Setting is Everything in Shakespeare

         When one talks about setting there is no author or artist who cherishes it more than William Shakespeare. Every play is laden with lengthy and detailed introductions of time, place and even mood. One must only look so far as Hamlet to understand the importance of setting in a Shakespearean play. Every single act in Hamlet is initiated by quick statement of which characters are in the this act and where they all are. What is even more unique to Shakespearean plays is the way Shakespeare uses the characters to actually aid the audience in viewing the setting. For example, when Ophelia dies and Gertrude comes to tell Laertes, Claudius, and indirectly the audience of how she did die, she had to give a detailed soliloquy of where she was and everything that she was doing. It is this use of the characters to convey setting that sets Shakespearean plays apart.
           Austen also has her characters play apart in the setting of the play. For Austen uses her characters to reveal the cultural setting of the play, the setting which Elizabeth grapples with throughout the play. Take for instance the first few pages of the play. Mr and Mrs. Bennett converse on the numerous topics that their society is engrossed in i.e social status and marriage. The first ball can also be considered a employment of cultural setting through the conversation of the characters.   
          Essentially, the setting of the play can be revealed in numerous ways. It can be blatantly listed and stated or it can be implied through the characters.