Mood, Voice, Tone and Perspective Mood Mood is one element in the narrative structure of a piece of literature. It can also be referred to as atmosphere because it creates an emotional setting enveloping the reader. Mood is established in order to affect the reader emotionally and psychologically and to provide a feeling for the narrative. Usually, mood is referred to as the atmosphere of a literary piece, as it creates an emotional situation that surrounds the readers. Mood is developed in a literary piece through various methods. It can be developed through setting, theme, tone and diction. Let us see how writers use the afore-­‐mentioned elements in their literary works to create a particular mood. Examples of setting:
- Charles Dickens creates a calm and peaceful mood in his novel “Pickwick Papers”:
“The river, reflecting the clear blue of the sky, glistened and sparkled as it flowed noiselessly on.”
Emily Bronte in “Wuthering Heights” creates two contrasting moods through two contrasting settings. The events of the narrative
takes place in two neighboring houses: Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. A depressing mood is created whenever
Wuthering Heights is described. For example, in chapter 12 the narrator says:
“There was no moon, and everything beneath lay in misty darkness: not a light gleamed from any house, far or near all had been
extinguished long ago: and those at Wuthering Heights were never visible…”
On the contrary, the description of Thrushcross Grange creates a calm and peaceful mood:
“Gimmerton chapel bells were still ringing; and the full, mellow flow of the beck in the valley came soothingly on the ear. It was a
sweet substitute for the yet absent murmur of the summer foliage, which drowned that music about the Grange when the trees were in
leaf.”
Creating Mood through Tone
The manner in which a writer approaches this theme and subject is called the tone. The readers always rely on the writer’s point of
view of the events taking place in a story. They observe the story through his eyes. They feel the way the writer feels about the events
taking place and the description provided. Therefore, the attitude of the writer evokes feelings and emotions in the readers.
Example:
For instance, see how Robert Frost in his poem “The Road Not Taken” creates a gloomy feeling through his tone:
“I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
Frost informs us about his past with a “sigh” that gives the above lines an unhappy tone and thus evokes an unhappy mood. An
unhappy mood is created because the poet convinces us into thinking that he regrets a choice he made in the past.
Creating Mood through Diction
Diction is the choice of words a writer uses. Diction or choice of words conveys deep feelings as well as depicts the events, places and
characters in a literary work in specific colors, having an effect on the way the readers feel about them.
Example:
The following lines from Jonathon Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travel” is one of the great mood examples created using diction:
“And being no stranger to the art of war, I have him a description of cannons, culverins, muskets, carabines, pistols, bullets, powder,
swords, bayonets, battles, sieges, retreats, attacks, undermines, countermines, bombardments, sea-fights…”
In order to create feelings of disgust in readers for the destructive consequences of war, the writer chooses words that are
unmelodious, harsh and jarring. The diction in the above passage corresponds with the subject matter.
Function of Mood
Mood helps in creating an atmosphere in a literary work by means of setting, theme, diction and tone. It evokes various emotional
responses in readers and thus ensures their emotional attachment to the literary piece they read. Once the readers are emotionally
stirred, they fully comprehend the message that the writer tries to convey to them.
Voice
The writer's voice is the individual writing style of an author, a combination of idiotypical usage of syntax, diction, punctuation,
character development, dialogue, etc., within a given body of text (or across several works). Voice can be thought of in terms of the
uniqueness of a vocal voice machine.
Voice Definition
A voice in literature is the form or a format through which narrators tell their stories. It is prominent when a writer places himself /
herself into words and provides a sense the character is real person conveying a specific message the writer intends to convey. In
simple words, it is an author’s individual writing style or point of view. When a writer engages personally with a topic, in fact, he
imparts his personality to that piece of literature. This individual personality is different from other individual personalities, other
writers put into their own works. Thus, voice is a unique personality of a literary work. Depending upon the type of work, authors may
use a single voice, or multiple voices.
Types of Voice
There are many types of voices; however, it has two major types as given below.
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Author’s Voice – Author’s voice is his particular style he employs in that particular story of a piece of writing. Character’s Voice – A character’s voice is the voice of the main character and how he views the world. It is a common narrative voice used with first and third person point of views, and author uses a conscious person as a narrator in the story. Function of Voice
While identifying the function of voice in literature, it is necessary to consider the narrator’s degree of objectivity, reliability and
omniscience. Voice shows whose eyes readers see the narrative through that gives a personality to a literary piece. Moreover, a strong
voice helps making every word count, sets up consistency and most importantly grabs the attention of the readers.
