Outdoor scenes—gardens, beaches, forests—are common backdrops in literature that connect human desire with the natural world's beauty and unpredictability. Authors use settings to create tension between the characters and their environment. It is also used to show how people can be controlled or influenced by nature's power and beauty.
The use of outdoor settings has been popular since antiquity. In Homer's Iliad, Achilles fights the Trojans on a beach while Odysseus battles Poseidon on the high seas. Shakespearean tragedies set his plays in royal gardens where the protagonist meets death, such as Hamlet's Ophelia and Romeo & Juliet's Juliet. This setting adds a sense of freedom and wildness.
The use of nature in books and stories dates back thousands of years, but it became increasingly popular during the Romantic Era when writers like Wordsworth and Keats wrote about emotions inspired by nature. Their work was followed by authors like Hawthorne, who used outdoor settings to explore themes like sin and guilt in The Scarlet Letter. Natural settings are still used today in many genres, including science fiction and fantasy novels.
Outdoor settings make readers feel immersed in the story and can evoke strong emotions. For example, Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Cask of Amontillado" takes place entirely outside, evoking feelings of mystery and fear. In F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, the lavish garden parties at Jay Gatsby's house contrast with the dirty, polluted city streets, creating a sense of decadence. J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy uses forests to create an atmosphere of danger and adventure.
Natural settings also provide opportunities for symbolism and metaphorical meaning. For instance, in To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch tells his children not to shoot mockingbirds because they don't do any harm. Nature is personified as pure and innocent. The novel's title refers to this idea that it's wrong to hurt anything without reason or purpose, just like shooting harmless birds without cause.
Fantasy stories often use natural settings to show how characters interact with magic or other supernatural forces. Harry Potter's Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is set in the grounds around a magical castle surrounded by forests filled with talking trees and strange creatures. These outdoor scenes add tension and excitement to these stories.
Outdoor settings have been used since antiquity to help writers explore themes of power, beauty, guilt, sin, decadence, and more. Authors still use nature today to evoke strong emotions and convey complex ideas through symbolism and metaphors.