Section IV tonal system theoretical preliminaries

There is no art without emotion. Fiction (as all other art-forms) appeals to the reader through the senses and evokes responsive emotions. In fiction the representation of reality, as has already been noted, is always a subjective reflection. Fiction is therefore affected by the author's view of the world, his outlook, his personal attitude to it. That is why in fiction the representation of reality can never be entirely neutral. In every literary work the writer's feelings and emotions are reflected in the tone, attitude and atmosphere.

Atmosphere is the general mood of a literary work. It is affected by such strands of a literary work as the plot, setting, characters, details, symbols, and language means. Thus, in The Oval Portrait E. A. Poe sets the story in a remote turret of an abandoned castle. The main event takes place at midnight. The oval portrait is in a niche and "in deep shade". All these details; the language and the fantastic history of the portrait create the mysterious atmosphere (or mood) of the tale.

The author's attitude is his view of the characters and actions. It reflects his judgement of them. The author's attitude establishes the moral standards according to which the reader is to make his judgements about the problems raised in the story. The reader is expected to share the author's attitude.

The attitude of a writer to his subject matter determines the tone of the story. The tone is the light in which the characters and events are depicted. The tone, therefore, is closely related to atmosphere and attitude.

Tone in oral speech is a component of intonation and is one of the prosodic means of expressing the speaker's attitude to the subject matter (i.e. to what is being said) and to his interlocutor (i.e. to whom it is said). Tone is so important in oral communication that it can overrule the sense of the grammatical structure of an utterance or the lexical meanings of words. Thus "You like it?" pronounced with a rising tone is taken for a question though the word-order, i. e. the grammatical structure is that of a statement. "Yes" with a falling tone means "It is so". "Yes" pronounced with a falling-rising tone signifies "It may be so". In fiction there are two aspects of tone, too.

Tone expresses the relationship between the author (or narrator) and the subject matter. Hence it may be sympathetic, or impassive, cheerful or serious, vigorous or matter-of-fact, humorous or melancholy and so on. On the other hand, tone expresses the relationship between the author (or narrator) and the reader. Hence the tone may be familiar or official. There are scales of variations of tone. Thus, the tone may be casual, familiar, impolite, defiant, offensive; it may be sarcastic, ironical, sneering or bitter.

Tone in oral speech is primarily conveyed by modulations of the voice pitch, whereas in written speech the tone is mainly conveyed verbally, primarily by emotionally coloured words. For example, the indices of the somber and gloomy tone in The Oval Portrait are such words as "gloom", "deep midnight", "deep shadow", "dreamy stupour", "vague yet deep shadow", "vague and quaint words", etc.

The tone in the fantastic history of the oval portrait is lyrical and dramatic. Its indices are as follows:

(a) emotionally coloured words, such as "glee", "cherishing", "pined", "dreading", "passionate",' "austere", "ardour", "entranced", "aghast";

(b) an extensive use of imagery created by similes ("frolicsome as the young fawn", "the spirit ... flickered up as the flame within the socket of the lamp"); epithets ("rarest beauty", "lone turret", "fervid and burning pleasure", "mighty marvel"; metaphors ("the light dripped", "withered the health and spirits of the bride", "lost in reveries");

(c) poetic words, such as "wrought", "took glory in his work", "beheld"";

(d) poetic structures, such as "wrought day and night to depict her, who so loved him", "there were admitted none into the turret", "were drawn from the cheeks of her, who sat ...", "but little remained to do";

(e) intensifies, as in "the light which fell so ghastly", "to depict her who so loved him", "so surpassingly well", "very pallid", "on and still on";

(f) polysyndeton, as in "And he was a passionate, .and wild, and moody man", "he grew tremulous and very pallid, and aghast, and crying ...".

The fantastic history is remarkably rhythmical due to the numerous parallel constructions ("loving and cherishing all things, hating only ..., dreading only ..."), anaphora ("But she was humble ... But he ... "), doublets ("all light arid smiles", "humble and obedient", "from hour to hour", "from day to day"), triplets ("she saw, and loved, and wedded the painter", "he, passionate, studious, austere", "pallet and brushes and other toward instruments", "passionate, and wild, and moody"), alliteration of sonorants ("all light and smiles, and frolicsome as the young fawn, loving", "yet she smiled on, and still on uncomplain­ingly"). The syntax and the subtle choice of vocabulary seem to obey a strict orderly arrangement which results in brilliant rhythm, a lyrical and dramatic tone, a style which is characteristic of "poetic prose'' i.е. an elaborately constructed prose with devices of poetry. The interaction of rhythm, style and tone generally establishes and maintains a mood, or an atmosphere. In The Oval Portrait this interaction sets the events in a distant time and a mysterious place, tunes the reader to romantic descriptions and arouses fantastic expectations.

Tone-shifts often occur in fiction and may accompany not only a change in the subject, but also a change in the narrative method or in the style. In The Oval Portrait tone-shifts accompany the changes in both the narrative method and style (the first part of the tale is a first-person narration with stylistic features typical of emotive prose, whereas the second part is a third-person narration written in the conventional style of English folk tales).

