What is Mood?

In a literary work, mood refers to the atmosphere the author creates to arouse emotions in a reader--mood is the overall feeling of the piece, or passage. Author's create the mood through the use of imagery, setting, dialogue, and other literary devices.

The following is a brief list of words used to describe the mood, or overall feeling of a piece of literature:

Positive Mood Words: Negative Mood Words:

amusing anxious

calm apprehensive

cheerful cold

dreamy confusing

exciting cranky

hopeful depressed

light-hearted dreary

mellow enraged

loving foreboding

nostalgic jealous

optimistic lonely

playful melancholic

relaxed nervous

silly nightmarish