Point of View -­‐-­‐ Perspectives In order to fully understand point of view in literature, we need to explore the different perspectives from which a story may be told.
Bear in mind that the Perspective is the scene as viewed through the eyes/mind of the chosen character. The story, however, can be
told from any one of several points-of-view regardless of the perspective chosen. Point of view is the perspective from which a story
is narrated. Every story has a perspective, though there can be more than one type of point of view in a work of literature. The most
common points of view used in novels are first person singular (“I”) and third person (“he” an d “she”). However, there are many
variants on these two types of point of view, as well as other less common narrative points of view.
Single Major Character Viewpoint
The story can be told from first, second or third person POV but it is told throughout by just one character. The reader discovers
everything in the story at exactly the same time as the viewpoint character does. You cannot hint at things that are to come if the main
character doesn’t know they are coming. You cannot give the character unnatural foresight-unless of course he is psychic.
The single-character perspective is the most common viewpoint used in children’s literature and a lot of adult literature as well. It
allows you all the descriptive forces of third person and almost as much intimacy as first person. It is much easier for the reader to
identify with just one character.
Omniscient Viewpoint
Basically, omniscient perspective means that the story is not told by any one of the characters, but is rather commented on by a godlike, omnipotent being who can choose to dip into the head of any of the characters and reveal things that have occurred in the past or
which will happen in the future.
It is essential that each character have a distinctive voice so that the reader is never confused about who he is listening to at the
moment. This is an interesting device for an epic novel which explores a theme with several tangled subplots.
Multiple Viewpoints
This is another popular perspective in stories today. The story is told by only one character at a time, but the viewpoint character
switches between two or more characters throughout the course of the novel. This can be a very effective tool when used for the right
reasons. Remember, it has to add something to your story to have it told from different points of view because you lose intimacy and
sometimes momentum by switching from one character to the next and then you increase the danger of losing your reader unless the
transitions are well done.
Point of View vs. Narrator
Point of view is very closely linked with the concept of a narrator. The narrator of a story can be a participant in the story, meaning
this character is a part of the plot, or a non-participant. The point of view in a story refers to the position of the narrator in relation to
the story. For example, if the narrator is a participant in the story, it is more likely that the point of view would be first person, as the
narrator is witnessing and interacting with the events and other characters firsthand. If the narrator is a non-participant, it is more
likely that the point of view would be in third person, as the narrator is at a remove from the events. These are general guidelines, of
course, and there are many exceptions to these rules. Let us look more in depth at the multiple options for narrative point of view.
Types of Point of View
First Person Singular
First person singular point of view uses the “I” pronoun to refer to the narrator. This narrator is usually the protagonist of the story,
and this point of view allows the reader access to the character’s inner thoughts and reactions to the events occurring. All of the action
is processed through the narrator’s perspective, and therefore this type of narrator may be unreliable. The choice to write from an
unreliable first person point of view gives the reader a chance to figure out what is reality and what is a creation on the part of the
narrator. A notoriously unreliable narrator is Humbert Humbert from Vladimir Nabakov’s Lolita:
When I try to analyze my own cravings, motives, actions and so forth, I surrender to a sort of retrospective imagination which feeds
the analytic faculty with boundless alternatives and which causes each visualized route to fork and re-fork without end in the
maddeningly complex prospect of my past.
First Person Plural
This point of view is extremely uncommon in novels, as it uses “we” as the primary pronoun. This implies a group of people narrating
the story at once. While it is unusual now, most Greek tragedies contained a chorus that narrated the events of the play together. To
use this point of view successfully, there must be a sense of group identity, either facing a similar challenge together or placing
themselves in opposition to another “outside” group. For example, the recent novel The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka is about a
group of Japanese women who come to the United States as mail-order brides:
Most of us on the boat were accomplished, and were sure we would make good wives. We knew how to cook and sew. We knew how
to serve tea and arrange flowers and sit quietly on our flat wide feet for hours, saying absolutely nothing of substance at all.
Second Person
Another uncommon point of view is second person, using the “you” pronoun to narrate the story. This point of view either implies that
the narrator is actually an “I” trying to separate himself or herself from the events that he or she is narrating, or allows the reader to
identify with the central character. This was popularized in the 1980s series Choose Your Own Adventure, and appears in the recent
novel Pretty Little Mistakes by Heather McElhatton:
While standing in his parents kitchen, you tell your boyfriend you’re leaving. You’re not going to college. You’re not buying into the
schedules, the credits, or the points. No standardized success for you.
