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Satire
Definition of Setting
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or it can be an imagined... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the... read full definition
Setting
Explanation and Analysis:
This short story is set at Canterville Chase, in England, sometime during the late Victorian period. The story itself was published in 1887, during the Industrial Revolution and nearing the turn of the 20th century. Consequently, the story engages thematically with the idea that older traditions or superstitions are being abandoned by contemporary, progressive (in the quite literal meaning of the word) society. For Wilde’s purposes, the Americans represent this industrializing, modernizing element, while the British aristocracy—and other aspects of European traditionalism—are left to the past. Aspects of modernity, including the increased prevalence of advertising and production, manifest clearly in the Otis family’s behavior, as they offer the ghost all manner of tinctures and manufactured goods.
