ShmoopTube

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Here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by Edgar Allen Poe. Yeah, Mr. Sunshine and Rainbows himself.

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Which of the following best describes the mood of this passage?

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Oooo Mood rings, these were popular in your parent's days. And here are the possible answers:

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Since the narrator tells us in the first few sentences that he wants revenge on Fortunato,

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we're expecting something bad to happen.

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Really bad.

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So one thing we're sure of right from the get-go is that any word with a positive connotation

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is wrong. This makes "amusing" the easiest choice

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to eliminate. Hint: hardly any of Poe's stories are what

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we'd call amusing. Unless you have a seriously twisted sense of humor.

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(B) is a definite no. "Melancholy" is a feeling of pensive sadness,

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sometimes caused by... nothing at all.

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Plenty of Poe's other characters are about as melancholy as it gets, but this protagonist

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is out for revenge. He's got no time for moping around.

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Choice (C) is incorrect.

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Poe basically invented the horror genre, making "frightening" very tempting. There's

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definitely a slightly scary tone to this specific passage as well, so we won't cross this

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one off just yet. "Ominous" describes the sense that something

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bad is about to happen.

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Think of the moment before you tossed your clock radio into the bath.

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"Ominous" better describes the feeling of tension in the passage than "frightening."

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The frightening part comes later...

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Especially when you're hanging out with Poe.

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So the answer is (A) Ominous.

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