The Importance Of Setting

You grab your favorite suit, which you prepared the night before, along with a towel and saunter into the bathroom. After showering and perfectly setting your hair and make-up you go down-stairs where you find your breakfast already prepared. Your significant other is reading the morning paper, while awaiting your arrival. Upon first glance he pronounces, as if to the world, how beautiful you look. On your way to work you notice a magnificent and harmonious looking rainbow. When you walk into your office you find an exquisitely designed floral arrangement. Just as you finish reading the attached love letter, your best friend bursts into your office bubbling with joy as she recounts the events of her weekend adventure. When she is finished, she gives you her most pathetic look and requests that you pay her back the owed favor by covering her 5:00PM meeting today. You respond to this request by smiling and telling her that you would gladly help her out. Now, why such a dramatic change in response? The obvious answer is the change in setting, or preceding circumstances.
             To understand and explain why setting is the key that either helps or impedes the progression of love, within the following six pieces of literature, we must first comprehend the three possible definitions of the word setting. On page 1256 in the glossary of the Anthology, Lives Through Literature, the definition of setting is stated as, "The depiction of the place in which a story, play, or poem occurs; may include general environment, spiritual atmosphere, geographic location, time of day, (and/or) historical era." In the Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, setting is defined as, "the time, place, and circumstances in which something occurs or develops." Although a work of literature may have all forms of setting, there is usually one dominant form.
             The story, "The Myth of Cupid and Psyche" by Lucius Apuleius, is one example of setting based on circumstance.