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Pathos
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 Invisible Man starts in early February in a village called Iping. Iping actually exists in the English countryside, within the county of West Sussex. In the story, the people of Iping are provincial and a caricature of small-town Britons. They speak in thick accents, are quick to believe outlandish stories, and are quick to forget them, too.
Later in the book, Griffin has a flashback to his time in London. Unlike the rural Iping, urban London is densely populated, which means that it is more dangerous for him as the Invisible Man. Crowds can bump into him, dogs can chase him, and watchful policemen can prevent him from unlawfully accessing resources—all of these things present a physical threat to him.
When Griffin is in both Iping and London, it is the dead of winter. Snowfall and freezing temperatures are part of the setting. The cold limits Griffin's ability to be invisible because it is difficult to be naked in the freezing weather. However, the events of the novel take place over many months, and so the seasons change as Griffin goes from place to place.
The final setting of the book is Port Burdock: a fictional town close to the sea. At one point, Kemp remarks that there are many invisible animals in the sea, so the sea comes to symbolize something that houses invisibility. In Port Burdock, it is summer, so Griffin is no longer limited by weather.
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