Background Knowledge
Example A
“During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher. I know not how it was – but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit. […] I looked upon the scene before me – upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain – upon the bleak walls – upon the vacant eye-like windows – upon a few rank sedges – and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees – with an utter depression of soul […].”
(From: Edgar Allan Poe,The Fall of the House of Usher, in: Selected Tales, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980, p. 62)
The time, a late afternoon in autumn, and the place, a solitary part of the country, establish the setting, but the season (autumn) and the time of the day (late afternoon, early dusk) simultaneously convey an impression of decline while the strange solitariness of this region is explicitly mentioned. This feeling is reinforced by the use of words such as “dull”, “dark”, “oppressive”, “melancholy”, “bleak”, “decayed” (to name but a few) which evoke a gloomy atmosphere, which is enhanced by the imagery: “the clouds hung oppressively low” and “eye-like windows” seem to be watching the solitary traveller. Thus setting and atmosphere create a sense of foreboding and a sense of doom.
Example B
“To pass between lodges of a modern appearance, to find herself with such ease in the very precincts of the abbey, and driven so rapidly along a smooth, level road of fine gravel, without obstacle, alarm or solemnity of any kind, struck her as odd and inconsistent. She was not long at leisure however for such considerations. A sudden scud of rain driving full in her face, made it impossible for her to observe any thing further, and fixed all her thoughts on the welfare of her new straw bonnet: – and she was actually under the Abbey walls, was springing, with Henry’s assistance, from the carriage, was beneath the shelter of the old porch, and had even passed on to the hall, where her friend and the General were waiting to welcome her […]. An abbey! – yes, it was delightful to be really in an abbey! – “
(From: Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey, Vol. II, Chapter V, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998, p. 127 f)
An old abbey, constitutes the setting of this scene, which takes place at the end of a long journey and thus probably at the end of the day. And yet the mood is far from being gloomy: words such as “modern”, “smooth”, “level”, “fine” underline that in spite of the setting – a Gothic abbey – the environment in which the heroine finds herself is that of a wellpreserved, comfortable country estate and instead of inspiring a sense of foreboding the abbey provides shelter from the rain. The rain itself does not symbolise dark forces either and the heroine is only concerned about her new straw bonnet.
Rather than using setting and atmosphere as a means of enforcing a sense of foreboding as it was all too often done in Gothic fiction, the author deliberately chooses this setting to satirise these novels in which place (an old castle or an old abbey), time (the end of the day) as well as the weather (raging storms) have become stock elements to evoke a gloomy atmosphere. The effect is enhanced by Austen’s humorous play with bathos when the heroine’s thoughts are solely fixed on the welfare of her new straw bonnet.
