When and where is the story set? Why might this be?

When and where is the story set? Why might this be?

The Erl King follows the story of a girl entering a forest, meeting the Erl King (who then turns her into a bird) and she then ends up killing him.  The tale is set within a forest which is often described in great detail to have a variety of effects. However, the time period is not mentioned at all during the telling of the story (just the period of the year) this could be thought to have been done for a reason to reflect certain things.

The open of this story begins with a highly detailed description of a forest such as ‘it struck the woods with nicotine stained fingers’ the description of the setting this way is key. The description of the ‘nicotine stained fingers’ is something that is associated with humans, which could be considered to mean that it is in fact symbolic of man’s influence on nature. As it is described to ‘struck’ which is very aggressive language associated to physical abuse, which could be interpreted to show humanities negative influence on nature. This setting description also links to the gothic genre of the text as the description is something that is associated with decay and death, with death being a key part of the gothic genre. In this way this opening could be interpreted to be an attempt to awaken the public to man’s influence to negative, which at time was a very transgressive view to hold, therefore it could also be linked to the gothic genre in this way.

There is no direct mention of the time that this story happens within, the reader is instead provided with a rough time setting within a month. However, the removal of any specific mention to a year could be thought to reflect how the events of the story are relevant to all times, rather than in the past or the present. This allows the story (and more importantly its messages) to be relatable to audiences at any point. However, the time frame that the reader is given is that it is a ‘cold day in late October’ this is a time point in the year that is associated with Halloween. Therefore it could be argued that the use of this foreshadows the supernatural elements in the story, such as the shape shifting and the vampire. Furthermore, the end of October is a time which is associated to seasonal change in which the weather becomes colder, this use of time could be thought to foreshadow the ‘change’ which occurs within the power levels in the forest (when the narrator manages to escape and strangle her captor the Erl King).

The fact that the tale is set within a forest is also key to the readers understanding of the text. A forest is often an area that is associated with uncertainty and ‘monsters’ which is key to the supernatural being that is the Erl King. A forest/wood is also something that features heavily within fairy tales, in which is where parts of the narrative are taken from. Furthermore, a forest is often thought to be a very enclosed area which links into the gothic theme of entrapment, this setting also presents the idea that the Erl King has entrapped the narrator in the forest before he even physically entraps her in the cage as a bird. This could also be argued to be foreshadowing of this act.

Overall, setting and time is employed by carter to have a variety of functions that help the narrative story to progress and also to allow the story to fit within certain genres and to promote the texts meanings.