colonel Cathcart. Instead he failed miserably, had choked up once again in the face of opposition from a stronger personality" (Heller 199). When the chaplain is outside the headquarters and in his tent he worrisome and feels free to question. In the beginning of Chapter 25 he questions if God even exists, "Was there a God? How could he be sure?" (Heller 277). This is a question he could never ask in public; after all he is the representation of religion on the base.
ReplyDeleteSince the story is based around World War II pilots some of the story does take place in the air. The air represents absurdity and death. An example of absurdity comes when Yossarian and a few other men were on the Bologna mission. Their mission was to bomb German ammunition dumps. While on the mission another pilot Aarfy began bullying Yossarian. Part of the absurdity is that no one ever spends the time to bother Yossarian. What was shocking to me as I read this chapter was the affect Aarfy was having on Yossarian, “Yossarian shouted, and broke into tears. He began punching Aarfy in the body with both hands as hard as he could. ‘Get away from me Get away!’” (Heller 148). This coward side of Yossarian was something I had never seen before because he was never put in a situation like this. I also did not expect him to cry and be defeated because he was the protagonist.
The different settings in the novel reveal some of the traits of the characters I had not and would not have expected to see. Throughout the novel the setting continues to show the many sides of the many characters. Like the example with the chaplain, I have noticed how character’s change in different settings.
The setting in “Daisy Miller” not only helps to characterize the characters in the story but also foreshadows the end of the novella. The book is set in both the capital of Italy, Rome, and areas of Switzerland, Vevey and Geneva, for various important reasons. The noticeable traits of each city pertain to some of the characters as well, and given that they are so different, it further divides the main characters, Winterbourne and Daisy. The cultural values of each location draw attention to the status and rank of characters while also explaining Winterbourne’s captivation for Daisy. Layers of details can be revealed once readers acknowledge how the setting and characters relate to each other.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the characters are never actually situated in Geneva for any extended period of time, the important features it contributes to the story are very significant. Winterbourne, as explained early in the novella, resides in Geneva which he describes as having a stuffy society. Once Winterbourne arrives in Vevey to visit his aunt and meets Daisy, he immediately notices the contrast between settings when he explains “In Geneva…a young man was not at liberty to speak to a young unmarried lady except under certain rarely occurring conditions; but here at Vevey, what conditions could be better than these? – a pretty American girl coming and standing in front of you in a garden” (James 6). Clearly, Vevey is a place of freedom whereas Geneva, where Winterbourne has been living for so long, is considered stiff. As a result of living in Vevey, Winterbourne embraces the slight rebellion that Daisy has always been used to. Additionally, Daisy and her family do not live in one spot for too long as they are constantly traveling; however, given that their roots are in America, a country known for its freedom and liberty, Daisy reflects that same independence wherever she is. Furthermore, the capital city of Rome foreshadows the end of the novel (although I haven’t finished the novel, I found out what happens). Rome, with the Colosseum and other ruins left from ancient times, could easily represent or suggest death. Ultimately, Daisy does die of an illness. While Rome represents decay, it was also considered a sophisticated area, so Daisy’s flirtatious antics were unwelcome by Mrs. Walker and she says as such when she scolds “it is not the custom here” (James 54). Overall, Rome signifies almost everything that Daisy isn’t (decay and class – she is youthful and a flirt).
The story “Daisy Miller” would fail to exist without the setting, as it contributes to the underlying themes and creates the dynamic between characters in the novella. James using setting, including places like Geneva and America even though the book never takes the readers to those locations, to add purpose to the actions of the characters; no one would care if Daisy walked with men on either side of her in America, but society does notice in Rome. Although Rome itself was not the cause of Daisy’s death, living in a place with values so opposite her own may have contributed to her death figuratively.
"[T]hey . . . hinted that he was about to build his house over an unquiet grave. . . . The terror and ugliness of Maule’s crime, and the wretchedness of his punishment, would darken the freshly plastered walls, and infect them early with the scent of an old and melancholy house."
ReplyDeleteHawthorne brilliantly uses the a Puritan era New England setting as a segue into his criticism of the ideals in that time period as well as other themes in the novel. The novel revolves around this single building and the past that haunts it. The original proprietor of the land has it stolen from him. The new owner is then cursed by the former and the curse is passed on to the following generations. The idea works incredibly it occurs right after the end of the witch trials. It makes the story more believable.
The time period also houses Hawthorne's criticisms. We see the high value on social class to the characters in the novel. Hepzibah is distraught at the fact that she is no longer a lady and has been reduced to shop keeping due to her new found poverty. She glares as wealthy women walk by and scowls as gentlemen stroll the streets. This obsession with class structure by the characters occurs at an even deeper level as we notice the feud originally exists between a modest family (the Maule's) and a wealthy family associated with the church and the law (the Pyncheon's). Much like The Scarlet Letter, many characters placed in positions of power fall. Hepzibah was once wealthy but is now a lowly shop-keep. Colonel Pyncheon essentially was the head of the town but mysteriously died. Even Judge Pyncheon meets his demise at the hands of Clifford.
Essentially, like the quote above demonstrates, the location in this novel reveals the underlying plot quite blatantly.
I love the irony in how Hawthorne weaves his puritan heritage into many of his books just to dehumanize it in any way possible, especially when it comes to the societal values of puritans. In "The Scarlet Letter" Hawthorne establishes the same type of society within the colony. Along with the "hauntings" of the house in this story, Hawthorne also uses the superstition of the puritans to make the woods and what they contain haunted to their society. Even though I am not a fan of his prose, Hawthorne expertly uses figurative literary devices to convey his points of interest.
DeleteIt's great that you mentions the woods. The edifice (as Hawthorne would call it), the house of the seven gables, was forged out of the woods. The original owner, the one who made the curse, labored over clearing land and forest. Can anyone smell the foreshadowing?
DeleteJacob Dowdal
ReplyDeleteMs. Barnhart
English 141
13 December 2014
I Offer This Title as Sacrifice to the Gods of MLA Formatting
“Billy is spastic in time, has no control over where he is going next, and the trips aren't necessarily fun…he never knows what part of his life he is going to have to act in next.” (Vonnegut 23)
Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five is written with an abundance of setting along with an even larger abundance of meaning behind it. What makes Vonnegut’s novel unique is the main character Billy Pilgrim’s ability of time travel. Billy describes himself as someone who is unstuck from time, traveling from point to point in his life at random. Due to Billy’s special ability, the story changes settings every couple of paragraphs. However, Vonnegut does not merely change only the setting but also regulates anything from the weather or season to something as simple as the time of day, with each contributing to the underlying importance of each location in the novel. However, due to the story’s sporadic nature a better way to analyze each setting, rather than by chronological order, is to compile the information for each setting together and pinpoint each important measure of setting.
