Setting

Physical setting

The story “Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?” by Raymond Carver takes place in America, presumably around the time the story was published (the 1970s), maybe even earlier as shown by the use of coffee percolators and the dated spelling of “cigarette” as “cigaret”. The use of the term “Negro” also helps to date the work, as it was used mainly before 1970. The main action takes place on a Sunday night in November. It is interesting to note that Ralph insists the party happened three or four years ago, suggesting he is trying to transform it into something of less importance to him.

The main setting is the town of Eureka, California, where Ralph and Marian own a house in the Fire Hill district. The name of the town may be symbolic, as well as ironic, as “Eureka” is an exclamation used when celebrating a discovery (it comes from an Ancient Greek phrase meaning “I have found it”), but Ralph’s discovery does not give him cause for celebration. This may also be connected with Ralph’s repeated feeling that he is on the verge of a revelation, which never quite materializes.

The name of the district “Fire Hill” also puts one in mind of conflict or disaster. The “safety of California” (p. 172, l. 28) is contrasted with the “squalor and open lust” (p. 172, l. 27) which Ralph “was secretly appalled by” (p. 172, ll. 25-27) of Guadalajara, Mexico, where he and Marian spent their honeymoon. During his disturbing vision of Marian that he has at...