tone



//Kara Ng//


 * __DEFINITION:__**
 * Tone** is the attitude the writer takes towards the reader or to their subject. An author’s tone may portray their morals or views on topics in their works. Examples of tones are formal, ironic, sarcastic and playful.

//“The only person not to be reticent about Olivia was Dr. Saunders. It was he who had found her out. The midwives at Khatm had done their work well, and Olivia began to miscarry that same night. … But he knew about these Indian ‘miscarriages’ and the means employed to bring them about. The most common of these was the insertion of a twig smeared with the juice of a certain plant known only to Indian midwives. … Afterwards he confronted the guilty women and threw them out of the hospital. Sometimes he slapped them—he had strong ideas about morality and how to uphold it. But even he admitted that certain allowances might be made for those native women born in ignorance and dirt. There was no such extenuating circumstance for Olivia.”// (p. 69)
 * __EXAMPLES IN TEXT:__**

Jhablava seems to write about Dr. Saunders and his reaction to abortions through the eyes of Saunders himself. The tone of this excerpt is detached and extremely professional: the tone of a doctor who has seen these abortions many times and has learned to distance himself from any sort of emotional attachment. “The most common form of these was the insertion of a twig smeared…” only highlights the detachment of Dr. Saunders, who sees the abortion as another medical procedure, and is describing it in a methodical fashion. And the employment of words like ‘extenuating circumstance’, using a tone of formality, adds to the effect of detachment, as the term creates a very business-like mood. It is obvious that Dr. Saunders sees Olivia no long as a family friend, but as another amoral woman who killed her infant.

//“She told me that, on certain days of the year, she had her friends come with sweets, milk, and flowers to worship these widows who have made the highest sacrifice. She sounded really respectful and seemed to have the greatest reverence for that ancient custom. She even seemed regretful—this merry widow!—that it had been discontinued (it was outlawed in 1829). She showed me the shrine of the last suttee, which of course I knew about as it had taken place during Olivia’s time. Although the shrine only dates back to 1923, it looks as age-old as others.”// (p. 55)

This passage discusses the narrator’s view on suttee in, of course, the narrator’s point of view. The narrator talks of how Inder Lal’s mother would pay respects to the stone markings of widows who died by suttee—and how surprised the narrator is that Inder Lal’s mother seems regretful that such a tradition has been banned. The tone of the whole passage is rather resentful, and a bit shocked. Although the narrator is trying her best to assimilate into Indian culture, it is possible that she still holds onto British values, and finds the act of suttee to be far too radical. “She even seemed regretful—this merry widow!—that it had been discontinued…” brings out the disbelief in the narrator’s tone. The dashes employed when the narrator exclaims “this merry widow!” adds a sudden tone of surprise, as if the narrator cannot believe that Inder Lal’s mother would regret the banning of suttee. Finally, the narrator notices how the final suttee stone “only dates back to 1923” but “looks as age-old as the others”, perhaps subtly suggesting that the tradition itself is old-fashioned and the newer stone fits in with the older stone, symbolizing how the act of suttee goes against the modern idea of women being free to do as they choose, and don’t depend solely on their husbands.