Mood (literature)
In literature, "mood" refers to the emotional or mental response that authors aim to evoke in readers through the atmosphere of their works. This concept is crucial for fostering an emotional connection between readers and the narrative, whether the feelings are positive or negative. Authors employ various literary techniques—including setting, diction, tone, and figurative language—to influence how readers engage with the story and interpret its themes. While mood describes the emotional landscape of a piece, it is often confused with tone, which relates to the author's attitude toward the subject matter and can shape the overall mood. The two elements work in tandem, with mood being shaped by the reader's reactions to tone and other literary devices. Different settings can evoke distinct moods; for example, a dark, stormy cabin might create feelings of dread, while a vibrant garden could foster tranquility. Ultimately, the balance of these elements—setting, tone, diction—enables authors to craft a specific atmosphere that significantly impacts readers' experiences with their works.
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Mood (literature)
In literature, the term “mood” typically refers to the mental or emotional reaction that an author strives to inspire in readers through careful creation of the literary work’s atmosphere. Such works can include novels, poems, short stories, and plays. Mood is an essential literary technique, as it helps readers develop an emotional connection with the work—either positive or negative, depending on the context and purpose. Authors use techniques and devices such as setting, diction (word choice), tone, and figurative language (especially imagery) to influence readers’ responses to the narrative. The mood of a literary work impacts readers’ engagement with the story as well as their grasp and interpretation of the overall theme and meaning.
Background
Mood has often been confused with a similar literary device known as tone. While mood refers to the feelings generated in a reader by the general atmosphere of a work, tone is the author’s attitude regarding a particular topic or subject that can subsequently contribute to the overall mood. Writers usually convey tone through diction, grammar, sensory imagery, syntax, and figurative language. Often established indirectly by characters’ actions and the descriptive elements associated with these actions, tone can aid in revealing and helping the reader understand a character’s evolution throughout the plot. Types of tone include serious, comic, sarcastic, sad, happy, indifferent, and ironic.
On the other hand, mood generally describes the atmosphere of a work as it is emotionally construed by readers, based on their reactions to the tone as well as to setting, diction, and figurative language. As mood pertains to the emotions conveyed to readers and tone pertains to the way, or attitude, in which those emotions are conveyed, these devices are often found together in the same story. Both can be studied by examining the contextual clues and literary elements of the work. Depending on the message that the author hopes to impress on readers, mood and tone may frequently change throughout a story, adapting to suit a range of situations and plot points.
Overview
Because mood is a subjective and abstract concept, it can take many forms and can be employed in a literary work through a variety of methods. Examples of mood include sympathetic, nervous, morose, confused, frightened, amused, and aggravated.
Setting is a critical literary aspect that authors frequently rely on to create mood. Different settings evoke varying moods for readers. For example, an isolated, run-down cabin in the woods during a thunderstorm might engender feelings of loneliness and dread, while a scene set in a blooming garden on a sunny day would typically give the reader a sense of tranquility and hope. A detailed description of a setting, successfully incorporating imagery that allows readers to clearly imagine the location, is an effective way to build mood. Such a description would most likely include the sights, sounds, colors, and textures of the story’s environment, all of which enhance readers’ sensory involvement with the narrative. Encompassing aspects such as time, weather, location, and cultural, social, or political conditions, settings situate readers concretely within the story, inevitably leading to emotional connections.
In The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2006), a novel by John Boyne, the setting illustrates the juxtaposition between two cultures and two children—one of whom is free, while the other is imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp. This setting demonstrates the contrasting emotional distress and happiness that come with the two main characters’ sense of shared identity as they interact through the fence separating freedom from the camp. Readers’ moods operate on a variety of sensory levels, stemming from the knowledge that while both children are experiencing events at the same time and in the same location, their individual experiences are radically different.
In addition to setting, a speaker’s or narrator’s tone or attitude can also help develop the element of mood. Tone is fundamental in supplying the reader with insight into the narrator’s views on events as they unfold, especially when it elicits feelings and emotions with which a reader may empathize or relate. In The Catcher in the Rye(1951), author J. D. Salinger’s tone is apparent through the sarcastic words and thoughts of his main character, Holden Caulfield. This sarcastic tone cultivates a playful mood in readers, which allows them to comprehend the protagonist’s struggles and the overarching meaning of the novel.
The literary device of diction is also used by authors to convey mood. Diction or dialect can portray a character’s social status or cultural background, which can add to the character’s overall development and help the reader better understand the character’s perspective. Authors choose specific words to elicit a desired emotional response in readers. The connotations, or emotional implications, of these words become important to ensure this effect. When an author directly describes a setting or character as “melancholy,” for example, he or she is usually aiming for readers to immediately feel a sense of despair or sadness.Mood functions in a similar way to tone in the sense that it helps readers experience the context and theme of a particular work. However, authors who attempt to develop mood focus on creating a particular atmosphere in the story that will affect readers emotionally. The successful application of mood in a literary work relies on the author’s ability to accurately and effectively balance the story’s setting, tone, and diction—all literary elements that contribute to the overall mood.
Bibliography
Bickham, Jack M. Setting: How to Create and Sustain a Sharp Sense of Time and Place in Your Fiction. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest, 1994. Print.
Carnie, Andrew. Modern Syntax: A Coursebook. New York: Cambridge UP, 2011. Print.
Gumbrecht, Hans Ulrich. Atmosphere, Mood, Stimmung: On a Hidden Potential of Literature. Trans. Erik Butler. Palo Alto: Stanford UP, 2012. Print.
Mays, Kelly J., ed. The Norton Introduction to Literature. 11th ed. New York: Norton, 2013. Print.
Parker, Robert Dale. How to Interpret Literature: Critical Theory for Literary and Cultural Studies. 3rd ed. New York: Oxford UP, 2014. Print.
St. John, Cheryl. Writing with Emotion, Tension, and Conflict: Techniques for Crafting an Expressive and Compelling Novel. Blue Ash: Writer’s Digest, 2013. Print.
Stockwell, Peter. Texture: A Cognitive Aesthetics of Reading. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 2009. Print.
Wilson, Deirdre, and Dan Sperber. Meaning and Relevance. New York: Cambridge UP, 2012. Print.