266
EDWARD MARCOTTE
which to locate an action, seems to be as important as character
itself. There is usually a strong romantic strain in novelists of this
type. Among modern writers Lawrence Durrell and Boris Paster–
nak seem to fall into this category. But the tendency is particu–
larly evident, nowadays at least, in works of a somewhat second–
ary status, notably in the genre novel, the Gothic romance, the
western, the science fiction novel, all of which are in large measure
defined by their setting.
As an example of preoccupation with setting within a literary
classic we might consider this passage from the beginning pages of
Wuthen·ng Heights:
Wuthering Heights is the name of Mr. Heathcliff's dwelling.
"Wuthering" being a significant provincial adjective, descrip–
tive of the atmospheric tumult to which its station is exposed
in stormy weather. Pure, bracing ventilation they must have
up there, at all times, indeed: one may guess the power of the
north wind, blowing over the edge, by the excessive slant of a
few stunted firs at the end of the house; and by a range of
gaunt thorns all stretching their limbs one way, as if craving
alms of the sun. Happily, the architect had foresight to build
it strong: the narrow windows are deeply set in the wall, and
the corners defended with large jutting stones .
It would be easy (and natural, in terms of our orientation and
our schooling in the devices of romantic fiction) to analyze this
passage and others like it along the old familiar lines of foreshad–
owing, symbolism, "parallels to the moods of the actors," etc. I'm
sure this very paragraph has been subjected to such analysis thou–
sands of times. But what we are doing, by virtue of a kind of
anthropomorphism, is delivering the scene over to the protago–
nists, making it subservient to them and to the human drama they
will enact upon these premises. The procedure can be extended :
the character in turn is appropriated to fulfill some
action,
all of
which incorporates itself into a
plot,
which in its turn is illustrative
of some general truth, or
idea.
What we have done is to pursue a
system of bracketing to a central schema, a kind of nucleus of the
action. But a novel isn't its theme or its schema. (It would be more
appropriate to say that the novel, rather than being the flesh that