The War:
Winter/Cold:
Winter often most times in literature represents death, which is fitting for the battlefields of Germany in World War II. With each day of the war more and more soldiers die on each side, making survival an endless struggle. Cold generally is associated with winter, as the colder the body gets the closer it is to being a corpse. In addition, each corpse described in the book during the winter is said to have “bare feet that were blue and ivory” (Vonnegut 48) as well as the soldiers that are freezing as they move closer to death. Therefore, whenever winter is mentioned in the story, readers will know death or suffering is soon to follow.
Spring/Warm:
When the soldiers first arrive in Dresden it is still winter, personifying their hatred of being prisoners of war. However, after an unsolicited amount of time, spring arrives and the soldiers seem more contempt with their place as servants in Dresden working at a factory. Accompanying the soldiers’ newfound comfort is the warmth associated with the season. Yet along with the feeling of comfort, this warmth carries another meaning. As the temperature rises, it foreshadows the fire-bombing of Dresden that occurs later in the story, which is ironic as the people in the town that were hot before are now definitely hot. In addition, the warmth acts as a plot device as it drives the soldiers down into the meat fridges to cool off, later saving their lives during the air raid. Therefore, the warmth of spring can be seen as the resolution of one conflict and the building of suspense for another.
Night:
For settings with nighttime in the story, there is a certain mystery behind the events taking place at the time. Whether Billy is in a POW camp sedated or after the war when Billy is abducted by Tralfamadorians, otherworldly or plot-important events come into play. When Billy is sedated the night in the POW camp, readers meet the two other characters mentioned at the beginning of the novel, and are given a proper introduction to Billy. When he is abducted by the Tralfamadorians, both Billy and the readers are given an explanation as to why Billy is unstuck in time and how he is able to jump from point to point in his life. Therefore, under the shroud of night answers are revealed through mysterious circumstances.
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ReplyDeleteOther Settings:
Most of the other settings in the novel serve as small intermissions form the larger story, thereby adding to the overall story and contrasting from the harshness of war with their comfort. Along with serving as anecdotes separating different stories in the war, the settings also resolve outer points of conflict as well as give more insight into foreshadowing from the beginning of the novel. With smaller stories such as the time spent on Tralfamadore or the story of Billy’s death, the reader is given more insight into the inner workings of the story. On Tralfamadore, the perception of the universe through the fourth dimension is explained as well as the lack of importance with death, as within the fourth dimension time becomes a visible plane of existence able to be viewed. With the death of Billy Pilgrim, the story arc following his interactions with two characters Roland Weary and Paul Lazzaro is resolved as Paul vowed to get revenge on Billy because Roland said “Who killed me…Billy Pilgrim” (Vonnegut 57) and Roland was Paul’s only friend when they were traveling by train to the POW camp. Therefore, each outlier setting separate from the war contributes in some way to the story of the war.
Jennifer Page Algieri
ReplyDeleteMs. Barnhart
AP Literature and Composition
13 December 2014
Madame Bovary uses setting as a juxtaposition between the life Emma Bovary wants and the one she has. Her life with Charles is filled with an inescapable dullness. Often the simplicities of her life are described in relation to settings, for example “Charles’s conversation was commonplace as street pavement” (Flaubert 25). She thinks of such a setting because of it’s regularity and normality. There is no other way to describe Charles than street pavement. He is ordinary and usual and will eventually bore Emma Bovary to death.
Adding onto that same idea of showing her life as it is and as she desires it to be, when Emma saw the way some ladies and gentlemen of higher stature maintained their houses she immediately tried to replicate that behavior. She gave her meals fancier names, arranged paper scones around candles, and slightly altered parts of her home, or homes, to try and create for herself the life she longed for. Many times during the story when in her own house the reader follows the subtle to major changes she makes within her house. But her home is not what really bothers her, so altering it in any way will never please her, and to some degree she does understand this. Even after so many changes she still is forced to create a fantasy in her mind of how her life should have been.
Also, when Emma’s fits got too unnatural and violent a change of setting was considered the solution, and the two, Charles and Emma, moved to a different location. This, however, really did no good. Nowhere would ever be good enough for Emma. Yes, castles and mansions pleased her, but her home with Charles pleased her once as well. One day she would tire of it. Tire of conversation with dukes as well. Should she have gotten her way, one day she might have said “The dukes conversation was commonplace as a marble staircase” for that too would be to normal for her.
The use of scenery in Madame Bovary is not a major part of the novel, but one of the little hints pertaining to Emma’s character and the idea that nothing will ever satisfy her. She can change anything around her and she will still want more. She cannot decide what will make her happy so she settles. Her best descriptive quote is “She wished at the same time to die and to live in Paris,” (Flaubert 25) because it perfectly relays to the reader how she feels and behaves. She will raise herself to a higher stature and live somewhere extravagant or she will die. Foreshadowing and character exposition all at one.
Jessica Algieri
ReplyDeleteMs. Barnhart
AP Lit. and Comp.
13 Dec. 2014
I have already examined the presence of flowers in “The Picture of Dorian Gray” so instead I want to examine the Theatre in which Dorian finds Sybil Vane. The theatre seems a terrible place where “the heat was terribly oppressive, and the huge sunlight flames like a monstrous dahlia with petals of fire. Some women were laughing in the pit: their voices were horribly shrill and discordant. The sound of the popping of corks came from the bar.” (Wilde 145) The place is rather seedy, almost Vaudeville in its appearance and in regard to the types of people who show up to see the plays. Yet Dorian explains to Lord Henry how he discovered the love of his life, Sybil Vane, in that theatre.
Dorian declares that Sybil Vane has the most extraordinary acting ability. She can play Rosalind, and Juliet, and Imogene and every performance brings tears to Dorian’s eyes. But I am inclined to believe his compliments are reflections of his own admiration for her, not her actual talent as an actress, based on the setting of the theatre. If Sybil truly were as magnificent as Dorian claims she was she would not be performing in such a shoddy place. I can understand that there are many great actors who never succeed, and spend their whole lives in theater's like the one Sybil is in, but those people are merely great actors. Sybil, according to Dorian, is the greatest actress to ever grace the stage. His expression of her magnificence is lessened and becomes unreliable because of where she is still performing. Although she does have a contract with the manager he explains how easy it would be for someone of good means to buy out the contract. He is infatuated with Sybil, most likely because of the beauty which he describes as “the loveliest thing I had ever seen in my life…Her beauty, her mere beauty, moved me to tears.”(Wilde 119) and so everything she did from the moment he laid eyes on her was biased.
