Analysing Setting — Paper 2 — IB English Literature (2015)

Setting can often reflect the underlying ideas in a play by establishing place and time in the play and in situating the drama within a culture. Setting can also be used to reflect characters’ feelings and to establish mood in a theatrical work. ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’, written by Oscar Wilde and first performed in 1895, is set in Victorian Britain and takes a satirical approach to social mores and traditions that were prevalent in the Victorian era. The playwright treats the institution of marriage and the upper-classes with triviality and one marked by profound artifice. The setting in which the action of the play takes place is deliberately crafted to sit in direct contrast with the notions often associated with the upper-classes. ‘The Birthday Present’, written by Harold Pinter and first performed in 1957, is set in an unspecified time and place in Britain which is indicative of the playwright’s style and the theme of state oppression and anonymity are reflected by the setting, which remains constant through the entire play in adherence to Aristotle’s theory on ‘unity of place’.

In Act One of The Importance of Being Earnest, the themes of artifice and aesthete are reflected by the morning room of Algernon’s London residence. A morning room is typically found in private houses where guests are to be received and is normally one of many sitting rooms in which guests can congregate. The room is “luxuriously and artistically furnished” and this image of an elaborately embellished setting establishes Algernon’s upper class status and reveals his aesthetic tastes. The irony, however, is that this setting, which is characterised by artful decor is subverted by Algernon’s exchange with his servant, Lane. He openly admits to having drank some of his master’s champagne and instead of displaying subservience as one might expect from a domestic servant in nineteenth-century Britain, he responds to Algernon’s inquisition regarding the missing champagne with a superficial remark about “the superior quality of the wine”, to which Algernon’s reciprocates with an equally casual comment on marriage as being “demoralising”, which would also have been an unconventional view during the Victorian era. This subversion of roles in which the servant is seemingly more of his master’s social equal as opposed to his inferior is comic.

Later in Act One, both Algernon and Jack childishly brawl over a cigarette case, a prop that generates much the scene’s comedy and highlights the characters’ irresponsibility. Jack describes Algernon’s alleged hoarding of his cigarette case as being “ungentlemanly” in the hope that this will cause Algernon to return it to him. Interestingly, Jack’s tactic to retrieve his cigarette case is to appeal to Algernon’s status as a budding gentleman as it is indicative of how men of his status were expected to have a strong sense of social responsibility and a deep-seated morality. None of these qualities, however, can be found in Algernon and so Jack’s futile attempt at persuading him this way is both ironic and comic since expected norms are once more comically reversed.

In Act 2, we are introduced to a garden setting, which is used to establish the idea that the characters are refined, albeit superficially. The superficiality of the characters are captured when Cecily and Gwendolen similarly brawl over more props on stage. In repartee spirit both women seek to score points off each other by targeting each others’ weak points. Cecily’s weak point is that she is from the country, which was generally perceived as being less sophisticated than the city from which Gwendolen generates much of her esteem. Gwendolen’s weak point is that Cecily is formidable both in speech and appearance and is able to rebut every one of Gwendolen’s disdainful remarks like her contempt for Cecily’s associations with typical farming equipment like a “spade”.

This contest is further embodied in the brief exchange where Gwendolen comments that she “cannot understand how anybody manages to exist in the country” since it “bores [her] to death”, to which Cecily replies by sophisticatedly terming Gwendolen’s description as “agricultural depression” and remarks that the “aristocracy are suffering very much from it” as well, which is an implicit but nonetheless direct affront to Gwendolen given her aristocratic status. Both women deliver perfectly balanced sentences (as one would expect from an Oscar Wilde character), which establishes their higher social status but it is clear that behind their veneer of social propriety hides a potential for violence and this veneer collapses almost completely once they begin bickering over the “tea and cakes” and their shared love for “Earnest”. Gwendolen: “You have filled my tea with three lumps of sugar […] I am known for the gentleness of my disposition […] I warn you, Miss Cardew, you may go too far.” Cecily replies to this implicit threat saying “To save my poor, innocent, trusting boy […] there are no lengths to which I would not go.” In this exchange, it is clear that both women are willing to abandon traditional notions of etiquette to secure their lover whom they have mismatched.

In Act One of ‘The Birthday Party’, the setting is introduced as being a boarding house in an unspecified British “seaside town”. The tenants, Meg and Petey, have inconsequential exchanges that are complemented by the ordinariness of the setting. Particular features of the set: “the hatch”, “the kitchen” and plain foods such as “cornflakes” and “fried bread” all establish their working class status. Furthermore, the theme of anonymity is reflected by Stanley residing in this seemingly isolated shack given that he is its only occupant. Meg and Petey pose no threat to him, which is highlighted by their banal dialogues in which, for example, Meg repeatedly questions Petey about whether he has enjoyed his “cornflakes” and “plain bread” to which he replies with a monosyllabic “Very nice”. Meg timidly inquires about Stanley’s reason for not coming down earlier before succumbing to her maternal instincts and asks whether he has “slept well” and remarking that he will be “lonely without her”. The couple’s passivity Stanley’s indolence make him exempt from any social obligations, which makes him an inevitable target of the “state”.

All of this changes, however, with the advent of Goldberg and McCann upset the mundanity of this setting by encroaching on Stanley’s territory. At the start of the play, the boarding house functions as a safe haven for Stanley but both Goldberg and McCann’s arrival agitates Stanley to the extent that he desperately attempts to leave the house to avoid encountering the two men but not before McCann intercepts him. What is interesting here is that the house in which Stanley found refuge morphs into a tribunal where Stanley stands accused of a catalogue of crimes in the interrogation scene in Act Two. This is accomplished through the play’s unity of place and the dichotomy of the setting’s function in relation to the protagonist reflects the theme of state oppression and the Stanley’s need to escape his pursuers.

During the interrogation, Goldberg and McCann use Stanley’s environment against him. McCann, for example, “snatches” Stanley’s glasses which leaves him visually impaired as the two “stand on each side of the chair” in which Stanley is seated. Visually, this image is disturbing as we can visualise the distress Stanley is experiencing and this discomfort is almost immediately generated as soon as Stanley is reduced to this sedentary and thus inferior position. Much like an actual victim being interrogated for an actual crime would be. The setting is key to accomplish this disturbing scene and underscores the menacing nature of Stanley’s two accusers.