Setting - EdexcelHow setting is used

In this extract from Charles Dickens's Great Expectations, the description of the weather creates a negative atmosphere.

Day after day, a vast heavy veil had been driving over London from the East, and it drove still, as if in the East there were an Eternity of cloud and wind. So furious had been the gusts, that high buildings in town had had the lead stripped off their roofs; and in the country, trees had been torn up, and sails of windmills carried away; and gloomy accounts had come in from the coast, of shipwreck and death. Violent blasts of rain had accompanied these rages of wind, and the day just closed as I sat down to read had been the worst of all.

Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, Chapter 39

Example analysis

• The use of the metaphor, “…a vast heavy veil…” makes the weather seem oppressive.
• The use of the adjective “vast” creates a subtle alliteration with the noun “veil”, highlighting the contrast of a delicate item with the word “heavy”.
• The long, multi-clause sentence at the start of the extract underlines the relentless feel of the “...cloud and wind.”
• The writer also uses personification - “So furious had been the gusts…rages of wind…”
• The words ‘furious’ and ‘rages’ establish a feeling of gloom, as if the weather’s emotions are mirroring the accounts of “…shipwreck and death.”
• The noun phrase “…violent blasts of rain” also creates a negative atmosphere, the word ‘blasts’ creates a harsh, physical impression on the reader.
• This is reinforced by a general semantic field of violence - “…stripped…torn…blasts…rages.”
• The structure of the paragraph also establishes the grim, relentless mood. For example, it starts with the phrase “Day after day…” and includes the frequent repetition of the connective ‘and’.
• The final phrase “…worst of all” leaves the reader with a lasting, negative impression of the setting.