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Literary Terms
TONE:
Definition:
The tone of a piece of writing is its general character or attitude, which might be cheerful or depressive, sarcastic or sincere, comical or mournful, praising or critical, and so on. For instance, an editorial in a newspaper that described its subject as "not even having the guts to do the job himself," has a tone that is both informal and critical.
Tone Explained
It is always possible to describe the way that a writer uses
language. Therefore, every piece of writing has a tone. Even when a writer's aim is to use completely neutral language—as is often the case in scientific papers or investigative journalism—the language still sounds a certain way, whether it's "scientific," "journalistic," "formal," "professional," or even "mechanical." The way a writer makes use of tone can tell you a lot about the writer's attitude or relationship toward their subject matter and what they are trying to say about it, as well as the effect they are trying to create for their reader.
1. Somber, dark, serious, gloomy
A speech at a funeral
A murder mystery
A novel about someone's struggles with depression
Sarcastic, satirical, ironic
An article in the newspaper The Onion
A work of parody like Don Quixote
A satire, like many skits on SNL
Humorous, witty, goofy
A stand-up comedy routine
A play like Shakespeare's As You Like It
A TV show like Seinfeld or Friends
Lighthearted, cheerful, optimistic
A Dr. Seuss Book
A wedding speech
A friendly joke
Intellectual, analytical, critical
An essay you'd write for school
A dense work of political theory
An article analyzing a political event
Dry, offfficial, scientific, cold
A letter from the IRS
A scientific paper
Instructions on how to assemble furniture
The Difffference Between Tone and Mood
The words "tone" and "mood" are often used interchangeably, but the two terms actually have different meanings.
Tone is the attitude or general character of a piece of writing and is often related to the attitude of the writer or speaker.
Mood refers specifically to the effect a piece of writing has on the reader. Mood is how a piece of writing makes you feel.
While tone and mood are distinct literary devices, they are often closely related. For example, it wouldn't be unusual for a poem with a somber tone to also have a somber mood—i.e., to make the reader feel somber as well. And as we explained above, a journalist who makes a jab at a politician might be conveying how they feel about their subject (using a critical tone) while also trying to influence their readers to feel similarly—i.e., to create a mood of anger or outrage.
Metaphor:
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other. The comparison in a metaphor can be stated explicitly, as in the sentence "Love is a battlefield." Other times, the writer may make this equation between two things implicitly, as in, "He was wounded by love." The comparisons created by metaphor are not meant to be taken literally. Rather, metaphors are figurative—they create meaning beyond the literal meanings of their words. For instance, these examples are, of course, not saying that love is actually a field of battle or that the person actually got a physical injury from love. Instead, they capture how love can be painful, a struggle, even a showdown between opponents, and—as many good metaphors do—through their comparison they make description more vivid, more relatable, or reveal new ways of seeing the world.
Some additional key details about metaphor:
Metaphor is one of the most common figures of speech, used by writers throughout history and across the world. They are common in everyday speech and all forms of writing, from narrative fiction, to poetry, to persuasive writing.
Metaphor is a type of analogy: a comparison between two things or ideas. Take a look at the entry that covers analogy to learn more about the difference between analogy and metaphor.
There are actually two accepted definitions of metaphor: one that's quite broad, and one that's more specific. The broader definition includes any type of comparison or association, and includes under its umbrella other figures of speech, such as simile. The other, more narrow definition is the one we focus on in this entry, and is limited to figures of speech that state one thing is the other.
The Anatomy of a Metaphor
Metaphors can be broken down into two elements: a tenor and a vehicle.
The tenor is the thing a metaphor describes.
The vehicle is the thing to which the tenor is compared.
For instance, in the metaphor "Love is a ," love is the tenor because it's the thing being described, while "battlefield" is the vehicle because it's the thing love is being compared to. The metaphor operates by borrowing key attributes from the vehicle and ascribing them to the tenor: love is violent, brutal, life-threatening.
