Mood and Tone in Stephen Crane’s “An Experiment in Misery”

    “It was late at night, and a fine rain was swirling softly down, causing the pavements to glisten with hue of steel and blue and yellow in the rays of the innumerable lights. A youth was trudging slowly, without enthusiasm, with his hands buried deep in his trouser’s pockets, towards the down-town places where beds can be hired for coppers. He was clothed in an aged and tattered suit, and his derby was a marvel of dust-covered crown and torn rim. He was going forth to eat as the wanderer may eat, and sleep as the homeless sleep. By the time he had reached City Hall Park he was so completely plastered with yells of “bum” and “hobo,” and with various unholy epithets that small boys had applied to him at intervals, that he was in a state of the most profound dejection. The sifting rain saturated the old velvet collar of his overcoat, and as the wet cloth pressed against his neck, he felt that there no longer could be pleasure in life. He looked about him searching for an outcast of highest degree that they too might share miseries, but the lights threw a quivering glare over rows and circles of deserted benches that glistened damply, showing patches of wet sod behind them. It seemed that their usual freights had fled on this night to better things. There were only squads of well-dressed Brooklyn people who swarmed towards the bridge.”

    — “An Experiment in Misery” by Stephen Crane

    Technique

    In “An Experiment in Misery,” Stephen Crane opens the story with a long introductory paragraph that dwells on an unforgiving setting to set the mood and tone.

    The above paragraph leads with an indifferent cityscape that breeds individualism and isolation, which Crane relays by focusing on the city’s attributes:

    • “late at night”
    • “rain”
    • “steel and blue and yellow … innumerable lights”

    The three examples create a dark city that’s lit by artificial light and drenched in rain, all of which is uninviting. Then Crane transitions to describing the story’s protagonist while maintaining the mood and tone:

    • “trudging … without enthusiasm”
    • “hands buried deep in pockets”
    • “beds can be hired for coppers”
    • “aged and tattered”
    • ‘”bum”‘
    • ‘”hobo”‘
    • “most profound dejection”
    • “he felt that there could no longer be pleasure in life”

    With each description above, Crane deepens the protagonist’s sadness and aimlessness. He focuses on key actions that shift the distant and objective narrator’s perspective lower, such as when describing the protagonist’s hands deep in his pockets and then references to the beds, and then drives it deeper by contrasting the protagonist with the “well-dressed Brooklyn people.”

    Use

    • Identify an emotion that you want to convey on the page and then focus on adjectives within the scope of the emotion to describe either the physical landscape or the character. For example, emotions can be associated with colors to paint the canvas and convey the story’s mood as Crane does.
    • Next, use active verbs to build action in the story. The action should stay in the same scope as the emotion that you’re conveying. For example, if you’re writing about a character who befriends a troublesome group, they may commit a petty crime.