One of the essential components of any story is its setting helping the authors efficiently transmit the message. It is a place and time of the described events alongside the weather, cultural surrounding, climate, and physical landscape serving as the background of the narrative. Hence, the uniqueness of readers’ experience is significantly conditional upon the selection of setting allowing to visualize a story occurring either in real or imaginary locations.
All the specified circumstances encompassed by this notion distinguish literary works. Their impact can be clearly seen from the consideration of “Troll Bridge” by Neil Gaiman and “The Fall of The House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe. These two pieces convey the general feeling of melancholy and depression, while the authors’ manner of using setting contribute to the varying reaction and endings.
The stories start with the description of the places and their conditions, implying a change. In “Troll Bridge,” it is the reflections of a little boy on the disappearance of steam trains and the only memories of them when he was standing on the bridge with his grandmother (Gaiman, 2021). This shift indicates freedom from the outside world and the lack of connection with what the future might bring for Jack, the main character, for a while. It allows him to explore the space around him, which consists of “empty and fallow fields,” “the grounds of the empty manor beyond the fields,” and ” the path through the wood” (Gaiman, 2021). In this way, the first impressions are set as positive, and life seems full of opportunities while being sad when old things disappear.
In turn, in “The Fall of The House of Usher,” the author reflects not on the upcoming change but the one, which already happened. It can hardly be seen as “a barely perceptible fissure” on the wall but already affects the mood and the health of the house’s inhabitants (Poe, 2009, p. 6). The narrator adds these details to the already described “dull, dark, and soundless day,” thereby transmitting the “sorrowful impression” from the scenery (Poe, 2009, p. 3).
In contrast to “Troll Bridge,” the implied change in “The Fall of The House of Usher” is more obvious, and the outcome is easier to predict by paying attention to the place. In other words, the decay of the house seems irreversible, whereas Jack’s future is still ambiguous and, therefore, depends not on the surroundings but on his decisions. This difference in the setting of the stories allows to foreshadow the upcoming events, but only to an extent, since their outcomes are still negative, whereas the case of Jack seems more positive in the beginning.
Another purpose of setting in the narrative is to draw a connection between incorporated symbols and the plot to enhance readers’ understanding of the events. In “The Fall of The House of Usher,” the former includes the house itself and the grounds alongside their condition described in detail. Thus, “the vacant and eye-like windows,” “the ghastly tree-stems,” fungi, and crumbling stones contribute to the creation of an appropriate mood for the desired impression (Poe, 2009, p. 3).
These components are also included in “Troll Bridge,” but they are depicted not for illuminating the sadness and melancholy but for presenting a drastic shift from the hopes of boyhood to the disappointments of adult life. Hence, the manor with “its windows boarded up and blind” and unfamiliar woods symbolize the unknown future, and the troll bridge “paved with mud” with two meadows from both sides represents the following destruction of one’s life (Gaiman, 2021). More interestingly, a wheatfield on the character’s side seems to be the happiness of his childhood contrasted by the grass across the bridge, meaning a change for the worse.
The setting in the stories is also used to portray the individualities of characters affecting their endings. From this perspective, the details of the house in “The Fall of The House of Usher” can be viewed as the reflection of its owner’s mental condition and, consequently, his appearance. This idea correlates with the portrayal of the decay of not only the building but its interior. Hence, “a fine tangled web-work from the eaves” is complemented by scattered books and musical instruments and comfortless and tattered furniture (Poe, 2009, p. 5).
However, the gloom and madness brought by the setting make suffer not only him but also other characters in the story. In contrast to their situation, the struggles of Jack are rarely attributed to other people except for his wife, and he is the only person to encounter the troll (Gaiman, 2021). He cannot escape his fate and continuously meets this creature throughout the narrative. From this point of view, his personality is described as self-centered since he is unwilling to share his feelings and thoughts, which leads to alienation from other people.
Other common characteristics of the setting in “The Fall of The House of Usher” and “Troll Bridge” is the selfishness and loneliness of their characters expressed through external circumstances. In the former story, they are reflected in Roderick’s beliefs in the connection between his mental issues and family background. The recurring explanations of his condition through the lens of the experience of his relatives add to the impression of the extreme focus on oneself (Poe, 2009).
This fact contributes to the man’s understanding that no one can fully grasp the meaning of his sufferings (Poe, 2009). In turn, in “Troll Bridge,” they are demonstrated by the negative side of Jack’s character consuming him as a troll is taking away his life. Meanwhile, the difference from “The Fall of The House of Usher” is his independence in making decisions and conscious choices (Gaiman, 2021). He allows the troll to eat his soul, thereby showing his selfishness in the refusal to take responsibility for his family and the avoidance of mistakes. Consequently, he ends up living under the bridge as a monster observing others enjoying their lives in solitude.
In conclusion, the manner in which Neil Gaiman and Edgar Allan Poe use setting differs in several aspects while having certain similarities. They both start the narrative by providing the reader with sufficient details regarding the scenery. However, Poe’s way of depicting it implies the change, which already happened, and adds to the impression of the inevitability of consequent events. In contrast to his approach, Gaiman shows the beginning of the character’s journey, thereby leaving some space for making a change, which he does not use and fails in life. In addition, the inclusion of symbols in both stories helps grasp the meaning of the struggles of their characters.
Hence, Roderick’s mental state and Jack’s indecisiveness were transmitted through the use of external circumstances. In the end, both men were characterized as lonely and selfish, even though their life conditions differed. Thus, the setting is extremely important in stories since it allows thoroughly examining characters’ personalities and choices through a set of symbols and other techniques.
References
Gaiman, N. (2021). Tales of mystery and imagination.
Poe, E. (2009). “The fall of the house of Usher.” Poe Studies, 31(1-2), 20-26.