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