Previous
Style
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
Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis:
Narrated by the sincere and amiable Dr. Primrose, The Vicar of Wakefield generally maintains an earnest and lighthearted tone. Although Dr. Primrose is earnest and fixated on his moral principles, Goldsmith nevertheless gives him an evident sense of humor, which shapes his narration. In the first chapter, Dr. Primrose's humor makes an appearance in his otherwise sincere stage-setting when he admits that he and his wife have a clever strategy of making sure bad guests never return:
However, when any one of our relations was found to be a person of very bad character, a troublesome guest, or one we desired to get rid of, upon his leaving my house, I ever took care to lend him a riding coat, or a pair of boots, or sometimes an horse of small value, and I always had the satisfaction of finding he never came back to return them.
Another moment in Dr. Goldsmith's narration that reinforces the lightness of his tone is when he describes the town ladies and notes in a tiny parenthetical that he always feels the need to state Miss Carolina's full name: "Lady Blarney was particularly attached to Olivia; Miss Carolina Wilelmina Amelia Skeggs (I love to give the whole name) took a greater fancy to her sister." Although Dr. Primrose is earnest to a significant degree, he occasionally allows himself to be playful and even to discreetly mock characters he finds ridiculous.
In the first half of the novel, the tone remains high-spirited even when Dr. Primrose and his family come upon hardships. This goes hand in hand with his ability to find hope and optimism in trials and tribulations. As his struggles build, however, the tone grows more distraught and serious. When he is in the prison and has found out that Olivia has died and Sophia has been abducted, he proves no longer able to hold onto his easygoing optimism. This is when he delivers the somber and gripping sermon found in the 29th chapter. The didactic portions of Dr. Primrose's narrations, which increase in number in the novel's latter half, open up the possibility of the earnest tone being ironic. While some scholars take the novel at face value and disagree that the tone is ironic, other scholars believe Goldsmith wrote the novel with satirical intentions.
