MOODS FOR STORIES FULL
MOODS FOR STORIES WINDOWS

The mood of Poe’s story gets darker still as the narrator describes the house where his ailing childhood friend Roderick Usher and his sister Madeleine live: He makes this mood explicit when he uses the adverb ‘oppressively’ to make the clouds seem weighted down too close. Poe chooses adjectives such as ‘dull,’ ‘dark’ and ‘soundless’ to create an oppressive, stagnant atmosphere. The way the atmosphere of a place affects feeling is clear in Poe’s opening. Mood in writing is ‘the way a group of people feel about something the atmosphere in a place or among a group of people’ ( OED). ‘During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country, and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher.’ Poe is a master of conjuring a gloomy, eerie atmosphere.

MOODS FOR STORIES FULL

It’s full of great examples of mood in writing. This matches the plot events, as the woman’s identity blurs and the viewpoint narrator becomes the creeping woman living behind the yellow wallpaper.Įxamples of mood: ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ by Edgar Allan PoeĮdgar Allan Poe’s famous short story ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ (1839) is a classic example of American Gothic fiction. Shifts in tone throughout the story create an increasingly dark tone and mood. The verbs she uses contribute to the anxious tone and fearful mood (the smell ‘creeps’ and ‘lies in wait’, suggesting sneakiness and malevolence). I find it hovering in the dining-room, skulking in the parlor, hiding in the hall, lying in wait for me on the stairs.’

MOODS FOR STORIES WINDOWS

‘Now we have had a week of fog and rain, and whether the windows are open or not, the smell is here. She starts to imagine it has a terrible odor: We see that John is controlling towards her, and she becomes increasingly obsessed with the idea that there is a woman imprisoned behind the ‘strangest yellow’ wallpaper. ‘A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house, and reach the height of romantic felicity – but that would be asking too much of fate! Still I would proudly declare that there is something queer about it.’Īs the story progresses, however, the narrator’s optimistic tone changes. She describes the ‘colonial mansion’ she and her husband John share for the summer: In the story, the narrator’s tone is initially cheerful. ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ (1892) by the 19th Century American author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, offers strong examples of tone. Read useful examples of tone and mood from fiction and tips for improving your own: Examples of tone: ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ by Charlotte Perkins Gilman The atmosphere of a story setting, how characters feel about it, affects the mood. Tone tells us a lot about characters – a protagonist whose tone is mostly sarcastic, for example, might seem jaded. Tone and mood are two powerful elements of writing that affect how readers feel.

Moods for stories