Tone, Mood, and Point of View

Both the tone and mood are important to how the reader understands a story. While students often confuse these two concepts, they are actually very different. The tone of a written work is what the author feels and portrays towards the characters, the story, or the audience of a story. The author can set forth his or her tone by using specific words. An author's tone can be obvious and stated, or it can be implied.

The mood is what the reader feels when he or she reads a story. When you are trying to identify the mood of a work, it may be helpful to ask yourself "How does this make me feel?" Spend a few minutes looking over the words in the table below. This may help give you some insight into the differences between tone and mood.

Words Associated with Tone	Words Associated with Mood
admiring affectionate ambiguous appreciative bitter comic complimentary derogatory excited flippant formal funny happy hilarious hopeful humorous hostile impatient ironic playful reflective respectful romantic sarcastic scholarly sentimental serene serious sympathetic tender	amused annoyed anxious calm cheerful confused content determined disappointed empowered excited grateful heartbroken loving nervous nostalgic passionate peaceful pleased refreshed relaxed relieved romantic scared sentimental silly surprised sympathetic thankful worried

Point of View

When an author writes a story, he or she chooses a specific way to tell the story to the reader. Sometimes, the author will use a narrator who is a character in the story. Other times, the narrator will be someone removed from the story. This choice is called point of view. Point of view is the angle, or perspective, from which a story is told. In this interactivity, explore each of the different types of point of view by clicking on each of the icons. Click the player button to begin

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The point of view of a story can affect the way the reader perceives the story's mood, or a character's motivations. When you are given the thoughts and feelings of only one character, or a limited number of characters, you have to make assumptions about the other characters. It is like only getting half of the story. When you are reading a story, pay attention to the point of view from which it is being told. How the story is told can affect how you perceive the different characters.

Think about it this way. Your friend comes to school and is visibly upset. You ask what is wrong. Your friend informs you that she had a fight with her mother. When you ask for more details, your friend says her mother yelled at her for no reason this morning and was just being mean. As a result of the argument, your friend has been grounded for the weekend. You sympathize with your friend, but did you get the whole story? Was your friend's mother really being mean for no reason at all? You really do not know, as you are only getting the thoughts and feelings from your friend, and not your friend's mother.

"The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe

You may already be familiar with the author Edgar Allan Poe. In the 19th century, he wrote many stories that still haunt readers today, such as the poem "The Raven" or the short story "The Tell-Tale Heart." Poe loved the macabre, and stories of death and revenge were his specialty. In "The Cask of Amontillado," Poe deals with revenge in a very twisted way.

This story is set in Europe (probably Italy) in an earlier century during Carnival, which is similar to modern-day Mardi Gras. Think about Mardi Gras today; it is celebrated to mark the beginning of the Catholic season of Lent. Lent is a time of fasting in the Catholic tradition. Observers of Lent are supposed to give up something they like, such as chocolate. Lent begins on a Wednesday, approximately forty days before Easter, and so the Carnival, or celebration, of the day before (now called Fat Tuesday) is usually a big one involving enjoying whatever a person plans to give up. People attending the celebration dress in costume, and it all takes place in the town center. In this story, Poe's two characters will meet at this celebration; one of them is in costume and has been having a good time. The other character is dressed in a dark cape and wearing a black silk mask. Amontillado is a wine, which closely resembles sherry.

Also important to the setting is an old custom in some European cities of keeping the family crypt (or graves) in the basement or foundation area of the house. These were very large houses, and the basement area would go very deep. These crypts could hold the remains of several generations of the family or families who lived in the house.

Vocabulary in "The Cask of Amontillado"

Edgar Allan Poe is well-known not only for scary stories, but also for the interesting vocabulary he uses in his stories. Often, he uses words that are difficult to understand, but are important to the tone and mood of his stories. In this interactivity, explore some terms that he uses in "The Cask of Amontillado," and refer back to them as you read the story. Click the player button to begin.

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Tone, Mood, and Point of View Review

Now that you have examined tone and mood, review your knowledge in this non-graded activity. Read each excerpt and then determine which of the provided words is associated with the mood and which is associated with tone. Drag and drop the words into the correct blanks and click SUBMIT to check your responses. Click the player button to get started.