READING SKILLS 3.3

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Character and Setting

The term fiction refers to writing that’s the product of someone’s imagination. Fiction uses pretend or created characters, rather than actual or real people. The category of fiction includes short stories, novellas, and novels.

A short story is a tale with a fully developed theme, which can be read in one sitting. A novella is longer than a short story but shorter than a novel. Finally, a novel is a lengthy fictional story.

Fiction always includes characters and setting. Characters are the people that authors create for their stories. Setting refers to the place and time a story occurs. Settings in fiction may be real or imagined places, or a combination of both. For example, in Frank L. Baum’s The Wizard of Oz, the main character, Dorothy, travels from Kansas (a real place) to the Land of Oz (an imaginary place).

Writers explain their characters by revealing the characters’ traits, motives, and feelings. For example, readers of The Wizard of Oz learn that Dorothy’s character traits are bravery and cheerfulness. They also learn that she wants to return to her home in Kansas. That’s her motive—the reason she does what she does in the story. Finally, readers learn that Dorothy has different kinds of feelings. She’s delighted and curious about the amazing Land of Oz, but she’s also lonely because she knows “there’s no place like home.”

Sometimes settings are very important to stories. For example, think again about The Wizard of Oz. The story begins in Kansas just as a tornado is threatening. The tornado plays an extremely important role in the story. Without it, Dorothy would never have arrived in Oz. The Land of Oz is also very critical to the action, since it’s a magical place, where scarecrows and tin men come to life.

In other stories, the characters stand out more than the settings. For example, a modern romance story won’t depend as much on the setting as it will on how the characters deal with each other.

To help you understand the elements of character and setting, you’ll read and study a very short fairy tale, “The Little Match Girl,” written by Hans Christian Andersen. We’ve divided the story into parts so that we can talk about it as we go along.

The Little Match Girl

Once upon a time, a little girl tried to make a living by selling matches in the street. It was New Year’s Eve and the snow-clad streets were deserted. From brightly lit windows came the tinkle of laughter and the sound of singing. People were getting ready to bring in the New Year. But the poor little match seller sat sadly beside the fountain. Her ragged dress and worn shawl did not keep out the cold and she tried to keep her bare feet from touching the frozen ground.

She hadn’t sold one box of matches all day and she was frightened to go home, for her father would certainly be angry. It would not be much warmer anyway, in the draughty attic that was her home. The little girl’s fingers were stiff and cold. If only she could light a match! But what would her father say at such a waste!

Falteringly, she took out a match and lit it. What a nice warm flame! The little match seller cupped her hand over it, and as she did so, she magically saw in its light a big brightly burning stove. She held out her hands to the heat, but just then the match went out and the vision faded. The night seemed blacker than before and it was getting colder. A shiver ran through the little girl’s thin body.

The author introduces several important things in the opening of the story. First, it’s a cold winter night. Second, the main character, the little girl, is poor. Her poverty is evident in the fact that she sells matches for only pennies, plus she’s barefoot and poorly clad for the winter weather. Third, the little girl is afraid to go home because she believes her father will be angry with her for not selling any matches. Her fear indicates that the little girl’s father isn’t very kind or loving. Fourth, the little girl lights a match. When she does, a magical thing happens. She has a vision of a “brightly burning stove,” and she’s temporarily transported from her place by the fountain to a place that isn’t real. Sadly, her vision quickly disappears the moment the match burns out, and then everything seemed darker and colder to the little girl.

Now, continue reading the story.

After hesitating for a long time, she struck another match on the wall, and this time, the glimmer turned the wall into a great sheet of crystal. Beyond that stood a fine table laden with food and lit by a candlestick.

Holding out her arms towards the plates, the little match seller seemed to pass through the glass, but then the match went out and the magic faded. Poor thing: In just a few seconds she had caught a glimpse of everything that life had denied her—warmth and good things to eat. Her eyes filled with tears and she lifted her gaze to the lit windows, praying that she too might know a little of such happiness.

A glimmer is a small light or sparkle. In this case, it’s the light from the match.

The little girl is in a terrible situation. She’s beginning to burn her matches, in an attempt to stay warm. But something else is happening. As she lights the second match, a new vision appears. What do you think these visions mean? The visions seem to stand for those things that the little girl doesn’t have in her life. She’s cold and hungry and she sees a vision of warmth and food. She weeps and prays that she may have the happiness of being warm and well-fed.

Read on, now, to the end of the story.

She lit the third match and an even more wonderful thing happened. There stood a Christmas tree hung with hundreds of candles, glittering with tinsel and colored balls.

