How Lawrence creates atmosphere in different settings in the story
Setting in the Midlands
Straight away the author brings in the general setting of the Midlands. He uses the tram as a reason to give a description of a typical city with the midland setting and showing what you would expect to see if you were travelling around the Midlands. He mentions that the Midland is a little industrial in some parts and there is some countryside’s surrounding it. He also gives a little picture of it being quite hilly and small villages looking very dark and gloomy, as though it would be a cold winter evening, typical weather in England at this time, when the sun sets early.
Then he goes on to say the following places you would pass by on the tram, like the workmen’s houses over canals, past railways, churches towering high, cold marketplaces, rush-hour cinemas, shops and roads, collieries, little rural churches in open countryside with a terminus nearby and a ugly industrial area blocking sun light. In his description he makes it sound like a small town with a dark gloomy cold appearance and a vast countryside outside this little town. Then he mentions that this is wartime and it is difficult to have the best of conditions, for instance the tram drivers are crippled old men who can’t do active service so they are left behind and the tram system is the worst in England. Then he brings in what the city is like on a night; there is howlingly, cold, pitch black and windsweeping night. The only bright refuge in this lawless night, which is so quite you can hear your own footsteps, is the tramcar. On the night you will see many minors travelling to pub to pub or to the cinema looking for woman and excitement.