In another way the setting changes how Dorian see’s Sybil, because the theatre truly is a deplorable place with third rate actors. Anything above a third rate actor would have seems superb in comparison. Dorian is young; he cannot distinguish good art from great art because he has not seen enough of either. A person can appear talented many times over if their co-star is far enough beneath them, but Dorian has probably never seen such a thing occur because he'd never been to such a theatre. It’s very possible the Sybil may have been the greatest actress he had ever seen, but that is only because he has seen so few actresses.
In the 2001 movie Shrek, Shrek states “Ogres are like onions…We both have layers.” The same can be said about the function of the setting of Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms. A war in Europe may be the red surface of an onion, but as layers get peeled back, the actual complexity of the setting is revealed. Each sweet portion of this vegetable allows the development of many elements, such as characters’ relationships and an autobiographical nature.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the first few layers of the onion represent how the setting directly impacts characters and their relationships. Italy and southern Europe from 1914 to 1918 was a region engaged in war. From the perspective of a historian, the war brought unrest to Europe. However, from the perspective of a literary scholar, the war caused unrest in the relationship between Catherine and Frederic. Despite loving each other and moving to new posts together, the two spent much time apart. Frederic traveled with the ambulance units to the front lines, while Catherine remained in cities such as Milan and Gorizia to tend to the sick and wounded. While in the war, Catherine refuses to marry Frederic out of fear of losing another loved one. The two spend hours together in a Milan hospital after Frederic’s injury, until he is rested and called to duty once more. The two move to Gorizia, Caporetto, and Milan before fleeing to Switzerland. The war places a tremendous amount of stress and tension upon their relationship, yet the two stay together until Catherine’s death. Through the test of war, Frederic and Catherine exhibit resiliency and devotion to one another.
Towards the onion’s core, evidence arises from both the description of setting and lack thereof. Hemingway, unlike other blog posts, writes little concerning the environment. For example, Hemingway produces the first reference to war with “Sometimes in the dark we heard the troops marching under the window and guns going past pulled by motor tractors” (Hemingway 1). At no point during the novel does Hemingway reveal a world war or a realistic image of war. In other words, he does not fully develop an image of real war. Seeing as the book was published in 1929, he assumed readers could fully understand the scene of war, only 11 years removed from of WWI. He also withholds description in order to portray autobiographical qualities. Besides the love interest, A Farewell to Arms closely resembles Hemingway’s experience as an ambulance driver. The injuries, the city of Milan, and duties all allude to a memory of his past life. The core of the onion, the center from which the food grows, is Hemingway’s story. The time and place components of setting wrap around this central idea to form A Farewell to Arms.
Kip, I think the onion analogy worked really well with what you were trying to convey with Hemingway's piece. The different layers of the onion and the different layers of the text work hand in hand. I never thought of it this way.
DeleteI saw a Shrek quote and naturally needed to keep reading. (Bravo for incorporating ogres into AP Lit.....and even more for doing it well).
DeleteI like this onion method of looking at a text. I feel that I could apply the same technique to chapters of my novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, namely those which center around a dictator ruled Dominican Republic. The red skin would be the dictatorship, closely followed by the obvious disruption caused--such as the obedience of the people and the fear of misstepping. Further into the onion would be the more personal results of the tyranny-- such as La Inca's protectiveness over Belicia, or the tense union of the Dominican people. Towards the core would be the true conflict in the novel--the division of the individual and the collective, how Belicia can remain in individual in a nation where civil liberties are stripped and the "collective" must be ideal. Interesting technique, I'll definitely consider it in the future.
Charlotte Brontë, in her novel Jane Eyre, writes Jane in three distinct settings, Gateshead Hall, Lowood, and Thornwood. Notably, the settings prove to challenge Jane to continue on her journey from childhood to womanhood throughout the novel.
ReplyDeleteThe reader meets Jane at Gateshead Hall, where she lives with her aunt, Mrs. Reed, and her three cousins. The “very beautiful house” (Brontë 18), filled with rooms and ‘family’, actually symbolizes Jane’s isolation. In such a great house, she takes refuge in hidden corners, such as the window-seat in the breakfast room, because she knows and believes herself an outlier. The family rejects Jane and leaves her corned (literally and figuratively), forced to move around the house excluded, “from privileges intended only for contented, happy, little children” (Brontë 1). As Jane states, “I was a discord at Gateshead Hall” (Brontë 10). Although Brontë mainly focuses on forming and revealing Jane’s character to the reader at Gateshead, the setting also contributes to the progression of Jane’s personal journey, specifically her experience in the red-room. The red-room, the most detailed room recalled by Jane at Gateshead, marks the ‘Call of Adventure’ in the hero’s journey. Described by Jane as, “seldom, “silent,” and “solemn” (Brontë 8), the red-room also marks the death place of Jane’s uncle, Mr. Reed. While locked in the room by her aunt, Jane experiences a supernatural experience, causing her to panic and call out for help. When Mrs. Reed fails to provide assistance, Jane’s journey begins. Her experience in the red-room provides her the strength to speak out against her oppressor and insist she gets sent away to school. Without the room’s eerie setting or past, Jane may have accepted her current state at Gateshead and never left. In fact, Gateshead almost acts as a gateway to Jane’s future. Additionally, the red-room may also symbolize Jane’s personal hell, as literary experts often associate red with the underworld or evil. Mrs. Reed locks Jane in Hell, and, in order to escape, Jane must speak out against the devil herself.