A strong metaphor is one in which the attributes shared by the vehicle and the tenor are clear without further explanation. For example, "she's a gem" is a widely used metaphor whose meaning would probably be pretty clear even if we hadn't all heard it a thousand times: it's a way of saying someone is precious, treasured, lovely. "He's a peanut butter sandwich," on the other hand, is a pretty mystifying statement, since the vehicle—a peanut butter sandwich?—doesn't immediately call to mind any particularly vivid qualities or adjectives, let alone adjectives that would be used to describe a person. As a result, a weak metaphor such as this one leaves the mind searching for a basis of comparison between the tenor and the vehicle: is he... sticky? Unappetizing? A perfect combination of two things?
Types of Metaphors
There are a handful of varieties of metaphor that fall under the larger umbrella of "metaphor." Here are a few important ones:
1.Conventional Metaphors are just what they sound like: metaphors that have become such a common part of speech that they no longer call attention to their status as metaphors. For instance, when we say that someone is an expert in his or her "field," field is a conventional metaphor for "area of study" or "profession," because it's been used so frequently that we don't even realize we're referencing a physical field. Some sources say that when a conventional metaphor has completely lost its "effectiveness" or ability to influence thought, it becomes a Dead Metaphor. The concept of "dead metaphors" is controversial however, because many people argue that simply because something becomes unconscious, doesn't mean it's dead.
2.Creative Metaphors, in contrast to conventional metaphors, are novel comparisons that draw attention to their status as metaphors. The following Rita Rudner quote is a creative metaphor: "Before I met my husband, I'd never fallen in love. I'd stepped in it a few times." Rudner, here, is twisting and playing with the metaphor "falling love" to emphasize the fact that it is a metaphor, and then she's creating a new metaphor all her own. (Of course, she's a comedian so she's also doing it to get laughs.)
Metaphor vs. Simile
Of all the different kinds of figures of speech that fit under the broader definition of metaphor (described above), simile is the one that is most often confused with the more specific definition of metaphor that we cover in this entry, since both simile and metaphor are figures of speech that involve the comparison of unlike things. However, simile and metaphor do not make comparisons in the same way. The most obvious difference between simile and metaphor can be summed up this way:
Similes use the words "like" or "as" to establish their comparison: "The world is like your oyster."
Metaphors state the comparison without such connecting words: "The world is your oyster."
While the presence of a connecting word, such as "like" or "as," is generally a good rule of thumb to identify similes versus metaphors, it doesn't get at the root of the difference between these two figures of speech. A deeper way to understand the difference is through the nature of the comparison each one makes:
• A simile makes an explicit comparison by asserting that two difffferent things are similar. A simile sets thing A and thing B side by side to compare them. In the sentence "The world is like your oyster," the listener is asked to mentally visualize and compare "the world" and "an oyster"—as though he or she were holding one in each hand—and draw a comparison between the two.
• A metaphor asserts an implicit comparison by stating that one thing is the other thing. Instead of setting two entities A and B side by side through the use of connecting words, metaphor superimposes them. The metaphor "The world is your oyster" asks the reader to imagine his or her relationship to the world as being the relationship of an oyster to the space inside its shell.
This isn't to say that either a simile or metaphor is stronger or better than the other, just that they are subtly different in the sort of comparison they create, and this difference affects how a reader imaginatively interacts with the text.
Simile:
A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. To make the comparison, similes most often use the connecting words "like" or "as," but can also use other words that indicate an explicit comparison. Eleanor Roosevelt's line, "A woman is like a teabag—you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water," is an example of simile. Roosevelt compares two unlike things, women and teabags, to describe how women reveal the full extent of their strength in tough situations.
Some additional key details about simile:
Because the comparison established by a simile is not literal (a woman isn't literally like a teabag), similes are a form of figurative language.
