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Metaphors
Definition of Mood
The mood of a piece of writing is its general atmosphere or emotional complexion—in short, the array of feelings the work evokes in the reader. Every aspect of a piece of writing... read full definition
The mood of a piece of writing is its general atmosphere or emotional complexion—in short, the array of feelings the work evokes in the reader. Every aspect... read full definition
The mood of a piece of writing is its general atmosphere or emotional complexion—in short, the array of feelings the work evokes... read full definition
Part 1, Prologue
Explanation and Analysis:
The mood of Don Quixote is primarily comical, though there are also melancholy notes that lend greater depth to Cervantes’s irreverent humor. In the Prologue, Cervantes comments upon the combination of humor and sadness that characterizes the mood of the novel:
I don’t have to swear any oaths to persuade you that I should like this book, since it is the son of my brain, to be the most beautiful, elegant and intelligent book imaginable. But I couldn’t go against the order of nature, according to which like gives birth to like. And to what can my barren and ill-cultivated mind give birth except the history of a dry, shrivelled child, whimsical and full of extravagant fancies that nobody else has ever imagined – a child born, after all, in prison, where every discomfort has its seat and every dismal sound its habitation?
Here, Cervantes acknowledges that he does not regard his book as “the most beautiful, elegant, and intelligent book imaginable.” Jokingly citing his own “barren and ill-cultivated mind,” he describes the book as his “dry, shrivelled child” that is “whimsical and full of extravagant fancies.” Nevertheless, and despite the light-hearted language he uses here, he also reveals, on a far more serious note, that he wrote this book while in prison, a “dismal” place where “every discomfort has its seat.” In reality, Cervantes was in fact imprisoned for misusing funds in his capacity as a tax collector. Throughout the novel, Cervantes establishes a comedic mood with an underlying feeling of sadness and pathos.
