In an essay of not more than 1500 words:
             1. Explain how in your view the settings in 'Fathers and Sons' contribute to Turgenev's 'ideological statement'.
             2. Consider whether 'setting' acts in a similar way in either 'Frankenstein' or 'Great Expectations'.
             There are many ways in which the word 'setting' may be applied to a novel. Some of these include: The time and place(s) in which the action in the novel takes place; whether or not the novel is being read in its original form, or through the actions of a translator; the narrative voice; the date of its publication in relation to the action contained within it; how the work was first presented to the public; the relationship of socio-political attitudes at the time of its publication to those presented by the author; the author's own such attitudes and whether they colour the way the story unfolds.
             While it is not necessary for a work to reflect an 'ideological statement', it cannot be denied that both Fathers and Sons and Great Expectations both have such statements implicit in the way they were written. The differences between the two works are more numerous than the similarities, so the focus of this piece will be on the way that both authors use physical settings to enhance these ideological statements.
             Looking first at Fathers and Sons, the messages within it are a reflection of its author. Conceived while Turgenev was on holiday in England, there is evidence (FaS, p.xiii) that he was also there was to discuss the imminent Emancipation act with other Russian émigrés. Fathers and Sons uses the background of this upcoming change as the whole underpinning to what takes place.
             Another reason Turgenev wrote this novel was his drive to explore 'that rapidly changing physiognomy of Russians of the cultured stratum' (RN, p.169). His main reason for having Bazarov a...