While most similes use the connecting words "like" or "as" to establish the comparison they're making, similes can use other words that create a direct comparison, including other connecting words (such as, "so" or "than") or verbs of comparison (such as, "compare" and "resemble").
Some similes have become such a common part of everyday speech that we barely notice them, for instance, when we say "I slept like a log" or "The news hit me like a ton of bricks."
Is a Simile a Type of Metaphor?
There is also some debate about whether similes and metaphors are similar but different things, or whether simile is actually a specialized form of metaphor. Arguments on the topic can become surprisingly heated, but all you need to know is that there are competing definitions of metaphor, and whether a simile is a type of metaphor depends on the definition of metaphor you're using. For instance, the Oxford Companion to English Language gives two definitions of metaphor:
Metaphor: All figures of speech that achieve their effect through association, comparison, and resemblance. Figures like antithesis, hyperbole, metonymy, simile are all species of metaphor.
Metaphor: A figure of speech which concisely compares two things by saying that one is the other.
Under the first, broad definition of a metaphor, a simile is a type of metaphor. Under the second, narrower definition, it isn't.
Oxymoron:
An oxymoron is a figure of speech in which two contradictory terms or ideas are intentionally paired in order to make a point—particularly to reveal a deeper or hidden truth. The most recognizable oxymorons are adjective-noun pairs, as in the phrase "proud humility." But oxymorons can also occur over the course of a clause or sentence, as in "That silence after your joke was deafening." In both examples, the oxymoron joins opposite ideas to make a point (such as that an awkward silence can have a presence comparable to a loud sound).
Some additional key details about oxymorons:
The word "oxymoron" is itself an oxymoron. It comes from the Greek words oskús, meaning sharp or keen, and morōs meaning dull or foolish.
If you're referring to oxymoron in plural, both oxymorons and oxymora are correct. Oxymorons is now more common in print than oxymora, but you'll find the latter listed in most dictionaries.
The words in an oxymoron don't need to to be glued together, as in "heavy lightness" or "serious vanity." They can be spaced out, as in, "His honor rooted in dishonor stood," which is a line from Tennyson's "Lancelot and Elaine."
Oxymoron vs. Related Terms
Oxymoron is often confused with other related terms, such as "contradiction in terms," "paradox," and "antonym." Read on to find out how oxymoron is distinct from each of these terms.
Oxymoron vs. Contradiction in Terms
Today, many people use the term "oxymoron" as a synonym for any expression whose components contradict one another, even contradictions that are unintentional or come up in casual conversation (also called a "contradiction in terms"). However, an oxymoron is more specific than a contradiction in terms: it must be crafted intentionally in order to suggest that two contradictory ideas go together because their unlikely combination reveals a deeper truth.
For example, someone might (wrongly) call the phrase "business ethics" an oxymoron, simply to make the claim that business is
always unethical. However, while it's possible to argue that "business ethics" is a contradiction in terms, the phrase is not an oxymoron. The beauty of an oxymoron is that it deliberately combines two words or ideas that contradict one another, not simply to point out how those ideas don't fit, but for the purpose of showing that a contradiction actually does make sense or reveal a deeper meaning.
For instance, a true oxymoron occurs when Juliet says to Romeo in Romeo and Juliet that "Parting is such sweet sorrow." Shakespeare has purposefully created this contradiction to capture the deeper truth of the simultaneous pain and joy of departing from a loved one—he's trying to communicate that being separated from your beloved is painful and yet, precisely because it's painful, parting reminds you of your love and joy.
To sum up, an oxymoron is not simply a contradiction in terms. A true oxymoron must be deliberately craftfted in advance, with the goal of creating a rhetorical effffect or revealing a deeper figurative meaning.
Oxymoron vs. Paradox
It's also helpful to understand the relationship between oxymoron and paradox. Both have to do with using contradiction to reveal deeper truths, but they differ in an important way: an oxymoron is a device, while a paradox is an idea.
