The setting is Cloketown: the name Coke derives from "coal", so Cloketown is the town of coal, the main raw material necessary to the industrial process. In fact Cloketown is set in the North of England, the main industrialised part of England.

The narrator describes the pollution because of industries: industrialisation transforms the natural setting into an artificial setting, as a matter of fact its colours are unnatural, like red and black. It s clear that both red and black evokes a negative impression to the reader, because red is the colour of fire and blood, while black reminds death, hell and darkness.

The expressions "ill-smelling dye" and "a black canal" underline the idea of pollution and the sanity absence, while the expressions "machinery", "chimneys" and "buildings" let the reader to image the artificial place. Even the canal is a man's production, because it is necessary to goods' transportation.

The town is rich of sounds and noise and it is clearly expressed when the narrator uses the onomatopoeic sounds "trembling" and "rattling".

If we consider the people's life, we can note its obsession, thanks to some textual elements (nouns, adjectives, time references). People are like one another, they are without a personal identity and their life lacking in news and changes. That conception is stressed thanks to the repetition of the adjective "some" ("the same sound upon the same pavements, to do the same work...").

At the same time the use of time references "yesterday and tomorrow and every year" creates a climax and gives to the reader the idea of obsession, boredom and suffocation. As a result man's habits are compared to machines process.

In addition all the town architecture is compared to the factory structure: there are buildings full of windows, churches like warehouses and jails like hospitals.

Having takes into consideration these information about Cloketown characterisation, we can conclude that people have to live in a place out of nature to adapt to society economical changes.

But can they be well distant from their natural habitat?