Jane then travels to Lowood, a school focused on providing education to orphaned children, and a new, unknown path of her journey commences. The school’s strict rule and harsh treatment greets Jane when she first arrives. Overseen by Mr. Brocklehurst, the children face intense religious ‘guidance’ and eat so little to the point of starvation, with Jane often describing the place as “dreary” (Brontë 39) and “gloomy” (Brontë 41). Essentially, Lowood parallels with Jane’s characters upon arrival at the institution. At Gateshead Hall, the girl experiences hatred and disapproval, lacking the feel of love from Mrs. Reed or her cousins, so Jane has become cold to her past and has lost trust in the goodness of most adults. Unlike Helen, she believes in submitting, “punishment when I feel it is deserved” (Brontë 54) rather than channeling compassion and love in certain situations. Mr. Brocklehurst and his dictations over the girls illustrate the exact traits Jane attributes to adults in power. Even the season, winter, represents Jane’s coldness and isolation. As for her journey, Lowood symbolizes the unknowns of the future, demonstrated when Jane travels, “from compartment to compartment, from passage to passage” (Brontë 39) unknowingly and points out the garden’s high wall which prevents her view. Symbolically, Jane’s future appears a maze, and she remains blinded to what the future holds. Regardless, Jane’s prolonged stay eventually causes a change in the nature of Lowood. After a vicious disease wipes out a significant percentage of Lowood’s students, including Helen, a committee forms to monitor the treatment of the girls and Mr. Brocklehurst loses a significant portion of his power. The transformation of Lowood once again parallels the transformation of Jane herself. She follows the guidance of Miss. Temple, finds friends to spend her days, and loses the rebellious streak once present in her youthful form. And, while her life at Lowood “was uniform,” Jane considered it, “not unhappy” (Brontë 83). Jane required the help of Lowood to transform into a successful woman. Yet, Jane also seems to embody a character who chases adventure and the unknown, so, when “destiny” (Brontë 83) caught up, Jane found herself wishing to find more in life beyond the comfort of Lowood. Eventually, the girl packs her items and travels on to Thornwood.
DeleteSince I addressed the importance of Thornwood in my previous blog, I will not go into great depths here. Nevertheless, Thornwood, once again, represents another path on Jane’s journey. The girl overcame her abusive aunt and transformed under the strict rule of Lowood’s teacher, but no, she must uncover the mystery behind the rude and strange behavior of Mr. Rochester. Jane description of the house, including the statement, “a very chilly vault-like air pervaded the stairs and gallery, suggesting cheerless ideas of space and solitude” (Brontë 97), foreshadows the mysteries hidden within Thornwood’s walls. Thornwood represents Jane’s upcoming challenges in the novel, and the struggles she must eventually face in life and womanhood.
The three settings so far in Jane Eyre reveal Jane’s journey through life and often symbolize Jane character and mental state at that time in the novel. Therefore, without setting, many levels of Charlotte Brontë’s novel disassemble and disappear.
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ReplyDeleteIn Pride and Prejudice, the theme of marriage and love is no doubt prominent. Jane Bennet is engaged to Mr. Bingley, Elizabeth Bennet was offered marriage by Mr. Collins, and Charlotte Lucas accepted to be wed to Mr. Collins a few days after his initial proposal. The theme of marriage brings out a particularly rotten side of Mrs. Bennet. She wishes for all of her daughters to be wed and it becomes more evident that she prefers for everything to go her way. Elizabeth rejecting Mr. Collins went against what she wished. Mr. Bennet siding with Elizabeth went against what she wished. Mr. Collins marrying Miss Lucas went against what she wished. The prominent mother figure was ultimately shattered by the swarms of marriage around the family.
ReplyDeleteNot to mention, Darcy and his proposal added to the mix. Love is remarkable between Elizabeth and Darcy. A man hidden by such pride on the outside of his demeanor is truly filled with love on this inside for this one woman. "'In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you'" (Austen 128-129). Love brings out another side of Darcy. A proud man, he is honest with Elizabeth, expressing his honesty through the works of a letter. In this letter, Darcy expresses the plan to separate Mr. Bingely from Jane, a plan he does not show any remorse for. He also discusses Wickham's connection to him, proving the man to be much worse than Elizabeth expected. His openness towards her is something that he does not share with such extent to any of the other characters.
The love Austen depicts is one that overcomes several roadblocks. Darcy and Elizabeth fall victim to Austen's stumbling blocks including the immense pride delivered by Elizabeth due to a terrible first impression of Mr. Darcy. Then, it's Elizabeth's social rank that Darcy is clouded by in the beginning considering she and her family is much poorer than he has built himself to be. Ultimately, and as cliche as this may sound, Austen has formulated her characters to be blinded and blocked from time to time by pride and prejudice.
The themes of our novels are incredibly different yet similar in certain ways. In "A Thousand Splendid Suns" the protagonist, Mariam, is forced into an arranged marriage at the age of twelve, and it is not a marriage based on love, but regardless, she has no say in the matter, so she must commit to the man her father has chosen for her. Their society is strongly revolving around religion and the men rule over the women for the most part. While your novel seems to represent the strength love has when two people who are "meant to be" find each other and marry, my novel stresses that marriage is about starting a family and having kids and society and politics, not about love. As my novel progresses though, women begim fight for the rights the women in "Pride and Prejudice" seem to have already obtained.
DeleteEven though these themes are different, they both are allowing the characters of the novels express themselves and fight for themselves. In the way you have described your characters, it seem they are progressively making more and more of their own decisions based on their thoughts and feelings and that is exactly what is happening in my novel too. Although love can be portrayed in different ways, whether it is forced or found, it can impact different peoples lives in similar ways.
The setting in A Thousand Splendid Suns helps to characterize the characters to show their similarities and differences and also to strengthen the theme of the novel. The setting of Mariam’s new home town helps to show how she is much she changes from her childhood self to her present self. Before she was incredibly religious and outgoing, always speaking her mind and Hosseini, the author, uses irony to show her personality shift. She used to complain about her father bringing her meaningless gifts, gifts so that he would feel better about himself, not to make Mariam happy. Now she sees gifts that her husband gives her and she believes the same thing she believed about her father when she was younger- the gifts were meaningful and love was why she was receiving these simple presents. She thought of the love behind her husband’s gift and how even though her husband made her wear a burqa to cover and hide herself, even though he changed who she was she loved it and him because she thought he was different and wonderful, unlike her father. The irony comes in when she discovers her husband is not the man she thought he was and all this changing she did was yet another mistake.
ReplyDeleteThe next character Hosseini describes through setting is Laila. She is the youngest child in her large family. She describes walking into her mother’s room seeing pictures of people she does not recognize. Her older brothers, who are now off at war, and her parents, happy together, a sight she barely ever witnesses. She tells the differences between her childhood life and her older siblings. She is stuck with parents who fight and with no other siblings in the house with her, while her older brothers and sisters all lived together and her parents were madly in love with each other back then. The only person Laila is truly friends with is a little boy named Tariq with whom he has a crush on. When Tariq leaves for a trip for almost two weeks, Hosseini shows how different her life is without him. When her mother does not pick her up from school, she usually walks home with Tariq, but with him gone she is on her own and is attacked by a group of boys from her school who have filled water guns with urine and sprayed her. This event shows how boys/men still pick on the girls/women and think of them as less and even in childhood, do not treat women as they would treat another man. These boys would not have attacked Laila if she had been with Tariq, which emphasizes the fact that boys would not harass another boy in a way they would harass a girl. During this time women are fighting for equal rights and equal treatment and Hosseini shows how difficult of a fight this will be for women because even young kids are discriminating against the female population, and they have their whole lives ahead of them and it will be difficult to change their views and keep them in “the loop” about the politics and reasons for why women should be seen and treated as equals. This foreshadows the wars to take place and the difficult events and decisions the women in this novel will have to face.