A paradox is a concept that is simultaneously counterintuitive and truthful or revealing. Thus, an oxymoron might be a configuration of words that expresses a paradox, but the oxymoron is not, itself, the paradox. An example might help: the oxymoron "sweet sorrow" speaks to the paradox that love and pain can go together, but the oxymoron is not, in and of itself, the paradox that it expresses.
Oxymorons vs. Antonyms
Words that are antonyms have opposite meanings from one another. For example, "good" and "bad" are antonyms. Some people mistake pairs of antonyms for oxymorons, but they are not the same.
Oxymorons take two contradictory words or ideas and bring them together to create a single, deeper meaning. The oxymoron "darkness visible," for instance, captures the sense of darkness being not just the lack of light, but also a tangible, terrible thing.
Antonym pairs—such as good and bad, light and dark, or strong and weak—do not create a new, deeper meaning. Instead, each pair of words describes a range of possible traits on a spectrum, such as from good to bad, or from light to dark.
Ethos:
Ethos, along with logos and pathos, is one of the three "modes of persuasion" in rhetoric (the art of effective speaking or writing). Ethos is an argument that appeals to the audience by emphasizing the speaker's credibility and authority. If the speaker has a high-ranking position, is an expert in his or her field, or has had life experience relevant to a particular topic, anything the speaker says or does to ensure that the audience knows about and remembers these qualifications is an example of ethos.
Some additional key details about ethos:
Ethos shares a root with the word "ethics." This is helpful to remember because speakers often try to establish their own strong moral character by using ethos.
The word "ethos" is also often used to refer to a community or organization's characteristic belief or spirit, as in the sentence, "We will not give you a larger bonus than your coworkers: that is against our company's ethos of fairness." However, this guide focuses specifically on the rhetorical technique of ethos used in literature and public speaking.
The three "modes of persuasion"—pathos, logos, and ethos—were originally defined by Aristotle.
While ethos appeals to an audience's instinctive respect for authority, logos appeals to the audience's sense of reason, and pathos appeals to the audience's emotions.
Ethos is used in advertising just as often as it is used in public speaking and literature. Any commercial in which a celebrity endorses a product, for example, hopes to persuade its target audience by cultivating an aura of authority or expertise through its association with the celebrity—and is therefore an example of ethos.
Ethos Explained
Aristotle (the ancient Greek philosopher and scientist) first defined ethos, along with logos and pathos, in his treatise on rhetoric, Ars Rhetorica. Together, he referred to ethos, logos, and pathos as the three modes of persuasion, or sometimes simply as "the appeals." Aristotle believed that in order to have ethos a good speaker must demonstrate three things:
Phronesis: Sound reasoning, and relevant experience or expertise.
Arete: Moral character.
Eunoia: Good intentions towards the audience.
Aristotle argued that a speaker in possession of these three attributes will naturally impress the audience with his or her ethos, and as a result will be better able to influence that audience. Over time, however, the definition of ethos has broadened, and the significance of the three qualities Aristotle named is now lost on anyone who hasn't studied classical Greek. So it may give more insight into the meaning of ethos to translate Aristotle's three categories into a new set of categories that make more sense in the modern era. A speaker or writer's credibility can be said to rely on each of the following:
Authority: A speaker in a high position of authority—for example, a president, or CEO—will possess a certain level of ethos simply because he or she can claim that title.
◦ Within literature, it's interesting to notice when characters attempt to invoke their own authority and enhance their ethos by reminding other characters of the titles they possess. Often, this can be an indication that the character citing his or her own credentials actually feels his or her authority being threatened or challenged.
Trustworthiness: Often, a large part of conveying trustworthiness to an audience depends on the speaker's ability to demonstrate that he or she doesn't have a vested interest in convincing the audience of his or her views. An audience should ideally feel that the speaker is impartial—doesn't stand to gain anything personal, like money or power, from winning listeners' favor—and that his or her opinions are therefore objective.
