Style, Tone, and Diction

Style- the language conventions used to construct the story; style is the distinctive and unique manner in which a writer arranges words to achieve particular effects. A fiction writer can manipulate diction, sentence structure, phrasing, dialogue, and other aspects of language used to create style. Style combines the idea to be expressed with the individuality of the author.

"Time for bed! A time of ecstasy, throbbing with shame and rapture, when souls unite, and desire is aroused and then drowned! Bedtime with all its delights and deceptions! Time of painful paradox, which is sometimes the hour of our death " (Borel, "Andreas Vesalius" 75).

Tone- The attitude of the story towards its subject matter. Tone is the author's implicit attitude toward the reader or the people, places, and events in a work as revealed by the elements of the author's style. Tone may be characterized as serious or ironic, sad or happy, private or public, angry or affectionate, bitter or nostalgic, or any other attitudes and feelings that human beings experience.

"There is one end of the room where it is almost intact, and there, when the crosslights fade and the low sun shines directly upon it, I can almost fancy radiation after all,--the interminable grotesques seem to form around a common center and rush off in headlong plunges of equal distraction.
It makes me tired to follow it. I will take a nap I guess.
I dont know why I should write this.
I don't want to.
I don't feel able.
And I know John would think it absurd. But I must say what I feel and think in some way-- it is such a relief!" (Perkins Stetson, "The Yellow Wall-Paper" 255)

Exercise: The style and tone of this passage shift as the narrator recounts the murder of the old man in "The Tell-Tale Heart." How would you characterize the style and tone in this passage? What language and structure features does Poe use to produce these effects? 

But even yet I refrained and kept still. I scarcely breathed. I held the lantern motionless. I tried how steadily I could maintain the ray upon the eye. Meantime, the hellish tattoo of the heart increased. It grew quicker and quicker, and louder and louder every instant. The old man's terror must have been extreme! It grew louder, I say, louder, every moment!-- do you mark me well I have told you that I am nervous: so I am. And now at the dead hour of the night, amid the dreadful silence of that old house, so strange a noise as this excited me to uncontrollable terror. Yet, for some minutes longer I refrained and stood still. But the beating grew louder, louder! I thought the heart must burst. And now a new anxiety seized me-- the sound would be heard by a neighbor! The old man's hour had come! With a loud yell, I thew open the lantern and leaped into the room. He shrieked once-- once only. In an instant I dragged him to the floor, and pulled the heavy bed over him. I then smiled gaily, to find the deed so far done. But for many minutes, the heart beat on with a muffled sound. This, however, did  not vex me; it would not be heard through the wall. At length it ceased. The old man was dead. I removed the bed and examined the corpse. Yes, he was stone, stone dead. I placed my hand upon the heart and held it there many minutes. There was no pulsation. He was stone dead. His eye would trouble me no more. (Poe 2)

Diction- A writer's choice of words, phrases, sentence structures, and figurative language, which combine to help create meaning. Formal diction consists of a dignified, impersonal, and elevated use of language; it follows the rules of syntax exactly, and is often characterized by complex words and lofty tone. Middle diction maintains correct language usage, but is less elevated than formal diction; it reflects the way most educated people speak. Informal diction represents the plain language of everyday use, and often includes idiomatic expressions, slang, contractions, and many simple, common words.

"If Boerhave and Albinus are to be credited, Andreas Vesalius perished a victim of the constant ridicule with which he mocked the ignorance, fripperies, and the immorality of the Spanish monks and of the Inquisition-- which was only too glad of the opportunity to rid itself of this troublesome scholar. Andreas Vesalius's great work on anatomy, De humani corporis fabrica, was published in Basel in 1562, embellished by illustrations attributed to his friend Titian" (Borel, "Andreas Vesalius" 81).