Definition: The writer's attitude towards the material and/or readers. Tone may be playful, formal, intimate, angry, etc.
The narrator's tone is present throughout the entirety of the book, obviously; however, unlike many novels, Dickens's tone is essential in the characterization of the people in the book. Varying from ironic to mocking to tender. His varying tone provides a guideline for the reader's reaction and emotions while reading the book. Their views of the characters are skewed and tainted due to the bias put on them from the author's tone.
Example: "The simple circumstance of being left alone with her husband and Mr. Bounderby was sufficient to stun this admirable lady again without collision between herself and any other fact. So she once more died away, and nobody minded her" (18).
With regard to tone, I think that Dickens chooses an interesting route in which he, as the narrator, gives absolutely no subjective commentary on the situation. Like someone who can tell a blatant lie or fantastical story with an absolutely straight face, Dickens leaves himself resolutely out of the story, and leaves the telling of it up to Fact.
ReplyDeleteThis post looks bare without a textual example, here:
ReplyDeletePage 103: “Mr. Bounderby went every evening to Stone Lodge, as an accepted wooer. Love was made on these occasions in the form of bracelets.”
Page 8: "Orthography, etymology, syntax, and prosody, biography, astronomy, geography, and general cosmography, the sciences of compound proportion, algebra, land-surveying and leveling, vocal music, and drawing from models, were all at the ends of his ten chilled fingers. He had worked his stony way into Her Majesty's most Honourable Privy Council's Schedule B, and had taken the bloom off the higher branches of mathematics and physical science, French, German, Latin, and Greek..."
All the instances of absurdity in the book are devoid of sarcasm, comment, scoffing remark, or any other method of characterizing his statements as ridiculousness. I'm sure dickens told a great joke or two in his day.