◦ In literature, this form of ethos is particularly relevant with respect to narrators. Authors often have their narrators profess impartiality or objectivity at the outset of a book in order to earn the reader's trust in the narrator's reliability regarding the story he or she is about to tell.
Expertise: The credentials, education, and professional specialty of a speaker all greatly contribute to his or her ethos. For instance, a doctor's assessment of a patient or a new drug will carry more weight with an audience than the opinion of someone with no medical training whatsoever.
◦ This type of ethos translates into literature quite easily, in the sense that characters' opinions are often evaluated within the framework of their professions.
Personification:
Personification is a type of figurative language in which non- human things are described as having human attributes, as in the sentence, "The rain poured down on the wedding guests, indifferent to their plans." Describing the rain as "indifferent" is an example of personification, because rain can't be "indifferent," nor can it feel any other human emotion. However, saying that the rain feels indifferent poetically emphasizes the cruel timing of the rain. Personification can help writers to create more vivid descriptions, to make readers see the world in new ways, and to more powerfully capture the human experience of the world (since people really do often interpret the non- human entities of the world as having human traits).
Some additional key details about personification:
Personification isn't exclusive to the use of human attributes to describe non-human things. If a writer describes a non-human thing as performing a human action, the writer is personifying that thing. The sentence, "The rain mocked the wedding guests' plans," qualifies as personification just as much as the sentence, "The rain was indifferent," does.
The word "personification" has another, separate meaning from its function as a literary device. The word can also be used to indicate that someone embodies a certain quality or concept. For instance, some people think that the Queen of England is the personification—or the embodiment—of civility. However, this guide focuses only on personification as a literary device.
Personification Explained
Personification is a powerful and widely-used literary tool for several reasons. One reason is that it allows readers to develop a greater sense of relation to and identification with non-human entities. Attributing a human emotion to something inanimate—as in the sentence about "indifferent rain"—can make that thing easier to understand and more vivid in the reader's imagination, while at the same time presenting a significantly more complex description than is possible with the use of traditional adjectives like "wet" or "gray".
Personifying a Non-Human Thing as a Complete Person
Personification typically involves bestowing a single human quality upon a non-human thing. For instance:
• The rain was indifferent to their plans.
• The waves winked in the sunlight.
• The wind played hide-and-go-seek among the trees.
However, sometimes personification involves referring to a non- human thing as a complete person with many human qualities. Consider the way in which old-fashioned ship captains referred to their vessels as "she," or the way in which Kanye West refers to his beloved city of Chicago as a girl named "Windy." (Scroll down to "Personification in Music" for an analysis of those lyrics.) Both cases count as personification—Kanye asks us to momentarily re-imagine something nonhuman (Chicago) as human, because that way we'll be able to understand that the city has a personality and a soul that make him feel connected to it just as he would feel connected to a romantic partner. Similarly, it was common for sea captains back in the day to casually refer to their ships as "she" in order to convey that they felt as much respect, gratitude, and responsibility for the ships as they would towards a woman they loved.
Personification vs. Anthropomorphism
Personification is the attribution of human characteristics to a non- human entity for the purpose of creating figurative language and imagery. Anthropomorphism, by contrast, is the literal attribution of human characteristics to animals and other non-human things, often for the purpose of creating a specific type of character: a non-human being that behaves like a human. Winnie the Pooh, the Little Engine that Could, and Simba from the movie The Lion King are all examples of anthropomorphism. The human qualities assigned to these characters are not just figurative ways of describing them, as they are in personification. Rather, in anthropomorphism the non-human entities actually do human things like talking, falling in love, wiggling their eyebrows, and generally behaving like people behave.