Thus the main indices of tone in fiction are the author's choice of words and structures, stylistic devices and setting. But those signals are not sufficient when detecting humour or irony, which are generally a stumbling block for non-native readers. That is why humour and irony require special attention.

Humour is a device used in fiction and intended to cause laughter. The object of humour may be a funny incident or an odd feature of human character. The essence of humour is generally warmth, sympathy, fellow feeling. Schiller compared it with "the playful teasing fondness of a mother to her child". Humour requires wit and sensibility on the part of the humorist. Addison gives humour its genealogy. He says that Truth was the founder of the family, and father of Good Sense. His son was Wit who married Mirth, and Humour was their child.

A humorous tone is created by an apt usage of deliberate exaggerations (or hyperbole), a round-about way of naming things (or periphrasis), unexpected comparison (or simile), jargonisms, dialectal words, words whiсh sound amusing in the particular situation because they do not belong in it. The usage of these means often produces humorous effect and testifies to the inventiveness and wit of the author. For example, in O'Henry's story The Cop and the Anthem humour is attained by unexpected occurrence of foreign and learned words in very homely situations: "It seemed that his route to the coveted Island was not to be an epicurean one. Some other way of entering limbo must be thought of." Or again, 'The persecuted young woman had but to beckon a finger and Soapy would be practically en route for his insular haven". Unexpected combinations of words, such as "insular haven" or "He seemed doomed to liberty" also contribute to the humorous effect.

But humour may be achieved even when the tone is not humorous. Some writers like M. Twain, St. Leacock often develop humour using a mock -serious tone, maintaining all the while a perfectly "straight face". In such cases humour is developed through situation and character. Humour may be attained by a funny incident when a character finds himself in an amusing or ridiculous situation, or by a comical personage who says or does absurd things. Humour may be achieved by unex­pected turns of events which catch the reader off guard, amazing and amusing him.

The sense of humour both on the part of the writer and that of the reader depends on the nature of the mind and awareness of national cultural specifications. That makes it difficult to detect humour in foreign literature.

The following diagram summarizes the indices of humour.

Humour is developed

Linguistically	Extra-linguistically
Deliberate exaggeration (hyperbole) Unexpected comparison (simile) A round-about way of naming things (periphrasis) The use of words which are not generally used in such situations (jargonisms, dialectal words, learned words etc.) Etc.	A comical character A funny incident or ridiculous situation Any literary technique with an amusing effect (An unexpected turn of events, retardation, surprise ending etc.) Etc.

When the writer ridicules social vices and weaknesses of human nature that are typical of social groups or classes, the humour is then ironical or satirical humour. Mistaken Identity serves to be an illustra­tion of satirical humour. In a most amusing, way the writer ridicules such socially conditioned vices as servility and vanity. Humour is intended to improve imperfections by means of laughter, whereas irony always conveys an obviously negative attitude and is intended to mock and satirize.

On what basis do we infer that what we are reading is ironical?

Irony is generally defined as a double sense based on contrast between the explicitly expressed and the implied meaning. In its turn, the implied is always the direct opposite of what is actually said. Thus, a word or a statement in a particular context or situation may acquire a meaning opposite to what it has as a rule. The irony suggests the discrepancy between the word or statement and its actual sense, which is the true one and which the intelligent reader is expected to infer. For example, "This is beautiful weather!" (when the weather is bad). The word beautiful is the direct opposite of what it literally means. In oral communication beautiful would be marked by ironical intonation, whereas in writing it might be marked by means of italics, inverted commas or it might not be marked at all. As a rule, the ironist does not tell us directly that he is being ironical. That is why it is generally considered that detecting irony depends on one's intelligence.

When reading fiction we might sometimes fail to detect irony even if the author's intention was to be ironical, or we might tend to perceive irony in what was not meant to be ironical at all. What types of irony should the readers of fiction be aware of to be able to understand the real intentions of the author? For this purpose one should distinguish three types of irony in fiction: verbal irony, irony of situation and dramatic irony.

Verbal irony is a figure of speech in which the literal meaning of a word or statement is the opposite of the intended meaning (as in the case of “This is beautiful weather!”). It is used to make а contemptible, bitter or satirical remark about a person, thing or phenomenon in words which generally denote all kinds of approval, praise or admiration.

Irony may be extended over a whole story and may be created extralinguistically by contrasting what the character seeks by his actions and what he obtains. This is 'irony of situation' or 'irony of fate'.

Irony of situation arises from the contrast between how a set of circumstances looks on the surface and what it actually is in reality. It is a literary technique based on the discrepancy between what is intended when one acts and what the result is. For example, the story The Cop and the Anthem by O'Henry affords an excellent example of situational irony. The series of actions which Soapy intentionally undertakes to get into prison fail, whereas the final scene, when he decides to reform, results in an unexpected arrest. The story also abounds in verbal irony. For example, the reader senses the writer's ironic attitude and tone in the following: "When wild geese honk high of nights, and when women without sealskin coats grow kind to their husbands, and when Soapy moves uneasily on his bench in the park, you may know that winter is near at hand." The generic present tense in this statement makes it sound as a generally acknowledged truth. But nobody can accept it as a universal truth and that also contributes to the ironical effect it produces.

