We're usually going for spooky around Halloween, but in 

literature, atmosphere refers
to the feeling, emotion, or mood a writer conveys to a reader through the description of
setting and objects. In the Harry Potter tales, J.K.
Atmosphere in Literature: Definition & Examples

Atmosphere
Definition of Atmosphere
A literary technique, atmosphere is a type of feeling that readers get from
a narrative, based on details such as setting, background, objects,
and foreshadowing. A mood can serve as a vehicle for establishing
atmosphere. In literary works, atmosphere refers to emotions or feelings an
author conveys to his readers through description of objects and settings,
such as in J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter tales, in which she spins a whimsical
and enthralling atmosphere. Bear in mind that atmosphere may vary
throughout a literary piece.

Difference Between Atmosphere and Mood

Many people use both terms interchangeably, as there is no concrete difference between them.
However, in literature we find a mild difference. This is because atmosphere is a broader term,
and may be set by a certain venue, such as a theater.

However, mood is a more specific and narrow term, concerning emotions of a certain individual
or group of individuals, and it does not incorporate the emotions or feelings radiating throughout
a venue. Simply, mood is about internal feelings, while atmosphere exists at a particular spot.
Besides, a mood contributes for building up the entire atmosphere of a narrative.

Examples of Atmosphere in Literature

Example #1: An Unspoken Hunger (By Terry Tempest Williams)

“It is an unspoken hunger we deflect with knives – one avocado between us, cut
neatly in half, twisted then separated from the large wooden pit. With the green fleshy
boats in hand, we slice vertical strips from one end to the other. Vegetable planks. We
smother the avocado with salsa, hot chiles at noon in the desert. We look at each other
and smile, eating avocados with sharp silver blades, risking the blood of our tongues
repeatedly.”

Here, Williams creates a dangerous atmosphere, where she presents the hazards of knives and
avocados. In fact, when an author tries to establish atmosphere by using objects, these objects
represent unspoken reality. Besides, appearance of two characters also adds to a sexually charged
atmosphere.

Example #2: The Vision (By Dean Koontz)

“The woman raised her hands and stared at them; stared through them.
Her voice was soft but tense. ‘Blood on his hands.’ Her own hands were clean and
pale.”

When we read these lines, they immediately bring to our mind an emotional response, and draw
our attention. This is exactly what atmosphere does in a literary work.

Example #3: The Raven (By Edgar Allen Poe)

“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore –
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door –
“Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door –
Only this and nothing more.”

In this excerpt, the experience of readers is suspenseful and exciting, as they anticipate horror
due to feelings within the narrative. As we see, this character hears tapping on the door and,
when opens it, he finds nobody there, only darkness; making the atmosphere fearful and tense.

Example #4: A Tale of Two Cities (By Charles Dickens)

Charles Dickens, in A Tale of Two Cities, creates an important atmosphere whenever a major
event occurs in a plot. For instance, we see a ghostly mood of a messenger’s entrance in Dover
mail, which indicates things of the future. Then, Dickens builds up an atmosphere through the
actions of his characters in the room of Dr. Manetas.

Within this, the author gives attributes to these places with different concepts and ideas. For
instance, when Jerry goes to find Dover mail, to convey a message to Mr. Lorry, Dickens creates
a gloomy and mysterious atmosphere, alluding to the darker end. Another type of atmosphere we
see in the courtroom towards the end. During the scene, you would notice the public is searching
and buzzing for victim after victim. Thus Dickens links the atmosphere of this place with death.

Function of Atmosphere
The purpose of establishing atmosphere is to create emotional effect. It makes a literary work
lively, fascinating, and interesting by keeping the audience more engaged. It appeals to the
readers’ senses by making the story more real, allowing them to comprehend the idea easily.
Since atmosphere makes the audience feel in an indirect way, writers can convey harsh feelings
with less severity. Writers control the impact of prevailing atmosphere by changing the
description of settings and objects.

