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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
Chapter 9
Explanation and Analysis:
The mood of Absalom, Absalom! is bitter and agitated, reflecting the numerous intergenerational conflicts and tensions that prove highly destructive to Thomas Sutpen and his various descendants. Just as the South, in Faulkner's depiction, has never truly moved on from its loss in the Civil War, so too are many characters in the novel unable to move on from their own pasts, holding onto resentments for decades.
In one passage, Quentin's friend Shreve, a fellow student at Harvard, listens to Quentin's story and characterizes Miss Rosa as figure who couldn't allow herself to let Thomas Sutpen "lie dead in peace" even though he died 50 years earlier:
You dont even know about her. Except that she refused at the last to be a ghost. That after almost fifty years she couldn’t reconcile herself to letting him lie dead in peace. That even after fifty years she not only could get up and go out there to finish up what she found she hadn’t quite completed, but she could find someone to go with her and bust into that locked house because instinct or something told her it was not finished yet.
While many of those living in the South are characterized by Faulkner as "ghosts" who have all but given up on life after the Civil War, Shreve insists that Rosa "refused at the last to be a ghost" and instead continues to fight old battles. She has resented Thomas Sutpen for half of a century following his insulting offer to marry her only after she bears him a son. Instead of moving on and beginning a new life, Shreve argues, Rosa still seeks to "finish up what she found she hadn't quite completed," keeping a close eye on the old Sutpen estate due to an instinctive feeling that the story of Sutpen and his descendants "was not finished yet."
Related Themes:
