Analysis of Setting in Fay Weldon's "IND AFF"

Fay Weldon, author of the short story, “IND AFF”, uses setting as the chief means of portraying her theme. She does so to the point that the effectiveness of the theme becomes dependent on the setting, therefore making the setting inextricably linked to the theme. The realization of one’s errors and of second chances, a realization triggered by the consideration of consequences, is the theme of “IND AFF”. In order to express this idea, Weldon specifically uses the country, time period, weather, and physical setting, with each specific element of setting serving its own purpose but all coming back to achieve a common goal: portraying the theme.

Perhaps the most obvious use of setting includes the mentioning of the country in which the story takes place. The couple is traveling and during the story they are in Sarajevo in Yugoslavia long after the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Weldon also weaves in the story about the young, nationalistic Princip who carried out the assassination in Yugoslavia in 1914. By setting the story in the same place where the assassination occurred the author is clearly drawing parallels between Princip’s and the narrator’s situations. Sarajevo is a place in which the realization of error did not occur that fateful summer in 1914. The idea of a second chance lost now resonates in the city. The narrator notes, “…two footprints which mark the spot where the young assassin Princip stood to shoot the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife” (Weldon 201). The footprints serve as a lasting physical manifestation of the idea of consequence and not realizing the error of one’s ways. That is why it is appropriate and necessary that the story takes place here. The narrator’s own realization is therefore facilitated by the aura of consequence that exists in Sarajevo. This dependency on setting in order to bring on the narrator’s realization exemplifies why setting is so necessary, to the point where it becomes inextricable.

Weather is a major constituent of setting, and Weldon takes advantage of this. The narrator describes the weather in Sarajevo as rainy, notes “black clouds” (202) overhead. The black clouds represent impending trouble, in this case the loss of love that occurs between the professor and the narrator. Rain comes with connotations of purification. In this case the rain’s purification leads to realization of error. In a way, the rain washes away all that clouds the narrator’s view, all that prevents her from coming to a realization. She reveals that she and the professor, “sheltered from the rain in an ancient mosque in Serbian Belgrade; done the same in a monastery in Croatia; now we spent a wet couple of days in Sarajevo beneath other people’s umbrellas” (202). Based on the connotation of rain, the narrator and the professor were avoiding such purification. They did not want to acknowledge their error. The narrator mentions that, “…it seemed as if by common consent a shield of bobbing umbrellas had been erected two meters high to keep the rain off the streets. It just hadn’t worked around Princip’s corner.” (202). The rain falling on Princip’s footprints represents the purification that had occurred allowing the error of Princip’s behavior to be realized; only in that case it was too late.

One of the physical locations of the story, the restaurant, is particularly significant. Meals take place in restaurants and meals typically symbolize acts of communion and bonding, according to Thomas C. Foster in How to Read Literature like a Professor. Therefore failed meals hold opposite connotations. This is why it is necessary to set the narrator’s moment realization and therefore, loss of love, in a restaurant. The restaurant also serves another specific purpose. The narrator mentions that after Princip’s initial failed assassination attempt, he “…vanished into the crowd and gone to sit down in a corner café and ordered coffee to calm his nerves” (205). The two points in time clearly parallel each other. The restaurant is established as a place of second chances. So, naturally this is an ideal and necessary setting for the narrator’s realization of second chances. As a result of the symbolism of the restaurant, the theme now has even further dependence on setting.

Weldon ties setting and theme in such a way that they become inextricable from each other. The effective portrayal of theme depends heavily on the specifics of the story’s setting. The interdependence of the constituents of a story is necessary in order for the story to be effective. By intertwining setting and theme Weldon exemplifies the importance and relevance of setting in literature, a point that can not be overlooked.