“Oh, how lovely!” exclaimed the little match seller, holding up the match.

Then, the match burned her finger and flickered out. The light from the Christmas candles rose higher and higher. Then one of the lights fell, leaving a trail behind it.

“Someone is dying,” murmured the little girl, as she remembered her beloved Granny who used to say: “When a star falls, a heart stops beating!”

Scarcely aware of what she was doing, the little match seller lit another match. This time, she saw her grandmother.

“Granny, stay with me!” she pleaded, as she lit one match after the other, so that her grandmother could not disappear like all the other visions.

However, Granny did not vanish, but gazed smilingly at her. Then she opened her arms and the little girl hugged her crying: “Granny, take me away with you!”

A cold day dawned and a pale sun shone on the fountain and the icy road. Close by lay the lifeless body of a little girl surrounded by spent matches.

“Poor little thing!” exclaimed the passersby. “She was trying to keep warm!”

But by that time, the little match seller was far away where there is neither cold, hunger, nor pain.

The story continues as the little girl burns match after match. The story ends with her lifeless body lying on the ground surrounded by burnt matches. A passerby exclaims that she died trying to keep warm by burning matches, but is that really what happened? No, she was burning match after match to hold on to the vision of her beloved Granny.

The passerby said the little girl was a “poor little thing.” Is that what the writer wanted to express? As the reader, you must decide. The story is sad because the little girl was poor and had no one to help her stay warm and fed. On the other hand, the little girl passed beyond this world to a better place—perhaps to be with her Granny—a place “where there is neither cold, hunger, nor pain.”

Plot, Conflict, and Theme

As you've just seen, characters and settings are very important to fiction. However, three other elements are also critical parts of a good story: plot, conflict, and theme. The term plot refers to the sequence of events in a story—that is, what the story is about. Conflict refers to the issue to be resolved in a story. Finally, theme refers to the main point of the story. It’s the message the writer is trying to convey. To illustrate each of these elements, let’s outline the plot of The Count of Monte Cristo, a classic novel by Alexander Dumas.

A young man, Edmund Dantes, is looking forward to marrying his sweetheart, the beautiful Mercedes. Although he’s young and uneducated, he’s about to become captain of a sailing vessel. Unfortunately, things do not go as planned. On his way back to France, Dantes is asked to carry a letter from the island of Elba. At that time, the former emperor of France, Napoleon Bonaparte, was imprisoned there, looking forward to returning from exile to claim power once again. That scheme is what the letter is about. Of course, Dantes doesn’t know this. Since he’s unable to read, he couldn’t read the letter if he wanted to. A close friend of Dantes betrays him to a corrupt politician named Villefort. Even though he has no knowledge of any political plot, Dantes is charged with conspiracy. He ends up in a prison at Villefort’s orders. The twist is that Villefort is involved in the plan to bring Napoleon back to power.

Dantes spends 14 years in prison. His family and Mercedes are told that he is dead. While in prison, Dantes meets a wise inmate, the Abbé Faria, who teaches him how to read and write and tells Dantes of a fabulous treasure on the island of Monte Cristo.

With the help of Abbé Faria, Dantes eventually figures out who betrayed him and why. As his knowledge grows, so does his determination to escape and to take revenge on his enemies. At last, he makes a daring escape and finds the treasure of Monte Cristo.

Since no one knows he’s alive, Dantes uses his great wealth to make himself the awesome Count of Monte Cristo. Step by step, Edmund works cleverly to turn his enemies against each other. Gradually, he gains revenge over all of them, including the evil Villefort.

In the movie version of this story, Dantes decides that love is more important than revenge. He renews his love for Mercedes, and they live happily ever after. The original book has a different ending. You might want to get a copy and find out what it is!

An abbé is a member of the French clergy.

A protagonist is the main character in a story.

From this short description of The Count of Monte Cristo, you can recognize the plot. A good plot helps you see the characters as the story develops. For example, the protagonist, Edmund Dantes, goes from being a decent, uneducated man to a wealthy, educated man bent on vengeance.

Within the plot, you can also see the character’s conflicts. Conflicts are generally problems a character must confront and resolve. The conflicts for Dantes include coping with betrayal, surviving in prison, and with the help of the abbé, bettering himself in order to plan an escape, carry it off, and create a new life.

The main conflict for Dantes is the deep feeling of anger driving him to seek revenge. In fact, that main conflict is also the main theme of the story. In one word, the theme of The Count of Monte Cristo is revenge, specifically the nature and cost of revenge and what it does to the human soul.