Third Person
This point of view definition uses “he” and “she” as the pronouns to refer to different characters, and provides the greatest amount of
flexibility for the author. There are two main possibilities for the third person point of view: limited and omniscient. In a third person
limited point of view, the reader is privy only to one main character’s thoughts. In this way, it is similar to the first person singular
point of view, since the focus stays tightly on one character. Third person omniscient point of view allows the author to delve into the
thoughts of any character, making the narrator seem godlike. This was a popular point of view in 19th century novels. For example, the
opening of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice presents an all-knowing narrator:
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
Alternating Person
Some novels combine two or more of the above types of point of view. For example, some novels alternate between a first person
singular point of view in some chapters and the third person point of view in other chapters. The Harry Potter series alternates
between third person limited—allowing access to Harry’s thoughts—and third person omniscient when information must be shared
that Harry is not witness to.
Common Examples of Point of View
All of us experience life through a first person singular point of view. When we tell stories from our own lives, most of these stories
are thus from that perspective. However, we also sometimes tell stories in the first person plural if a pair or group of people is
involved throughout the entire story. We also tell many stories from the third person point of view when talking about events at which
we were not present. Here are some examples:
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First person singular: “I had the craziest night last night! I’ll tell you all about it.” First person plural: “New York was great. We went to the Statue of Liberty, we walked around Central Park, and we ate fantastic food. It’s our favorite city.” Third person: “My grandfather was a pilot in the war, and one time he survived a terrible crash.” Significance of Point of View in Literature
The choice of the point of view from which to narrate a story greatly affects both the reader’s experience of the story and the type of
information the author is able to impart. First person creates a greater intimacy between the reader and the story, while third person
allows the author to add much more complexity to the plot and development of different characters that one character wouldn’t be able
to perceive on his or her own. Therefore, point of view has a great amount of significance in every piece of literature. The relative
popularities of different types of point of view have changed over the centuries of novel writing. For example, epistolary novels were
once quite common but have largely fallen out of favor. First person point is view, meanwhile, is quite common now whereas it was
hardly used at all before the 20th century.
Examples of Point of View in Literature
Example #1: First Person Singular
There must have been about two minutes during which I assumed that I was killed. And that too was interesting—I mean it is
interesting to know what your thoughts would be at such a time. My first thought, conventionally enough, was for my wife. My
second was a violent resentment at having to leave this world which, when all is said and done, suits me so well. I had time to feel this
very vividly.
(Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell)
George Orwell writes about his own experiences in the Spanish Civil War in his book Homage to Catalonia. In autobiographical
works, the “I” narrator is the character of the author. Here Orwell relates the experience of getting shot and the thoughts that passed
through his mind directly thereafter.
Example #2: First Person Plural
It didn’t matter in the end how old they had been, or that they were girls, but only that we had loved them, and that they hadn’t heard
us calling, still do not hear us, up here in the tree house, with our thinning hair and soft bellies, calling them out of those rooms where
they went to be alone for all time, alone in suicide, which is deeper than death, and where we will never find the pieces to put them
back together.
(The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides)
Jeffrey Eugenides’s novel The Virgin Suicides is narrated by a collective “we”, who view and comment on a group of five sisters.
Eugenides successfully uses this example of point of view by making the “we” a group of boys who love and try to understand the
girls from afar.
Example #3: Second Person
You get home to your apartment on West 12th Street. It’s a wreck. Like you. No kidding. You wonder if Amanda will ever explain her
desertion. She was a model and she thought you were rich. You never spotted she was an airhead. So what does that make you?
(Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerny)
Jay McInerny’s novel Bright Lights, Big City, is one of the few novels written for adults in the second person point of view. This point
of view example creates a sense of intimacy between the narrator and the reader, implicating the reader in the events of the plot and
relating the powerlessness the narrator has to forestall his own self-destruction.
Example #4: Third Person
The family of Dashwood had long been settled in Sussex. Their estate was large, and their residence was at Norland Park, in the centre
of their property, where, for many generations, they had lived in so respectable a manner as to engage the general good opinion of
their surrounding acquaintance.
(Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen)
The opening to Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility introduces the Dashwood family, and goes on to describe each character in detail.
This is another example of Jane Austen using the third person omniscient point of view and gives her access to all of the character’s
thoughts, desires, and motivations.
Perspective
Perspective is all about a person’s background knowledge and experiences. How do those experiences affect the point of view?
Perspective includes the thoughts, feelings, and actions of the character.
Consider what the character’s biases/prejudices/opinions are because of their background
Perspective is influenced by: age, education, socioeconomic base, upbringing, personal experiences, religion, values and morals