Interestingly, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao not only takes place in New Jersey but also the Dominican Republic. Diaz uses the division of setting as a vehicle to express cultural values and the develop characters, tension, and irony--which in turn supports the thematic values. I feel this aids in forming the central ideas around the novel-- namely the the individual’s alienation (forming a motif of escape in TBWLO) from the collective.
ReplyDeleteThe expression of cultural values via setting in my novel is quite blatantly the most direct response to this prompt. Although obvious, I would be dumb not to mention it, as these same cultural values form the “collective” for the protagonists to clash. The patriarchal, sex-charged Dominican culture serves as Oscar’s own enemy, the faceless standard of masculinity he does not live up to. Similarly, it also expresses the value of family. Lola feels alienated by her family, but her culture dictates the closeness and necessity of it. She also battles the authority of her mother and her own rejection of conventional femininity. This same value of family creates an irony. To say there is familial incohesion between the Casals is an understatement. Despite the Dominican necessity of heritage and family, they constantly clash, furthering the battle between each character and his or her own collective reality.
During the chapters surrounding Belicia, Rafael Trujillo dictated the Dominican Republic. His influence over the island country can be witnessed during Belicia’s chapters. This presence creates tension--people always must be careful of what is said or done, and their civil liberties are next to none. This is most prominently displayed when Trujillo’s very own brother-in-law impregnates Belicia despite his marriage…...the wife (Trujillo’s sister) orders her to be beaten to a pulp. Naturally, of course, a dictatorial presence corresponds with the motif of obedience. Belicia must obey her mother and her teachers, but most of all she must obey Trujillo. This strengthens the battle between the collective and the individual. Belicia must cohere to the established standards or their will be punishment.
Perhaps the most interesting, is the juxtaposition between America and the Dominican Republic. The Dominican is colorful and warm, yet traditional and small. America is average and cold, yet opportune and vast. Ironically, for Belicia, America is her escape. But when her children soon escape to the Dominican. No matter where--or in what decade--the characters reside, they witness the same incohesion between who they are and who they surround themselves with. It calls to question-- Does it matter where we are? Are we always trying to escape one reality? As individuals, can we really escape the collective?
Although unrelated to setting, I feel its interesting to note that although all of the characters feel alienated by their collective realities, instead of turning to their fellow escapee-individualist-outcasts, they are the people with whom they battle the most. It speaks to the close-minded, ego centric nature of humans… Belicia and Lola could not be more similar, yet they fight endlessly. Each individual clashes with a collective consistent of other individuals, all clashing with their own opposing collectives, whom which the original individual is a part of.
How many of you look outside the window on a rainy day? You'd love to go out but either the fear of getting wet or someone telling you that you'll become wet keeps you inside looking out.The hospital in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest works just like this. The patients are so in tuned with the way things are, before McMurphy, they do not even think to ask about how they are to get out of the hospital.
ReplyDeleteThis hospital has an abusive relationship with the patients (this analogy is not meant to make light of domestic violence). While the hospital has come to be a home for many of these broken people, Nurse Ratched has turned into a place where she has power. Essentially, she is taking advantage of the patients. The hospital is repetitive, yet totalitarian in its ruling. It should be a place of healing for these WWII veterans but instead Nurse Ratched has made it a place of pain and suffering.
The Nurse’s abuse of the system has become so bad that even the patients come out in support of her, “When a completed product goes back out into society, all fixed up good as new, better than new sometimes, it brings joy to the Big Nurse's heart...." (Kesey 40). The real world keeps her in, but when she comes to this hospital, Nurse Ratched reigns supreme. If she has a co worker she doesn’t like, she can easily bully that person until they quit. If a patient acts out of term, she can easily control their fate. In the real world she is normal, but the hospital represents a throne for Nurse Ratched. It takes an RP McMurphy to expose her (literally and figuratively). When he rips her shirt open, the patients actually see what kind of person she is. Her breasts swelling up (yes leave it to Kesey to make this metaphor) shows how highly she thought of herself, like a swelled up head.
Hospitals should be a place of healing and respect for those who are sick. Yet in this book the hospital has come to mean oppression and suffering. Through one character’s actions, a multitude of others suffer.
In "The Color Purple" by Alice Walker, the narrator only describes an underwhelming amount of information about the setting. Instead of describing her surroundings, Celie instead spends more time explaining the events which happen around her. By placing more emphasis on actions instead of the setting, the author portrays Celie's mindset and feelings towards her situation.
ReplyDeleteConsidering Celie's father removed her from school, she leads a rather restrained and sheltered life. As such, her narration copies this. She fails to offer much description because most of her life revolves around the actions of others. She barely leaves the house and whenever she does, these places rarely recieve a description. Instead, Celie simply continues narrating the story with a portrayal of the setting. Although this may seem strange, the author purposefully leaves out the setting in order to portray Celie's sheltered existence.
Additionally, this phenomenon reveals Celie's compliant nature and a sense of futility. In any household Celie resides in, the master of the house suppresses her and forces her to do whatever he pleases. In any situation, she has no say and cannot exert her own will. As such, she does not provide analysis of her surroundings. Instead, her narration relies mostly on the actions of others. She suppresses her own feelings towards a situation to reflect the inhibition she faces in her life. Overall, the author excludes the information about the setting from the narration to express information about Celie's character, thus eliciting pity and comprehension from the reader.
My book (Uncle Tom's Cabin) has times when setting is a physical backdrop, and when setting is created more by people's interactions, which is somewhat similar to yours. For instance, the "backdrop" setting isn't even mentioned when Tom talks to his wife and kids about the fact that he'll be sold in another day, but the reader gets a good idea of the setting created by characters, which I think reveals cultural values most often. But since you've already found what setting reveals in the case of your book (the setting created by characters' actions), I'll just say "happy reading!"
DeleteFor Euripides, the idea of setting is a challenging one to portray, especially because his work “Medea” takes place on a stage. But the restrictions in no way prevent his work from having many deep layers of meaning. The setting is one left for the audience to interpret and as such is subject to many different points of view. But the fact that this piece takes place in one location, a royal household, makes the job much simpler. In fact, it is this royal household where the entire story unfolds and all of the characters and situations are acted out. Euripides takes this one location and allows it to serve many different roles. Euripides truly shows his artistic greatness in his ability to make such a limited setting provide so many roles.
