In The Mood
Helen M Walters looks at the way Ambrose Bierce uses weather to create mood and atmosphere in Beyond the Wall
Helen M Walters
MASTERCLASS
In this month’s masterclass I want to highlight how aspects of the environment can be used to create atmosphere and mood in a story. Beyond The Wall by Ambrose Bierce demonstrates how reference to the weather and other natural conditions can accentuate the plot of a story and help to create a response in the reader. By using these references, the author prepares the reader for what sort of story they are going to get. In this case – downbeat, slightly spooky and ending badly. As always, you will benefit most from this masterclass by reading the story for yourself, at http://writ.rs/wmjan18Beyond The Wall is a tale of an unnamed narrator visiting an old friend, Mohun Dampier, and finding him much changed in the years since they last met. The narrator first tells us that he is travelling back home from Hong Kong to New York and has stopped off in San Francisco. This provides the broad sense of place and context in which the story unfolds, that of a Californian winter.
We then read of the narrator arriving at the home of Dampier during a storm. Notice how both here and elsewhere in the story the choice of words to describe the weather is very vivid, helping to create a detailed sense of the experience. We have incessant rain splashing, the tempest creating torment, the murk of the rain and its monotonous sussuration.