Setting (Easy Novel Guide)

The setting in a novel is the time and place where the story unfolds. So, when and where does the story about Harry Potter take place? To find out it is a good idea to take a look at the main character, Harry Potter. In the first novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, we are introduced to Harry and how he is bullied by the Dursleys (his cousin, aunt and uncle) at their home in Surrey, in England. Another main location is of course Harry’s school, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, which is “somewhere” in Scotland. When does the story take place? Well, that is a bit tricky, since the novel is a fantasy book, with no specific reference to time. However, the novel’s time span is from just before Harry is born, through his ten years with the Dursleys and his first year at Hogwarts. To find out more, we have to look at the environment we meet in the novel: we will find modern inventions like cars and trains, even if they behave in strange ways (cars fly and the train leaves from platform 9 ¾). There is a mixture of magical (wizardry) and realistic (human) settings.