ReplyDeleteAlthough “Medea” only takes place in the royal household, one can get a much greater understanding of the world in which they live in just by listening to the characters’ dialogue. For example, characters are often found referencing the many different kingdoms in Greece. This opens up whole world of the past with which to add context for the audience. We the audience get an understanding of where they live and who around them holds positions of power. Greece back in 431 BC ancient was far from being an established country, so there were many people who may have held power in different kingdoms. Euripides alludes to many of them in this piece and by doing so we get a broader perspective of the world around them. These allusions also provide some physical characters with which to discover. For example, Aigeus, King of Athens, makes an appearance in the play and although he is not from Corinthia, his presence adds a level of diversity to the text and helps to make it more interesting.
Also manipulated by setting is characterization. Due to the limited number of characters and the restriction of the setting, characters are often allowed to reveal personal information through monologues. One character who uses these monologues often is Medea. For much of the play the audience is confronted with Medea on her own, speaking to herself or the chorus. She often reveals her intentions and emotions. For example, in Episode IV, Medea reveals her plot to kill her children. “I shall kill my children,” She says, “There is no one who will rescue them” (Euripides 20). After being angered by her former husband Jason, Medea goes off on a rant about how she will seek revenge. Without the enclosed environment of the stage, it is not certain if Medea would still speak so boldly out loud. Her place in a room in the royal household cuts off all other characters from her and allows her the freedom to speak her mind.
The tone of the piece is also impacted by the limited setting. Due to its small size, the stage provides a sense of tension and urgency which allows actions to move more quickly than they would if they were perhaps somewhere else. For example, in the Exodos Medea kills her children. Jason, both infuriated and sad, runs up the stairs to the locked room which she has committed the act. In this moment, when the two individuals are separated by the locked door, the audience gains the feeling of both sadness and anger. We, in a sense, share the emotions of Jason. The locked door traps us, and keeps us on the side of Jason, allowing us to feel his emotions more strongly.
A simple stage prop such as a door can go a long way when even when it comes to manipulating emotion. Euripides uses his limitations to the best of his ability in order to create a play which has truly stood the test of time.
Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, uses setting to reinforce the presentation and understanding of black slaves as truly human to the reader. As this is one of the most important points Stowe conveys through her novel, setting can serve as a starting point for readers to understand this message.
ReplyDeleteStowe spends a large part of Chapter 4 introducing the reader to the titular location, presenting the physical aspects of the cabin as the cabin’s inhabitants interact with them. The cabin, although a “small, log building” (Stowe 19), seems as hospitable as any free man’s home. Uncle Tom and his wife, Aunt Chloe, tend vegetables and flowers in a small garden outside their home. Inside, most of the activity occurs near Aunt Chloe’s stove in the small kitchen, where the many members of their family would gather for meals. Stowe describes the decor of the cabin in this way: “In one corner of it stood a bed, covered neatly with a snowy spread; and by the side of it was a piece of carpeting, of some considerable size...the whole corner, in fact, [was] treated with distinguished consideration...In fact, that corner was the drawing-room of the establishment” (Stowe 20). Although the reader knows from the description that Uncle Tom lives with modest means, he also sees that Tom and Chloe (who are both slaves) have made a home comparable to any free man’s home, since they had the freedom to do so. The cabin was not described in this way simply to inform the reader of Tom’s living quarters; rather, to employ setting as another avenue upon which Stowe’s great message could travel to readers -- that the people held as slaves were just as human as free men. In the description of Tom’s cabin, I believe Stowe wants readers to see that slaves would “prove” their humanity, if given the chance (bear in mind that this novel was written for a very different audience, an audience living in a society that held slavery legal in some states).
While setting builds characterization in such a backdrop as Tom’s cabin, his home, it also reveals theme on a larger scale. As I’ve seen in my reading, Stowe has one main message she wants to get across: that slaves are as human as free men and, by extension, that the only true inequality existing in society is the institution of slavery. In the many instances of a slave being separated from his or her family -- when Eliza’s young son is almost sold away from her (she escapes with him), when Tom is sold away from his family and his life, when young Albert is sold away from his old slave mother Hagar, Cassy’s loss of her children, the list goes on -- setting is intertwined with theme. The slave to be separated suffers great emotional trouble, as would any normal human being, at the thought of having to leave behind his or her family. And that’s just it -- setting becomes a barrier that separates loved ones. Although it’s an awful situation to put a person through, Stowe shows readers by the way the slaves behave that they really are human. They show human understanding, human concern. They show that they are, indeed, human.
Lastly, I believe that Tom is affected by a sort of internal setting in his own mind. This setting speaks volumes about Tom’s values. Throughout his journey from his home, with different owners, Tom’s faith in God drives him to persevere through every hardship. As Stowe writes, Tom reflected on the following words from the Bible (Hebrews 13:14; Hebrews 11:16): “"We have here no continuing city, but we seek one to come; wherefore God himself is not ashamed to be called our God; for he hath prepared for us a city" (Stowe 120). Tom’s personal values are important to the story and its message; Tom has a stronger sense of morality than his free (and evil) master, Simon Legree. Tom is a better man, a better human being, than the free men discussed in Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Stowe clearly reveals her message through setting, since setting reveals characterization, theme, and values in this novel.
"He was spending his summer vacation, as he always did, with his mother at Grand Isle. In former times, before Robert could remember, 'the house' had been a summer luxury of the Lebruns" (Chopin 46-47).
ReplyDeleteThroughout "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin, the setting is used to advance both the plot and the characters in the novel. If it wasn't for location in which Edna lives, there would be no self-discovery, for it's the society that Edna is surrounded by that places pressure on her and ultimately pushes her to realize her true self.
When the novel first opens, Edna is with her husband and children at their vacation home in the Grand Isles. The area is filled with people in the same societal positions as her, and most of Edna's days are spent dealing with her peers, and subsequently, their pressures. Coming from a Creole background, the characters in "The Awakening" have a strict view on how an individual should conduct themselves. In fact, when Edna begins to gain some independence and starts to speak up for herself, her husband goes to their doctor believing she had some sort of mental illness. It's thoughts like these that forced Edna to put aside her needs and desires in favor of tradition and responsibility. And Edna adheres to this, that is until she meets Robert. As soon as he enters the picture, Edna begins to forgo what’s expected of her in favor of spending her days at the beach with Robert. For the longest time Edna didn't know how to swim, and so she stayed away from the water. But with Robert teaching her, she learned how not to be afraid of the water, and of her desires. None of this would have occurred had it not been for Edna being in the Grand Isle, a place where wealthy, traditional, proper people go to spend their summers. The pressures that they put her under to be who they want her to be are what propel Edna to do the exact opposite.
