How is the mood created in Our Town by Thornton Wilder?

Literary mood, also called , is created by a
combination of many elements including , setting, description and . Mood is something that has a
focus within the setting. It is sometimes confused with the narrator's "tone" but is
different in that the narrator's tone (or tone of voice) has a focus outside the setting. For
example, a calm narrator can tell a scary ghost story: the tone is calm the mood is
scary.

As in all literature and drama, mood in created in
by a combination of setting, diction, characterization, and description.
Examples of how setting and diction contribute to mood are as follows.

Setting has a lot to do with mood in that the stage is starkly dressed, in fact, almost
empty. Another element contributing to mood is that the scenes jump and time jumps with little
feeling of a flow of continuity. In fact, the Stage Manager's speeches are needed to establish
the continuity that is missing otherwise.

Diction is the choice of words and
includes high, low, formal, informal, , concrete, abstract. The vocabulary of the narrative
established the mood as well and the tone of the narrator and the style of the author.

In this case, the diction is low and informal with some trace of dialect as in
"our mount'in." the vocabulary is concrete talking about stars, mountains, main
Street, churches; these are all concrete objects. The dialogue between characters is generally
carried on in short sentences and often only one sentence per speaker: "Morning, Joe."
"Somebody been sick, Doc?" "No. Just some twins born over in Polish
Town."