Difference Between Tone and Mood

A story, a fictional work or any literature is based on a theme, a plot, a setting and a mood that makes the story running.

Key Takeaways

1. Tone refers to the author’s attitude toward the subject matter or audience, conveyed through word choice and writing style; the mood is the emotional atmosphere or feeling evoked in the reader by a text.
2. The tone is expressed by the author, while the reader experiences mood.
3. Both tone and mood contribute to the overall impact of a piece of writing, influencing the reader’s emotions and interpretation of the text.

Tone vs Mood

The difference between tone and mood of literature or novel is that the tone is a way or manner in which the work progresses, it is the perspective or point of view of the author, on the other hand, the mood of the literature is the emotional or mental state that the author conveys and the reader reads, it is mainly the perspective of the reader.

The tone of the story is the manner in which the story progresses or the way in which the story is written and the mood of the story are emotions conveyed in the story.

Comparison Table

Parameter of Comparison	Tone	Mood
Basic meaning	The tone is a manner or way in which a literary work is written.	The mood is an emotional or mental state that a person can feel.
Perspective relates to	The tone of the literary work is the perspective of the author or it can be said that it is the point of view of the author.	The mood of the literary work is the perspective of the reader or how he or she feels in a certain situation.
Refers to	The tone of a literature refers to the feeling or thoughts of an author, it shows what and how an author thinks about something.	The mood of a literature refers to the emotions conveyed by the author in his work.
Ways to identify	The tone of the literary works can be identified by its diction and details.	The mood of the literary work is identified by the plot or setting, characters, dialogues and dictions.
Examples	Some of the examples of tones of a literary work are seriousness, humourous, amusing, ironic, suspicious, etc.	Some of the examples of mood conveyed through works are happiness, anger, pity, fun, jealousy, etc.

What is Tone?

The tone of a literature is how the work is written and progresses, it is the atmosphere in which the story has been set up.

The tone of most of the works can be identified or understood by the diction and details and use of words. The author may set up a story in a positive tone, a negative tone of a neutral tone.

What is Mood?

The mood is an emotional or mental state that a person is able to feel while reading the story or any fictional work.

The mood of the story is the emotion that the author conveys and the reader perceives, however, it is mostly dependent on the perspective of the reader.

The tone of the literary work can be identified or understood by the plot or setting, characters, dialogues and diction of any story.

Main Differences Between Tone and Mood

1. The tone of the literary works can be identified by the diction and details of the work, on the other hand, the mood of the literary work is dependent on the reader, therefore, it is up to him how he feels about the situations in the story, what he feels for characters, plots, dialogues, etc.
2. Some examples of the tones followed in stories are seriousness, amusing, humorous, irony, suspicion, etc, on the other hand, the examples of the moods in the story are happiness, anger, pity, jealousy, etc.

References

1. http://search.proquest.com/openview/5b9bd9259bab50c7f7788943f5b7e646/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=33274
2. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4185264