Setting and Atmosphere

  

Quick revise
After studying this section you should be able to:

 understand the importance of setting in a novel

 recognise some of the ways that writers can create settings and a sense of place
 see how the setting of a novel can be an important influence on other aspects of
the narrative

The setting of a novel can be an important element and can be closely related to the
development of the plot. Setting can be much more than a simple ‘backdrop’ against
which the action takes place and often can be closely bound up with the characters
themselves. For example, in Jane Austen’s novel, Emma, the action is set in Highbury
which is described as ‘a large and populous village almost amounting to a town’. The
main storyline of the novel concerns the social status of the various families in Highbury.
Although Austen gives little description of the setting, because her main focus is on the
social interaction between the various characters, she does occasionally give a glimpse
of the surroundings. In this short extract, for example, she gives us the description of
the grounds of Donwell Abbey, the home of Mr Knightley.
It was hot; and after walking some time over the gardens in a scattered, dispersed way,
scarcely any three together, they insensibly followed one another to the delicious shade
of a broad short avenue of limes, which stretching beyond the garden at an equal
distance from the river, seemed the finish of the pleasure grounds. – It led to not nothing
but a view at the end over a low stone wall with high pillars, which seemed intended, in
their erection, to give the appearance of an approach to the house, which never had
been there. Disputable, however, as might be the taste of such a termination, it was in
itself a charming walk, and the view which closed it extremely pretty. – The considerable
slope, at nearly the foot of which the Abbey stood gradually acquired a steeper form
beyond its grounds; and at half a mile distant was a bank of considerable abruptness
and grandeur, well clothed with wood; – and at the bottom of this bank, favourably
placed and sheltered, rose the Abbey-Mill Farm, with meadows in front, and the river
making a close and handsome curve around it. It was a sweet view – sweet to the eye
and the mind. English verdure, English culture, English comfort, seen under a sun bright
without being oppressive.

from Emma by Jane Austen

Progress check
Look carefully at this description.
  What does the physical situation of the Abbey compared with Abbey-Mill Farm
tell you?
 What is your overall impression of the description?
 What sort of man do you think would would own the Abbey?

In other novels the setting can play a much more significant role. In Hardy’s The Return
of the Native, for example, the story is set against the imposing background of Egdon
Heath. The presence of this wild and untamed heath exerts such an influence on the
action in terms of mood and atmosphere that some critics have described it as almost
becoming a character in itself. Hardy gives a good deal of attention to creating a sense
of the heath’s wildness, as in this description with which the novel opens:
A SATURDAY afternoon in November was approaching the time of twilight, and the vast
tract of unenclosed wild known as Egdon Heath embrowned itself moment by moment.
Overhead the hollow stretch of whitish cloud shutting out the sky was as a tent which
had the whole heath for its floor.

The heaven being spread with this pallid screen and the earth with the darkest
vegetation, their meeting-line at the horizon was clearly marked. In such contrast the
heath wore the appearance of an instalment of night which had taken up its place
before its astronomical hour was come: darkness had to a great extent arrived hereon,
while day stood distinct in the sky. Looking upwards, a furze-cutter would have been
inclined to continue work; looking down, he would have decided to finish his faggot and
go home. The distant rims of the world and of the firmament seemed to be a division in
time no less than a division in matter. The face of the heath by its mere complexion
added half an hour to evening; it could in like manner retard the dawn, sadden noon,
anticipate the frowning of storms scarcely generated, and intensify the opacity of a
moonless midnight to a cause of shaking and dread.

In fact, precisely at this transitional point of its nightly roll into darkness the great and
particular glory of the Egdon waste began, and nobody could be said to understand the
heath who had not been there at such a time. It could best be felt when it could not
clearly be seen, its complete effect and explanation lying in this and the succeeding
hours before the next dawn: then, and only then, did it tell its true tale. The spot was,
indeed, a near relation of night, and when night showed itself an apparent tendency to
gravitate together could be perceived in its shades and the scene. The sombre stretch
of rounds and hollows seemed to rise and meet the evening gloom in pure sympathy,
the heath exhaling darkness as rapidly as the heavens precipitated it. And so the
obscurity in the air and the obscurity in the land closed together in a black fraternization
towards which each advance half-way.

From The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy

Progress check
Look at the passage carefully.

 What kind of language does Hardy use to describe the heath?

  What imagery does he use and what effects does it create?
 What kind of mood and atmosphere are associated with the heath?
 What is your overall impression of the heath?

KEY POINT - The setting and atmosphere that the writer creates can be important
elements in the novel. Be aware of the kind of settings used, the differing moods and
atmospheres created and how the writer creates them.
Progress check
Now look at the novel you are studying. Make notes on the setting or settings that the
writer creates. What kind of atmosphere is created in the novel?
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