Winnie the Pooh, the Little Engine that Could, and Simba from The Lion King are not examples of personification. When we use personification, we don't create characters, but instead simply describe non-human things as possessing human characteristics, like in the sentence, "The wind played hide-and-go-seek among the trees." In this case, the wind didn't actually grow arms, legs, and a mouth to count down from twenty. That would be anthropomorphism. Instead, the wind looks and behaves as wind normally does, but through the power of personification the reader can now imagine the wind's movement in a completely new way, because he or she can now compare that movement to the familiar but different movement of playing hide-and-go-seek.
Hyperbole:
Hyperbole is a figure of speech in which a writer or speaker exaggerates for the sake of emphasis. Hyperbolic statements are usually quite obvious exaggerations intended to emphasize a point, rather than be taken literally. For example, in the hyperbolic statement, "My backpack weighs a ton," the speaker doesn't actually think the backpack weighs a ton, nor does he or she intend the listener to think so. The backpack-wearer simply wants to communicate, through the use of hyperbole, that he or she is carrying a very heavy load.
Some additional key details about hyperbole:
Because of its ability to express larger-than-life emotion, hyperbole is common in novels, poetry, politics and advertising slogans.
The opposite of hyperbole is litotes, deliberate understatement. In a rhetorical context—meaning, in the context of persuasive speaking and writing—hyperbole is sometimes called auxesis while litotes goes by the name meiosis.
Different examples of hyperbole can be structured quite differently as sentences. The key to hyperbole is not how the sentence is structured, but whether, through purposeful exaggeration, it creates strong feelings or impressions or emphasizes a point.
Hyperbole vs. Simile
It can be hard to tell the difference between hyperbole and simile. A simile is a figure of speech that compares two unlike things in order to make a description more vivid and interesting. Simile, further, is defined by the use of the words "like" or "as," which the writer uses to establish the comparison that he or she wants to make.
Repetition:
Repetition is a literary device in which a word or phrase is repeated two or more times. Repetition occurs in so many different forms that it is usually not thought of as a single figure of speech. Instead, it's more useful to think of repetition as being a category that covers a number of more specific figures of speech, all of which use repetition in different ways.
Some additional key details about repetition:
• Figures of speech that employ repetition usually repeat single • words or short phrases, but some can involve the repetition of
sounds while others might involve the repetition of entire
sentences.
• Repeating information has been scientifically shown to increase the likelihood of changing people's minds. The persuasive power of repetition is one of the reasons it is so common.
Figures of Speech that Use Repetition
There are many different figures of speech that use repetition, all in different ways. These figures of speech can vary in the things they repeat (sounds, words, phrases, etc.) as well as in the specific order in which the repeated words appear in clauses or sentences. The most common repetition figures of speech are:
Diacope: The repetition of a word or phrase with a small number of intervening words. The repetition of "unhappy" in the first line of Anna Karenina is an example of diacope, "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way," is an example of diacope.
Epanalepsis: Occurs when the beginning of a clause or sentence is repeated at the end of that same clause or sentence, with words intervening. The sentence "The king is dead, long live the king!" is an example of epanalepsis.
Epistrophe: In epistrophe, one or more words repeat at the end of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences. In his Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln urged the American people to ensure that, "government of the people, by the people, for the people,shall not perish from the earth." His repetition of "the people" at the end of each clause is an example of epistrophe.
Alliteration: The repetition of the same sound in a group of • words, such as the “b” sound in: “Bob brought the box of bricks to
the basement.” The repeating sound must occur either in the first letter of each word, or in the stressed syllables of those words.Anadiplosis: Occurs when a word or group of words located at • the end of one clause or sentence is repeated at or near the
beginning of the following clause or sentence. This line from the novelist Henry James is an example of anadiplosis: "Our doubt isour passion, and our passion is our task."
Anaphora: The repetition of words at the beginning of successive clauses, phrases, or sentences. For example, Martin Luther King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech contains anaphora: "So let • freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let
Epizeuxis: The repetition of a word or phrase in immediate succession, with no words in between. When the character Kurtz in Heart of Darkness says, "The horror, the horror," that's an example of epizeuxis.
