Setting

From LitWiki
Revision as of 04:20, 16 February 2006 by Jtaylor (talk | contribs)

Setting (set-ting) n.- The time and place in which circumstances surrounding a situation or event occurs. The setting includes time periods (1950s), location (Cuba), communities (Bronx), or worlds (sci-fi).

Setting allows the exploration of characters and their surroundings in order to better understand them. "In "Antigone" by Sophocles, the location is Thebes near Athens in front of the great palace. The story unfolds over a 24-hour time period in 441 B.C." (Mitchell-Boyask,1)From this information, the tone of the story can be detected, and the setting plays a huge role in the story line (Sophocles).

In "The Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad, the setting is a little more complicated. Because the story is a reflection of another, the setting varies. The initial story is set on a boat at the mouth of the Thames River at sunset. The story that is told by the narrator is set in various parts of the African Congo(Conrad). The setting is the key to not only to forming the story, but forming the understanding of the story for the reader.



Literary Terms

Works Cited

  • Conrad, Joseph. "Heart of Darkness."

Tuttle Publishing. February 1995.

  • Endriga, Kate. "All American: Glossary of Literary Terms."

University of North Carolina at Pembroke. 14 Febuary 2006

<http://www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/allam/general/glossary.htm>.


  • Harris, Robert. "Evaluating Internet Research Sources."

VirtualSalt. 17 Nov. 1997. 14 February 2006

<http://www.virtualsalt.com/evalu8it.htm>.


  • Mitchell-Boyask, Robin. "Study Guide for Sophocles' Antigone."

Temple University 2004. 14 February 2006

<http://www.temple.edu/classics/antigone.html>.


  • Sophocles, Paul Woodruff (translator)."Antigone."

Hackett Publishing Company September 2001.