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Year 8 · English · Short stories · Lesson 3

Setting and atmosphere

How writers create setting and atmosphere: pathetic fallacy, personification and the senses, in model extracts and Dickens's fog from ‘Bleak House’.

Whiteboard video lesson: Setting and atmosphere

20-minute video lesson

Teaching, worked examples and 20 practice questions solved step by step.

Watch free for a month

What your child will learn

  • Tell setting from atmosphere
  • Explain pathetic fallacy and personification
  • Analyse Dickens's fog description
  • Compare contrasting atmospheres
  • Write atmospheric sentences

The method

  1. Name the atmosphere precisely.
  2. Quote a word or phrase.
  3. Name the technique.
  4. Explain how it creates the mood.

Key words: setting, atmosphere, pathetic fallacy, personification, foreshadowing, minor sentence, senses.

Worked examples

The first three practice questions from the lesson, with every step.

Question 1

What is setting?

  1. Step 1: Where and when a story takes place

Answer: Where and when the story happens

Question 2

What is atmosphere?

  1. Step 1: The mood or feeling of a scene

Answer: The mood or feeling

Question 3

Name three words to describe atmosphere.

  1. Step 1: e.g. tense, peaceful, eerie
  2. Step 2: Also: gloomy, joyful, threatening

Answer: e.g. tense, peaceful, eerie