Polysyndeton: Occurs when coordinating conjunctions—words such as "and," "or," and "but" that join other words or clauses in a sentence into relationships of equal importance—are used several times in close succession, particularly where conjunctions would normally not be present at all. For instance, the following sentence contains polysyndeton: "We ate roast beef and squash and biscuits and potatoes and corn and cheese and cherry pie."
Polyptoton: Occurs when words that share the same root, but are not identical, are repeated. The question, "Who shall watch the watchmen?" is an example of polyptoton. freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania..."
• Refrain: In a poem or song, a refrain is a line or group of lines that regularly repeat, usually at the end of a stanza in a poem or at the end of a verse in a song. In a speech or other prose writing, a refrain can refer to any phrase that repeats a number of times within the text.
Antanaclasis: A repetition of a word or phrase in which the that word or phrase means something different each time it appears. A famous example of antanaclasis is Benjamin Franklin's statement that: "We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately."
Antimetabole: The repetition of a phrase, but with the order of words reversed. John F. Kennedy's words, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country," is a famous example of antimetabole.
Assonance: The repetition of the same vowel sound within a group of words. An example of assonance is the repetition of the "oo" sound in: "Who gave Newt and Scooter the blue tuna? It was too soon!"
Consonance: The repetition of the same consonant sound within a group of words. An example of consonance is the repetition of the "f" sound in: "Traffic figures to be tough on July Fourth."
MOOD:
The mood of a piece of writing is its general atmosphere or emotional complexion—in short, the array of feelings the work evokes in the reader. Every aspect of a piece of writing can influence its mood, from the setting and the imagery to the author's word choice and tone. For instance, a story that begins "It was a dark and stormy night" will probably have an overall dark, ominous, or suspenseful mood.
Some additional key details about mood:
Every piece of writing has a mood—whether it's a masterwork of literature or a short haiku.
Moods are established gradually over the course of an entire work, so it's often difficult to pinpoint the elements that contribute to a work's mood at the level of the sentence
or paragraph.Examples:
Hopeful
Cheerful
Reflective
Gloomy
Humorous
Melancholy
Idyllic
Whimsical
Romantic
Mysterious
Ominous
Calm
Lighthearted
Mood Explained:
A single piece of writing can and usually does employ more than one mood, since different parts of the same work can have different moods, but works are generally characterized by a single overarching mood. So for instance, a story that has happy passages and sad passages might not be defined by either mood, but rather by its overall mood of humorousness.
What Makes Up a Mood?
These are the basic elements that help determine the mood of a piece of writing:
• Setting: A story's setting is where and when it takes place. Setting is one of the first things to be described in a narrative, and therefore plays a major role in establishing the mood.
In the "dark and stormy night" example from above, the story's mood is established almost entirely by the setting (in this case, the weather and the time of day), which makes for a gloomy and potentially even frightening atmosphere.
A story that takes place in a cotton candy kingdom, by contrast, is likely to have a whimsical, cheerful, or light- hearted mood.
• Imagery: Imagery is similar to setting in the sense that it helps to establish mood using descriptions of physical things in the world of the story. Not every image in a work will be indicative of the story's mood, but images that are repeated or described in detail usually do reflect the mood.
A poem that spends a lot of time describing babbling brooks, gentle rolling hills, and herds of sheep might have an
idyllic mood.A story that has a lot of roses, candlelight, and boxes of chocolates might be trying to establish a romantic mood.
• Tone: Tone (or the attitude of piece of writing) is closely related to mood: often, the tone and mood of a piece are similar or the same.
It wouldn't be unusual for a poem with a somber tone to also have a somber mood—i.e., to make the reader feel somber as well.
A journalist who makes a jab at a politician might be conveying how they feel about their subject (using a critical
• Mood is often (and understandably) confused with tone, which is related but different in that tone refers to the attitude of a piece of writing, not its atmosphere. More on the difference below.