Why Is Setting Important In Literature

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Growth and deterioration are common in relationships, and just as common in literature. Through these changes, the setting of the relationship can play a defining part in the grand scheme of relationships in literature. Setting plays an important role in developing and destroying relationships. In works such as Tess of the D’Ubervilles, Wuthering Heights, and “Dating”, the positive and negative effects of setting to a relationship are shown. In the growth of relationships, the setting can aid the characters in their desired endeavour. In Tess of the D’Ubervilles by Thomas Hardy, the characters of Angel and Tess fall in love. They’re both outcasting themselves from society, and in the serenity and peace of the dairy farm, both find a happiness …show more content…

In the case of Heathcliff and Catherine of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, Catherine and Heathcliff live a moderately happy and carefree childhood together. They live together at Wuthering Heights, and despite the happiness of their youth, the setting where their love originated changes drastically as time passes. Hardy states, “The little souls were comforting each other with better thoughts than I could have hit on”(55). The setting is a positive notion despite the circumstances in the building of Heathcliff and Catherine's relationship starting at the beginning, and allows room for the relationships to evolve. In the article “Dating” by Beth Bailey, setting is seen as time progressing, and the area in which courtship or dating took place.This shows the advancement of dating and courtship from the early 1900’s to today. It shows that through time, changes in dating were, for the most part, positive in nature. Bailey states, “Dating, which to the privileged and protected would seem a system of increased freedom and possibility, stemmed originally from …show more content…

As is seen in Tess of the D’Ubervilles, the setting is a great backdrop for foreshadowing. For example, when Alec comes to “rescue” Tess from her fellow workers, it is dark, and somewhat gloomy. As the chapter progresses, the setting grows dimmer until they are in The Chase. Thomas Hardy uses The Chase and descriptive setting to foreshadow and paint the picture of what is happening to Tess. *INSERT QUOTE FROM TESS HERE*. Here the setting is exactly how Hardy wants to express his views to the reader. Dark, gloomy, foreboding, and ultimately wrong, is the negative feeling shown. It shows the relationship of Alec and Tess in contrast to that of Angel and Tess in later chapters; An unwanted darkness that ultimately destroys Tess. From where they began, the mild relationship Alec and Tess may have had deteriorates with the negative setting. For the reader, the setting in The Chase clarifies any mystery of how toxic the relationship between Alec and Tess is. Much is the same in Bronte's relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff. Their relationship is undefined in words yet through time the truth is revealed. One major point in their relationship is when the pair sneaks to Thrushcross Grange and ultimately Catherine returns to Wuthering Heights greatly changed. Until this point, the friendship between Heathcliff and Catherine had been relatively untouched, and

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