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Definition of Tone
The tone of a piece of writing is its general character or attitude, which might be cheerful or depressive, sarcastic or sincere, comical or mournful, praising or critical, and so on. For instance... read full definition
The tone of a piece of writing is its general character or attitude, which might be cheerful or depressive, sarcastic or sincere, comical or mournful, praising or critical... read full definition
The tone of a piece of writing is its general character or attitude, which might be cheerful or depressive, sarcastic or sincere, comical... read full definition
Tone
Explanation and Analysis:
The tone of “The Doll’s House” is both ironic and empathetic. The ironic tone comes across in the way that the narrator channels the harmful and hypocritical views of the upper-class people in this provincial New Zealand town. The absurd and contradictory nature of such views communicate that Mansfield herself is critiquing them rather than endorsing them. The following passage—which comes as the narrator is describing the local elementary school—captures Mansfield’s ironic tone:
[A]ll the children in the neighbourhood, the Judge’s little girls, the doctor’s daughters, the storekeeper’s children, the milkman’s, were forced to mix together […] But the line had to be drawn somewhere. It was drawn at the Kelveys. Many of the children, including the Burnells, were not allowed even to speak to them. They walked past the Kelveys with their heads in the air, and as they set the fashion in all matters of behaviour, the Kelveys were shunned by everybody.
When the narrator states here that “the line had to be drawn somewhere” in relation to the intermingling of children from different socioeconomic backgrounds, readers understand that Mansfield is being tongue-in-cheek. The line does not, of course, need to be drawn when it comes to isolating children from one another on the basis of class. What the narrator goes on to describe is classic bullying behavior (such as shunning particular people) that the children have clearly learned from their prejudiced parents.
Mansfield’s more earnest and empathetic tone comes across in subtle ways throughout the story. When Mansfield describes the quiet way that Else tugs on Lil’s skirt to communicate with her, or the way that Kezia notices and adores the small lamp in the doll house, she uses much gentler language. This is her way of communicating how Else and Kezia—as the two youngest children in the story—retain their childish innocence and how they have been untouched by the biases and cruelty of the older characters.
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