Watch and Listen http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=_hGhtmzTOEE&feature=related

Watching film evokes certain emotions and feelings from the viewer with the images, music, dialogue, etc. In the same way, writing evokes responses from the reader with the choice of words and writing style.

The tone and mood of your writing is determined by the words you use, and your writing style.

How do you feel?

What is your mood?

Do you think this is how the person who made this film wanted you to feel?

TONE AND MOOD OBJECTIVES:• Identify Tone Within Text

and Film• Identify Mood Within Text

And Film

Is the author’s attitude toward the

writing (his characters, the situation)

and the readers.

A work of writing can have more than one

tone.

An example of tone can be both serious

and humorous. Opinions may be positive or negative.

TONE

Watch!What is the TONE?

Watch the video clip.

Choose 3 words to describe the tone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuWf9fP-A-U Amused Humorous Pessimistic Angry Informal

Accepting

Suspicious

Gloomy Optimisti

c Witty

Serious Formal Playful Cheerful Ironic

Arrogant

Horror Light Miserab

le Strong

Tone in film

Watch!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T5_0AGdFic

Now watch the same video images that have been edited and with different music.

Has the tone changed?

Amused Humorous Pessimistic Angry Informal

Arrogant

Horror Light Miserab

le Strong

Serious Formal Playful Cheerful Ironic

Accepting

Suspicious

Gloomy Optimisti

c Witty

“And the trees all died. They were orange trees. I

don’t know why they died, they just died. Something

wrong with the soil possibly or maybe the stuff we

got from the nursery wasn’t the best. We complained

about it. So we’ve got thirty kids there, each kid had

his or her own little tree to plant and we’ve got these

thirty dead trees. All these kids looking at these little

brown sticks, it was depressing.” The School by Donald Barthelme

What is the tone?What word or words helped you come to your answer?

Tone in text

Answer: The use of adjectives “dead” and

“depressing” sets a gloomy tone

in the passage. As trees signify

life here, their unexpected

“death” from an unknown cause

gives the above passage an 

unhappy and pessimistic 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. From The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

What is the tone?What word or words helped you come to your answer?

Answer:

Frost tells us about his past with a

“sigh” the gives the above lines an

unhappy tone. This tone convinces

us into thinking that Frost is telling

us sullenly of a choice in the past

about which he was not happy or

contented in the present.

The general atmosphere created by

the author’s words.

It is the feeling the reader gets

from reading those words. It may

be the same, or it may change

from situation to situation.

MOOD

HOW IS MOOD CREATED?

• The setting• The use of descriptive words• The punctuation used• The sound of words

All these things work together to create the mood of a text.

MOODS CAN BE POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE

Positive: Hopeful Cheerful Joyous Playful Peaceful

Negative:GloomyViolentTenseHeartbreakin

gPainful

Mood in ImagesWhat mood does this image

create?

violent peaceful playful

What mood does this image create?

gloomy painful cheerful

What mood does this image create?

tension peacefulness

“The river, reflecting the clear blue of the sky, glistened and sparkled as it flowed noiselessly on.”

What is the mood and how do you know?

Charles Dickens creates a calm and peaceful mood in his novel “Pickwick Papers”

The description of this scene causes a serene and nonviolent mood to the readers by using visual imagery.

Mood in text

“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…”

What is the mood and how do you know?

Emily Bronte in “Wuthering Heights”

creates a lonely and depressing mood.

This mood is created by using the words

“misty,” “darkness,” and “never

visible.”

“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.”

What is the mood and how do you know?

This description creates a calm and

peaceful mood using terms such as

“soothingly” and “sweet.”

Tone = Attitude toward

reader/audience,

subject,

and/or characters

Mood = Environment

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN

Tone and MoodWatch out! Tone and mood are similar! REMEMBER Tone is the author’s

attitude toward his/her characters, the subject, and the reader.

A work of writing CAN have more than one tone.

Example of tone could be both serious and humorous.

Tone is set by the setting, choice of vocabulary and other details.