Tone and Mood

The Tell-Tale Heart

Mood of "The Tell-Tale Heart"

Mood

• "So I opened it—you cannot imagine how stealthily, stealthily—until, at length, a single dim ray,"

Mood of "The Tell-Tale Heart"

Mood

• "Presently I heard a slight groan, and I knew it was the groan of mortal terror."

Tone of "The Tell-Tale Heart"

Tone

• "Ha!—would a madman have been so wise as this?"

Tone of "The Tell-Tale Heart"

Tone

• "TRUE!—nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?"

The Black Cat

Mood of "The Black Cat"

Mood

• "In speaking of his intelligence, my wife, who at heart was not a little tinctured with superstition, made frequent allusion to the ancient popular notion, which regarded all black cats as witches in disguise.
• This is foreboding of later events relating the cat, and sets an ominous mood

Mood of "The Black Cat"

Mood

• "It was this unfathomable longing of the soul to vex itself—to offer violence to its own nature"

Tone of "The Black Cat"

Tone

• "To me, they have presented little but Horror—to many they will seem less terrible than baroques."
• The narrator states that he is confused and terrified by his story.

Tone of "The Black Cat"

Tone

• "In their consequences, these events have terrified—have tortured—have destroyed me."