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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:
The setting of the story is the Boston area in 1727. At this point in America’s colonial history, an earlier craze for financial speculation and investment had subsided into a minor economic depression. Under the administration of Massachusetts Governor Belcher, Irving notes, there had been “a rage for speculating,” and hopeful investors established banks, new cities, townships, and various other “get rich quick” schemes. Within a few years, however, the bubble had popped and financial hardship began to set in. As Irving writes:
In a word, the great speculating fever which breaks out every now and then in the country had raged to an alarming degree, and everybody was dreaming of making sudden fortunes from nothing. As usual, the fever had subsided, the dream had gone off, and the imaginary fortunes with it; the patients were left in doleful plight, and the whole country resounded with the consequent cry of "hard times.”
Related Themes:
