Kidnapped N5 English
Setting
Effects of Setting
• One of the most important effects of skilful
setting descriptions is to add to the mood and
atmosphere of the described scene.
• It can then impact on, or add to the effect of,
the novel’s action - its plot…
• …as well as its characterisation, in how what
we see of how its characters react to the
setting described
Comparing and contrasting settings
• The opening chapter
• We have described to us the tranquil, safe surroundings of
his boyhood at Essendean: ‘The sun began to shine upon …
the hills … the blackbirds were whistling in the garden lilacs
… I took my last look of Kirk Essendean, the trees about the
manse, and the big rowans in the kirkyard …’
• The description here is of a peaceful and pleasant part of
the Scottish lowland countryside.
• The mood created is one of tranquillity and safety (this will
contrast sharply with the mood created by later
descriptions of settings in the novel).
Comparing and contrasting settings
• But what is David’s reaction to this safe,
tranquil setting?
• “”Why, sir,” said I…”Essendean is a good place
indeed; and I have been very happy there; but
I have never been anywhere else… to speak
the truth, if I thought I had a chance to better
myself where I was going, I would go with a
good will.”” (pages 11/12)
Comparing and contrasting settings
• So, in other words, with his parents now dead,
David feels no great affinity with or loyalty to
the place.
• His being anxious to get on and “better
himself” shows his ambitious, energetic
nature.
• Notice how he refers to Essendean as “there”:
what does this show about his feelings?
Comparing and contrasting settings
• ‘[The House of Shaws] was so dark inside, it
seemed a body could scarce breathe … I felt my
way up in the pitch darkness with a beating
heart.’
• Here we have the dark and dangerous setting of
the House of Shaws (some critics draw attention
to the Gothic elements of darkness, lightning,
storm, crumbling ancient edifice); this is where
David’s life is first in danger on his long journey.
Comparing and contrasting settings
• His enduring the climb up the tower in these
conditions shows David’s courage, but also his
niavete in allowing himself to be fooled into
being sent up an obviously dangerous and illlit staircase in the first place.
• The Gothic elements referred to above have
their effectiveness heightened by Stevenson’s
juxtapositioning of them with such a niave
character – and vice versa.
Comparing and contrasting settings
• The brig Covenant offers yet another physical environment to
help us ‘see’ David as a character.
• In the hold he is “deafened by many unfamiliar noises. There
sounded in my ears a roaring of water as of a huge mill dam;
stunning concussions, the thrashing of heavy sprays, the
thundering of the sails, and the shrill cries of seamen…it took
me a long while… to realise that I must be lying bound in the
belly of that unlucky ship…[and] there fell upon me a
blackness of despair, a horror of remorse at my own folly, and
a passion of anger at my uncle, that once more bereft me of
my senses.”
Comparing and contrasting settings
• The contrast between the bright-eyed,
hopeful lad who left Essendean and David as
we see him here could barely be more
extreme.
• This contast helps develop the novel’s plot, by
‘allowing’ such as dramatic variety of action,
and its mood (by the dramatic impact of
having such contrasting emotions felt by the
main character).
Comparing and contrasting settings
• Clearly, the most marked contrast between
settings as portrayed in the novel is that between
the Highlands and Lowlands – which is
represented through the novel’s characters in the
different temperaments of David and Alan Breck.
• There is much to say on this, but the clearest
example of difficult it can be for either of them to
‘fit’ into an alien environment is how Alan has to
take the lead in their journey through the
Highlands, but how David then is increasingly in
charge once they cross the Highland Line
Comparing and contrasting settings
• Think of the difficulty they have crossing the Firth
of Forth. Alan plans to cross via Stirling Bridge,
not appreciating that it will be heavily guarded
because it is an important site. It is difficult to
imagine that he would make this kind of
misjudgement in a location he knew better.
• Once they cross the Forth, Alan then has to wait
for David to contact Rankeillor, then depends on
David (once he has attained his wealth) to
organise his safe escape to France.