Notes

-> Setting: In literature, the word ‘setting’ is used to identify and establish the time, place and mood of the events of the story. It basically helps in establishing where and when and under what circumstances the story is taking place.
- example: In Joseph Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness, the leading character Marlow goes to different places and settings that influence his imagination and adds to the themes of the story. The title, Heart of Darkness, refers to center of the jungle in African continent, where Marlowe travels to find Kurtz. The darkness not only applies to shadowy jungle, it also applies to the behavior and actions of the civilized people it affects, and they become savage like Kurtz. The setting is also symbolic of imperialistic forces that have made the black men their slaves.

->Theme: Theme is defined as a main idea or an underlying meaning of a literary work that may be stated directly or indirectly.
- example: Love and friendship are frequently occurring themes in literature. They generate emotional twists and turns in a narrative and can lead to a variety of endings: happy, sad or bittersweet. The following are famous literary works with love and friendship themes:

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

-> Irony: Irony is a figure of speech in which words are used in such a way that their intended meaning is different from the actual meaning of the words. It may also be a situation that may end up in quite a different way than what is generally anticipated. In simple words, it is a difference between the appearance and the reality.

- example:“Upon the murderer I invoke this curse – whether he is one man and all unknown,
Or one of many – may he wear out his life in misery to miserable doom!”
Greek drama “Oedipus Rex” written by “Sophocles”