Name:____________________________________________________
Mrs. Daniel Block _______________________________________
English 11H
Date:_____________________________________________________
Reading SOL Review: Mood vs. Tone
What Do We Mean By “Mood”?
■ Mood is the ______________________________________________________ the writer creates for
the _________________________________________________.
■ A writer can use various techniques to develop the mood in a piece of literature:
– Using specific __________________________________________________ of words
– Using detailed _________________________________________________
– Using various examples of ______________________________________________________
– Using __________________________________ and
____________________________________________________________
– Drawing attention to ____________________________________________________________
A Quick Review of Sound Devices
■ ________________________________________ is the repetition of
______________________________________ sounds at the ___________________________________ of
words.
– “At least once a fortnight a corps of caterers came down with several hundred
feet of canvas and enough colored lights….” (Fitzgerald 40).
■ __________________________________ is the repetition of _____________________________ sounds
____________________________________ words.
– “Along the window-sill, the lipstick stubs/Glittered in their steel shells”
■ ____________________________________ is the repetition of ________________________________
sounds ___________________________________________ and ___________________________________ of
words.
– “Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door”
What Do We Mean By Tone?
■ ______________________________________________is the writer’s attitude towards his/her
subject.
■ An author can convey tone through their use of
– __________________________________: Author’s specific word choice. It can be
■ Formal or informal
■ Technical or common
■ Concrete or abstract
– __________________________________________________________
– ___________________________________________________________
Tone vs. Mood Practice
Part I: Analysis of Mood. For each of the following examples, explain what mood the author is
trying to create. Then, highlight/underline the specific words in the passage that help create that
mood.
1. “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. I know not how it is—but,
with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit.”
-from “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe
Mood: ________________________________________________________________________________________________
Specific Words to Create Mood:
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2. “By seven o’clock the orchestra has arrived, no thin five-piece affair, but a whole pitful of
oboes and trombones and saxophones and viols and cornets and piccolos, and low and high
drums…the cars from New York are parked five deep in the drive, and already the halls and
salons and verandas are gaudy with primary colors, and hair shorn in strange new ways,
and shawl beyond the dreams of Castile. The bar is in full swing, and floating rounds of
cocktails permeate the garden outside, until the air is alive with chatter and laughter, and
causal innuendo and introductions forgotten on the spot, and enthusiastic meetings
between women who never knew each other’s names” (Fitzgerald 40).
-from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Mood: ________________________________________________________________________________________________
Specific Words to Create Mood:
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Part II: Analysis of Tone. For each of the following examples, identify the author’s subject and his
tone. Then, highlight specific words/phrases that develop this tone.
3. “Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming
on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated
ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical
hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances
have produced additional violence and insult; and our supplications have been disregarded;
and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne.”
From Patrick Henry’s “Speech in the Virginia Convention”
Author’s specific subject: _________________________________________________________________________
Tone towards the subject:________________________________________________________________________
4. “He smiled understandingly—much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare
smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five
times in life. It faced—or seemed to face—the whole external world for an instant, and then
concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor” (Fitzgerald 48).
-from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Mood: ________________________________________________________________________________________________
Specific Words to Create Mood:
________________________________________________________________________________________________________