How do I answer a question about setting?
Setting is a common technique used by authors to create an image in a reader's mind. Ask yourself the question, if I was in the setting that has been described by this author: 'what would I expect to see there?' 'what else is implied?' but most of all 'how would I feel if I was there?' and 'how does the author want their readership to feel?' Once you've established the general effect of the setting, as a literary critic, you can begin to question how the author achieved this through their presentation of setting asking who? (who is there? is it written to the reader inclusively or is it a general description) what? (what is pointed out by the author?), where? (where have they chosen to set the plot, in someone's personal space? a place between two or more people? an indoor setting? an outdoor setting? or a town/city/country?), when? (some context, such as time of day, the season or even the date may affect the image created by the author) and why? (why does the author choose these things to describe?) Lastly, zoom even further in. What I mean by this is, what specifically has been described which creates setting. For example, in chapter 2 of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde:
II. Search for Mr. Hyde
THAT evening Mr. Utterson came home to his bachelor house in sombre spirits and sat down to dinner without relish. It was his custom of a Sunday, when this meal was over, to sit close by the fire, a volume of some dry divinity on his reading-desk, until the clock of the neighbouring church rang out the hour of twelve, when he would go soberly and gratefully to bed. On this night, however, as soon as the cloth was taken away, he took up a candle and went into his business-room.
If this extract was presented to you in an exam, you could analyse the use of the term 'bachelor' which has connotations (associations) with manliness and loneliness which is then enforced by the use of the adjectives 'sombre' and 'relish'. Why has the author chosen a Sunday? Perhaps because it indicates a day of rest and he would like the reader to observe this. Then there is the mention of the fire and bed, which creates a cosy environment, one which would create a sensation of home and comfort. When Robert Louis Stevenson then suddenly uses 'however', it shatters the illusion of comfort and purposefully takes us away from that in the next sentence, leading us to believe that he does not want the reader to feel a sense of comfort. He essentially used setting to show the lack of comfort in the scene ahead, rather than simply telling the reader.
SUMMARY: when answering a question on setting, always ask how and why? what is the purpose of using setting? Begin from looking at the bigger picture and then zooming in on specific descriptions.
