Author Study: Edgar Allan Poe Mood and Tone
Analyzing atmosphere, word choice, and author attitude
Author Study: Edgar Allan Poe Mood and Tone
Analyzing atmosphere, word choice, and author attitude
Language Arts - Grade 6-8
- 1
Read the sentence: The candle trembled in the draft, and every shadow on the wall seemed to lean closer. What mood does this sentence create? Explain which words help create that mood.
Mood is the feeling the reader gets from the text.
The sentence creates a tense or eerie mood. Words such as trembled, draft, shadows, and lean closer make the room feel unsafe and mysterious. - 2
Read the sentence: I smiled at my guest, though I had already decided he would never leave the house alive. What is the narrator's tone? Explain your answer.
The narrator's tone is sinister and threatening. The calm statement about smiling while planning harm shows that the narrator is dangerous and dishonest. - 3
In Poe's writing, settings are often old houses, dark rooms, storms, or lonely places. How can setting help create mood in a story?
Think about how a place can make a person feel before anything happens.
Setting can create mood by surrounding the reader with details that suggest fear, sadness, mystery, or danger. An old house or dark storm can make events feel more suspenseful and unsettling. - 4
Read the sentence: The rain tapped at the window like impatient fingers, and the clock counted each second with a hollow click. Identify two examples of personification and explain how they affect the mood.
The rain is described as tapping like impatient fingers, and the clock is described as counting each second. These examples of personification make the room feel tense, watchful, and uncomfortable. - 5
Choose the best word to describe the tone of this passage: The narrator calls the old man kind and harmless, but then says his eye filled him with unbearable hatred. Is the tone joyful, disturbed, playful, or proud? Explain your choice.
Tone is the author's or narrator's attitude toward the subject.
The best word is disturbed. The narrator's extreme hatred toward a harmless old man suggests an unhealthy and unsettling attitude. - 6
Read the two word groups. Group A: bright, cheerful, gentle, warm. Group B: dim, hollow, frozen, lifeless. Which group would better fit a Poe-inspired mood? Explain why.
Group B would better fit a Poe-inspired mood because words such as dim, hollow, frozen, and lifeless create a dark, eerie, and gloomy feeling. - 7
A student says, Mood and tone are the same thing. Write a response that explains the difference between mood and tone.
Mood focuses on the reader's feeling. Tone focuses on the speaker's attitude.
Mood is the feeling created for the reader, such as fear or sadness. Tone is the writer's or narrator's attitude, such as bitter, mocking, nervous, or serious. - 8
Read the sentence: I heard it again, faint but steady, beneath the floorboards: thump, thump, thump. What mood is created by the repetition of the sound? Explain your answer.
The repetition creates a suspenseful and frightening mood. The repeated sound makes the reader expect something terrible to be discovered or revealed. - 9
Rewrite this plain sentence to create a darker, more suspenseful Poe-like mood: The man walked down the hallway at night.
Add details about sound, darkness, movement, or fear.
A strong rewrite should add dark sensory details and suspense, such as: The man crept down the midnight hallway while the walls whispered with every step. The revised sentence creates a darker mood through words like crept, midnight, and whispered. - 10
Look at this description: A cracked mirror hangs above a cold fireplace, and outside the window a black bird watches without moving. What mood does the description create, and what details support your answer?
The description creates a gloomy and unsettling mood. The cracked mirror, cold fireplace, and motionless black bird suggest loneliness, decay, and possible danger.