As the summer ends, Edna and her family travel back to their home in New Orleans. At this point, Robert has gone to Mexico to get away from the temptation of an affair with Edna, and Edna is on the road to full independence. Despite this, the pressure is on her more than ever to conform to the standards set by society. As a wife and mother, Edna is expected to devote herself entirely to her family. The fact that she would rather spend her days making artwork instead of taking care of her husband and children are incomprehensible to the people she is surrounded by. Edna doesn't let this stop her however. Instead, she turns her back on what society deems acceptable and invests only in what she finds important. The society in New Orleans pushes her to be “traditional” but this time, Edna pushes back.
In Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, the use of setting is most prominent in the use of each house. So we begin the novel in Longbourne House, the manor of the Bennett’s, and the Bingley’s move in down the street to Netherfield Park. Pemberley is the home of Mr. Darcy, and Lucas Lodge is where Lizzie’s best friend Charlotte lives. In terms of main plot devices, the usage of setting isn’t a huge factor, but it certainly plays a role in letting the multiple romances blossom in the novel. The Bingley’s live about three miles away, but in the hopes of setting Jane and Bingley up together, Mrs. Bennett sends Jane anyways. In fact, because of the fact that it is supposed to rain later on in the day, she refuses to send Jane in the carriage and instead just on horseback so Jane is forced to stay at Netherfield Park longer than she was planning, and in fact, she falls ill and ends up staying at Netherfield Park with Bingley and his snotty sisters and mother for almost a week. When she comes home before a full week has passed, Mrs. Bennett is actually upset! So while the reader is mainly focused on the blossoming tension between Lizzie and Darcy, as well as Lydia’s exploits with Wickham and Jane’s romance with Bingley, we’re watching mainly Mrs. Bennett use setting (such as forcing Jane and Lizzie to stay at Netherfield Park for almost a week, or the many balls they attend) to force these couples together, as her main goal in life is to make sure her daughters end up married with well-off men. The setting and the use of the mansions, especially when it comes to the distance between the mansions, is a setting ploy that Mrs. Bennett definitely uses to her advantage not only to force her children into good marriages but to unknowingly provide the platform on which Darcy and Lizzie fall in love with each other. Setting slowly peels back the layers on which Darcy and Lizzie discover each other and showcases one of the greatest romances ever written.
ReplyDelete“Respect was invented to cover the empty place where love should be” (Tolstoy 456).
ReplyDeleteLeo Tolstoy's Anna Karenin is mainly set in the Russia of the 1860s and 1870s, in the cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg. This was a time of incredible intellectual debate about the modernization of Russia and its direction into the future. During a time of economic and political issues, Russia was trying to catch up with Western Europe and prove itself. Most of the wealth of the nation lied in the hands of a few nobles. Citizens attempted to reform such ideas.
Levin considers these underlying issues in the story, but only when he is in the countryside, unaffected by the hustle and bustle of the cities. He too tried his way of reform. Levin attempted to change the farming techniques which had been used for hundreds of years, in order to make the country more agriculturally productive to help with the distribution of wealth. Also, in the country, Levin seems more comfortable, more attached to his ideals of family and such, remembering his mother as the ideal woman and hoping for the ideal wife. When he is in the city, Levin acts more rashly and gets drunk. The setting, like in this case brings out different sides of characters.
Also, in the countryside, the tone is a bit more whimsy and there is far more imagery, “Invisible larks broke into song over the velvet of the young, sprouting corn and the ice-covered stubble; peewits began to cry over the marshes and the low reaches of the rivers and streams, still overflowing with brownish water, and cranes and wild geese flew high across the sky, uttering their loud, spring cries. Real spring had come” (Tolstoy 178). Perhaps Levin finds peace in this place because it embodies traditional Russian values like purity, family, hard work, and religiosity. Contrastingly Oblonsky prefers the city. This use of setting widens the gap between the two old friends, and depicts their differences further.
Now, the two cities, as mentioned before, St. Petersburg and Moscow represent two opposing ideas imminent in Russia’s society at the time. Moscow was more traditional and conservative, whereas Petersburg was more fashionable and hedonistic. Moscow represents old Russia and Petersburg represents new Russia. It is in Petersburg where Anna Karenin herself lives. Anna Karenina embodies the new beliefs in Russia, much like the more modern France. In this notion, love trumps marriage, and happiness is not found only in status. The Princess in Moscow believes the opposite.
Through setting alone, multiple layers of Tolstoy’s thought are translated to his readers.
So with the differences in ideology between Moscow and Petersburg - do these beliefs clash at some point, or do they remain separate for the most part? If they do clash (by perhaps the two princesses interacting, some sort of civilian/protest altercation, etc.), how does this add to the contextual layer of setting? I ask this because it makes me think of the part in Pride and Prejudice where Lydia runs off with Mr. Wickham despite being unmarried, which is definitely a huge scandal for the time and place they're in. :)
DeleteCharacterization, cultural values and theme are connected through setting. Setting is important in Anna Karenina. The novel takes place all over Russia with each place representing a different facet of the novel. At the time the novel takes place, which is also the time it was written, there is much political, economic and social upheaval in Russia. The year is around 1870. Those familiar with Russian history may note that the Russian Revolution and overthrow of the Czar came shortly after. Therefore the novel contains and exhibits all the commotion leading up to the revolution.
ReplyDeleteThe book centers around Moscow, home of Oblonsky and the Scherbatskys. Moscow represents “Old Russia.” The people there are traditionally of old money. The city exhibits many of the cultural values associated with traditional Russia including the views on marriage proposal, government and commitment.
Moscow and all it represents, clash with the remaining Russia. St. Petersburg is known as “New Russia” and hosts many of the new ideals and opinions of the time. Vronsky and Anna are both from Saint Petersburg which facilitates their affair. Unlike the Scherbatsky’s who believe Vronsky’s interest to be a sure sign of future marriage, Vronsky feels no obligation to Kitty. He also feels inclined to pursue Anna who is married with a child.
The countryside is also important, representing an isolation and simplicity not found in the two major Russian cities. Levin resides in the countryside and considers much of Moscow to be superfluous. He is unable to comprehend their way of life or thought process. Tolstoy illustrates Levin through the countryside as an outsider.
