Language Development in Fiction

#1 Creating Mood through Resonance

Back to Comp II page

Back to Comp II Honors

Mood in Fiction

"Mood" in fiction is an ambient or underlying emotional presence in all or portions of a work, one usually intended by the writer. It is a product of either Connotation (emotional qualities of words) or Irony (contrast between what is said and what is implied or suggested). In prose, it is developed through Language, Setting, and Details. In the visual mediums, it can also be developed through color, sound, and cinematic techniques. Mood is created when a pattern of word connotations or ironic contrasts resonates a specific emotional state to the reader. This emotional state or mood is usually a familiar one, either mythically or culturally, and may be in harmony with the fiction (positively reinforcing theme and meaning), or in conflict with it (negatively reinforcing theme and meaning).

What this means is that the mood you feel as a reader in a work of fiction was most likely created by the writer through the repetition of specific words (resonance). Those words can be identified through analysis of the text.

In the next few pages, we'll look more closely at how that analysis works.