Essay Samplr on The Importance of Setting in Literature

The definition of setting, according to Google, is “the location and time frame in which the action of a narrative takes place.” The setting is also important because it enhances the reader's experience and adds to the story's development with plot, mood, and characters.” The first element of the setting is time. Time is when and where the story takes place. The second element is mood. Mood can affect the reader in many ways, for example, if it’s a sunny day the mood could be joyful, but if the mood is gloomy, it could anticipate that the story is depressing or daunting. Third, the characters also play a part in the setting. Depending on what the story is about, the characters’ actions, thoughts, and feelings participate in giving the reader a view into their lives and giving a better understanding of the story. The story “Luke Havergal”, written by Edwin Arlington Robinson, is a poem about a grieving man who is being tempted by a voice in a graveyard to kill himself and become reunited with a deceased woman he once loved. This story introduces the setting by using mood. The mood is sought to be mysterious, yet haunting with clues of the author using a depressing tone and words of negative connotation. Edwin Arlington Robinson in his poem “Luke Havergal” uses symbolism to show the gate in the story to actually resemble death or hell. Although “Luke Havergal” is a short poem that doesn’t seem much to meet the eye, it truly resembles a deeper meaning to the thought of suicide for serious love. This is a perfect example of how characters take part in the setting. First, author Edgar Allen Poe in his short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, brings attention to the setting of his tale by using adjectives such as gloomy and mysterious to describe the house and the family living in it. For example, the narrator states “I entered the gothic archway of the hall” (297). He also explains the house by saying “While the objects around me—while the carvings on the ceilings, the somber tapestries of the walls, the ebon blackness of the floors, and the phantasmagoric armorial trophies which rattled as I strode, were but matters to which, or to such as which, I had been accustomed from my infancy.” (297). Poe uses this type of writing technique through many of his central themes to reflect the influence of Romanticism; he also reflects on events and emotions that he has experienced himself. In the story, “The Devil and Tom Walker” the setting is represented by the characters in ways that show that the Devil is a temptation and Tom and his wife represent greed. This takes place near Boston in 1727 which is a very different time period than what we live in today; The 17th century was a period of endless disturbance and fierce storms, no less in literature than in politics and society. Later in the story, Tom symbolizes hypocrisy when he is attending church but still collecting mortgages. The way that this character’s actions contribute to the story is not very different from how the characters in the poem “Luke Havergal” were. That quote “The devil take me” (338), are Tom's last words moments before he is sent off to hell on the back of a black horse. This is the moment when Tom Walker truly becomes just as bad as the devil himself; he's a liar, a cheater, a miser, and a man who has lost his morals entirely. At this moment, there is no chance of redemption for Tom, and with these words, he himself calls the devil to come to take him.