Setting reveals the ideals and relations among characters and also helps to justify their opinions. It is interesting to see how the characters interact and live based off of setting as it is what moves the plot along.
Forster utilizes setting throughout “A Room with a View” to reveal various layers of text, and mainly Lucy’s character development.
ReplyDeleteAs Lucy spends time in such a foreign, beautiful place outside of the home she has known all her life, she strays from her normal ways. Forster hints at her confliction numerous times, such as when the Lucy finds herself “relapsing into the old chaotic methods” (Forster 59) after speaking up about her opinions to another person, and a gentleman for that matter.
Another one of the moments where Lucy loses her inhibition and embraces her life is her first kiss with George. Forster paints a picture of the scene, describing how “violets ran down in rivulets and streams and cataracts, irrigating the hillside with blue, eddying round the tree stems, collecting into pools in the hollows, covering the grass with spots of azure foam” ( Forster 73) around the terrace where George stands waiting for her. Lucy’s adventure in Florence causes her to begin thinking for herself instead of staying “in her cousin’s power” (Forster 80) and adhering to the societal norms.
The parallel between Lucy’s life inside and outside of her adventure in Florence highlights how the setting has an effect on how she acts. In the beginning of the novel, she arrives to Italy in low spirits, believing from the views of the inn that the new place was exactly like the place she had temporarily left. However, as she experiences the true Italy, in Florence and Santa Croce, Lucy is, to some degree, set free. In one instance, she becomes rebellious against Mr. Eager, and “met him with equal indignation” (Forster 60) after confronting him about his rude comments.
Upon her manipulated return to Rome, Lucy eventually becomes engaged to Cecil Vyse, a wealthy, relatively kind gentleman (even though I don’t approve of him AT ALL) who is almost completely parallel to George. The change in setting thrusts Lucy back into her former life, where she appears submissive and obedient. Forster even writes how “Cecil laughed at her feminine inconsequence” (Forster 106) when she talked about Mr. Emerson. Through the changes in setting, readers witness Lucy’s growth as an independent young woman when in the company other characters.
So far in the novel, Lucy has bounced back and forth between gaining independence and remaining submissive to the mannerisms she grew up with. While in Florence, she finds some strength and freedom, especially on her adventures with George Emerson. However, she reverts back to her old ways when Charlotte convinces her to return to Rome, and when she finds herself engaged to Cecil. As I finish Forster’s lovely novel, I hope Lucy finally comes to her senses and realize she can find freedom without a high status or massive amounts of money and seek George instead.
DeleteProbably the most interesting layer of text found in the setting of “Pride and Prejudice” is the cultural values of the people. I, for one, love historical fiction like this, because I learn things about the characters in a subliminal way, and I can really become part of the story, albeit as an observer. No Mr. Darcy or Mr. Bingley for me! D:
ReplyDeleteFor one, we see that we are in Victorian England, which tells me several things – the kind of attire the people wear, the kind of language I can expect from the dialogue, the Christian-dominated society, etcetera. Therefore, when I read chapter where, out of wedlock, Lydia runs away with Mr. Wickham, I’m not surprised that the family is alarmed – not so much about the welfare of Lydia, but more so about the possibly ruined name of the Bennett family. For Lydia to run off with a man she is not married to alone is unacceptable in such a society, and not only brings shame on her, but also her family.
Not only does the setting influence the culture, but it also influences characterization. Because of the setting, the reader also expects some things of certain characters based on a few known things about them – they aren’t always correct, but they’re educated guesses. In history books we read about these evil rich lords governing over poorer serfs. While this is a totally different era, the attitude of history books toward the rich and powerful gives readers the inclination that most of the richer and high class characters during this time will be… well, uppity, stuck up, and so on. Therefore it’s no surprise to see characters like Mr. Darcy – in the beginning anyhow – and Miss Bingley, Mr. Bingley’s sister who desperately needs an attitude adjustment… but I digress. Characters like Mr. Bingley are also present, breaking the mold of expected personalities, adding a balance to the dispositions of his high-class counterparts. Likewise, we see slightly lower class folk in the book as salt-of-the-earth, rational, realistic people, which pretty much describes Lizzie and Jane. This particular mold is broken by the boy-crazy Lydia, who strives to act as though she is higher class than she is. In other words, she’s the definition of “too big for her britches.”
There are several motifs brought into play by setting – namely courting and marriage. These two motifs are so essential to the plot and help maintain the cultural values evident throughout the book. The courting appears in the short but eventful interactions between your favorite and not-so-favorite couples, such as Bingley and Jane, eventually Darcy and Elizabeth, and even, to an extent, the failed attempts of Mr. Collins to woo Elizabeth. Courting is extremely parent powered (despite the idea of courting that many girls, including myself, romanticize today), and as a young woman in Victorian England, Elizabeth was pushing the envelope just to refuse his proposal of marriage. As for marriage, it is, in this era, similar to courting in that it is very parent, rather than couple, centered. Though Elizabeth and her sisters seem to have a little more freedom in this instance, many girls at the time, like Charlotte, did not. Marriage was a way for parents to get their kids out of the house for good and reach financial stability. “Charlotte herself was tolerably composed. … [Mr. Collins’] attachment to her must be imaginary. But still he would be her husband” (Austen 104).
Heller’s Catch 22, set in World War Two, is mainly broken up into four collective settings. The four are the island of Pianosa, Rome, the hospital, and the planes during combat missions.
ReplyDeleteOn Pianosa, the characters are usually civil and, aside from several drunken misadventures and a bombing by Nately, remain safe and peaceful. Ironically, even though the entire squadron lives on an Island in the Mediterranean, there is nearly no mention of German troops and no actual Germans are ever even seen, (except during Milo’s bombing).
With no real contact with the enemy in any of the various settings, Yossarian and his fellow squadron members remain detached from the war. Although they receive reports of German activities and often bomb German ammunition dumps, actual Germans are not seen. This is a point of confusion for Yossarian, as having never met any of the Germans, he’s a man dropping bombs on strangers while strangers try to shoot him down. Yossarian and many of the other men have no real desire to fight because they have never seen German soldiers and never mention any reason why they SHOULD fight in the war.
In Pianosa, many of the men seem frightened of Yossarian because of his erratic actions, but during combat, they trust him to lead their squadron. In the hospital and on leave in Rome, the enlisted units stick together, most likely for a sense of protection and familiarity. In Pianosa, however, they often express dislike of each other that seems to vanish the second they enter combat.
Heller does not focus on the setting during his novel, preferring to describe the setting solely because character actions pertain to new locations. Heller spends far more time describing the women of Rome than he does addressing the city itself.