Setting includes all of the physical aspects of the story:

• the time of day
• the time of year
• the geographical location of the story
• the climate and weather at the time of the story
• the historical period of the action
• the immediate surroundings of the characters
  • the characters' clothing
  • the characters' homes, offices, favorite places
  • the important objects in the characters' lives

Setting functions as :

• an antagonist, a way to establish plot conflict and determine the outcome of events
  • the sea in Moby Dick by Herman Melville
• a means of creating atmosphere
  • New Orleans in the novels of Anne Rice
• a means of revealing character
  • Gatsby's mansion in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• a means of reinforcing theme
  • the town and the forest in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Sometimes the setting is an essential element of the story; sometimes the setting can take on aspects of character in a story. Think of the following settings and how they are intricate parts of their stories:

• the Mississippi River in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• Puritan New England in The Scarlet Letter
• Yoknapatawpha County in the novels of William Faulkner