Dramatic irony is a literary technique in which the reader understands the actual meaning of what is happening, but the character does not. Mistaken Identity by M. Twain contains dramatic irony: the reader knows that the narrator is mistakenly identified, as he is informed about it in the title of the story, but the narrator believes that he is recognized and known for what he really is.

There is a second variant of dramatic irony when the author adopts the characters wrong viewpoint in order finally to ridicule him/her and reveal his/her naivety. The contrast between the adopted viewpoint and the author's viewpoint results in irony. Such is the case in The Lady's Maid by K. Mansfield, where irony is developed by contrasting the point of view of the naive narrator and that of the author. The irony is clearly felt despite the lively and friendly tone of the maid’s narrative.

One should, therefore, distinguish between the authorial tone and the character’s tone. Recall the story Arrangement in Black and White. The tone of the main character is lively, vigorous, excited. At the same time the story is a manifestation of the author's ironic attitude to radically prejudiced Americans. The irony is created by the contrast between the protagonist's simulated friendliness towards Negroes and her actual prejudiced attitude to them. The character's vigorous tone is expressed verbally, whereas the authorial ironic tone is implied.

Therefore, when irony is developed verbally, it affects the tone of the narrative and gives it an ironic ring. But when it is developed by extra-linguistic means, the tone need not be ironical.

One should distinguish between the prevailing tone of a literary work and emotional overtones, which may accompany particular scenes in the story. They all form a "tonal system" which reflects the changes of the narrator's attitude to his subject matter. The emotional overtones generally form a “tonal unity”, which means a consistency of attitudes towards the events and characters. This consistency of attitudes is reflected in the consistent use of language appropriate to the events and characters. The tonal unity forms the prevailing tone of the story, which plays the dominant role and determines to a great extent the message of the literary work.

In The Cop and the Anthem the emotional overtones vary as the plot unfolds. The tone is humorous in the following passage: "If he could reach a table in the restaurant unsuspected success would be his...The total would not be so high as to call forth any supreme manifestation of revenge from cafe management; and yet the meat would leave him filled and happy for the journey to his winter refuge". The tone is dramatic in "He would pull himself out of the mire; he would make a man of himself again; he would conquer the evil that had taken possession of him... "But the prevailing tone of the story is ironic. It is produced by the numerous cases of verbal irony in the narrative and reflects the author's attitude to the problem raised.

As stated above, the tone expresses not only the relationship between the narrator and the subject matter, but also the relationship between the narrator and the reader.

The narrator may establish an intimate, personal, or formal relationship with the reader. Hence he may discourse at ease and assume a familiar tone, or he may retain a relative distance and narrate in an official tone. The indices of this aspect of tone are also linguistic.

The official tone is set up by words and idioms that have an official ring, e.g. "relevant"(for “important”), "up to the present time" (for “up-to-now”), “Permit me to inform you” (for “Let me inform you”). It may be set up by carefully organized syntax and carefully expressed ideas admitting no deviations from the standard. In general, the official tone accompanies narratives with a well-defined progression of ideas.

The familiar tone is established by features of the spoken language, the conversational style in particular. To these features belong col­loquial words and idioms. Informality of tone may be аchieved bу the occurrence of very formal language alongside jargonisms and slang, without its being linguistically inappropriate, since that is a characteristic feature of conversation. Delaying formulas (e.g. "sort of”, “well”, “shall I say”), colloquial parenthetic phrases (e. g. “you know what I mean”), disregard of the end focus principle by placing the nucleus not in final position (e. g. “Fine you think it is”) – all contribute to the establishment of a personal relationship between the narrator and the reader, at the same time they set up a familiar tone. It ought to be added that in fictional speech such signals also function as effective means of characterization, individualization and verisimilitude.

The familiar tone in J. Turner's amusing story The Night the Bed Fell is maintained by an abundance of means traditionally used in spoken conversational style. Among them are colloquial idioms ("one of those affairs" for "a cottage"), colloquial words ("wobbly", “bawl", "yell", "quit"), repetition which is generally avoided in other styles ("exchanged shout for shout", "By this time my mother, still shouting, pursued by Herman, still shouting, was trying, to..."). The narrator is at his ease and sets up a very personal relationship with the reader assuming an informal tone which is in keeping with the domesticity of the subject of his narrative. The tone of the story is familiar, on the one hand, and vigorous, excited and humorous, on the other. Deliberate exaggerations, unexpected comparisons, the prevalence of physical descriptions containing vocabulary which appeals to our hearing and to our sight contribute greatly to the humorous effect the story produces.

Finally, it should be stated that tone, attitude and atmosphere are important elements of any literary work, which affect the reader's emotional response. The analysis of tone, attitude and atmosphere is a move towards the underlying thoughts and ideas contained in the work; it can be seen as a link between the surface content and all that lies beneath it.