Tone and Mood
Overview
The reading selections for this study session provide good examples of tone and mood. Tone and mood are closely related, and often confused.
Tone is a feeling reflected in a literary work, and virtually every literary work possesses tone. Tone conveys an author’s attitude about his or her subject, and does so not through what is being said, but through how it is being said. Tone varies greatly, ranging from serious to sarcastic, playful to solemn, respectful to condescending. Tone is created by an author’s choice of words (diction), especially by the choice of descriptive details.
While tone reveals the attitude taken by an author toward subject matter, mood refers to the feeling that a literary work creates in its reader. For example, an essay’s tone may be somber and serious, while its resulting mood may be astonishment and outrage in readers.
