217),for example,there is no indication that the outstandishly attired conspirators, who move easily through the streets of colonial Boston,are confused in the slightest by the city.Ye Robin Molineux,Hawthorne's young protagonist,most certainly is. For Robin,the city is scarcely real;he is almost "ready to believe that a spell was on him".The dark "crooked and narrow"streets seem to lead nowhere,and the disorienting moonlight,so perfect for carrying out of clandestine activities,serves only to make "the forms of distant objects"fade away "with almost ghostly indistinctness,just as his eye appeared to grasp them".The urban landscape perfectly mirrors Robin's growing sense of isolation,loneliness,frustration,and confusion An author can also clarify and reveal character by deliberately making setting a metaphoric or symbolic extension of character.A case in point is found in Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher.Poe begins his story with the famous passage that includes a reference to the "barely perceptible fissure"extending the full length of the house"until it became lost in the sullen waters of the tarn".As the events of the story's plot proceed to make clear,Roderick and his house are both in an advanced state of internal disintegration.Setting and character are one:the house objectifies,and in this way serves to clarify,its master. 5.Setting as a means of reinforcing theme Setting can also be used as a means of reinforcing and clarifying the theme of a novel or short story.In Stephen Crane's The Blue Hotel,the palace hotel standing alone on the prairie,with its light blue color,is pictured as "always screaming and howling in a way that made the dazzling winter landscape of Nebraska seem only a gray swampish hush."The reader subsequently discovers that this setting has direct thematic relevance to Crane's conception of the relationship between man and nature, in which an individual's survival(and,ironically,at times his destruction)depends on a capacity for self-assertion,much in the way that the blue hotel asserts his lonely presence against the stark,inhospitable Nebraska landscape.217), for example, there is no indication that the outstandishly attired conspirators, who move easily through the streets of colonial Boston, are confused in the slightest by the city. Ye Robin Molineux, Hawthorne’s young protagonist, most certainly is. For Robin, the city is scarcely real; he is almost “ready to believe that a spell was on him”. The dark “crooked and narrow” streets seem to lead nowhere, and the disorienting moonlight, so perfect for carrying out of clandestine activities, serves only to make “the forms of distant objects” fade away “with almost ghostly indistinctness, just as his eye appeared to grasp them”. The urban landscape perfectly mirrors Robin’s growing sense of isolation, loneliness, frustration, and confusion. An author can also clarify and reveal character by deliberately making setting a metaphoric or symbolic extension of character. A case in point is found in Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher. Poe begins his story with the famous passage that includes a reference to the “barely perceptible fissure” extending the full length of the house “until it became lost in the sullen waters of the tarn”. As the events of the story’s plot proceed to make clear, Roderick and his house are both in an advanced state of internal disintegration. Setting and character are one: the house objectifies, and in this way serves to clarify, its master. 5. Setting as a means of reinforcing theme Setting can also be used as a means of reinforcing and clarifying the theme of a novel or short story. In Stephen Crane’s The Blue Hotel, the palace hotel standing alone on the prairie, with its light blue color, is pictured as “always screaming and howling in a way that made the dazzling winter landscape of Nebraska seem only a gray swampish hush.” The reader subsequently discovers that this setting has direct thematic relevance to Crane’s conception of the relationship between man and nature, in which an individual’s survival (and, ironically, at times his destruction) depends on a capacity for self-assertion, much in the way that the blue hotel asserts his lonely presence against the stark, inhospitable Nebraska landscape