Atmosphere – Literary terms

Atmosphere, Literary terms

Atmosphere – Literary terms

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Atmosphere:

The pervasive MOOD or TONE of a literary work gloom, foreboding, joyful expectation--often created and sustained by the author's treatment of landscape or SETTING and use of SYMBOLISM. For example, Emily Brontë's descriptions of the moorland setting of Wuthering Heights establish the powerful sense of thwarted passion and an unavoidable tragedy that is sustained throughout the NOVEL. Edgar Allan Poe creates an atmosphere of foreboding in the opening sentence of his SHORT STORY “The Fall of the House of Usher”:

During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country, and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher.

See also:  

MOOD,

TONE.