MOOD HINTS

MOOD HINTS

WHAT a man is, under ordinary circumstances, what his general feeling is toward nature, toward his fellow men, and toward the various ideals that govern life,—this is made known by the '''character hint. What a man ’ s momentary feeling is, or what his particular attitude toward a given person is, is made known by the mood hint. '''Both kinds of hints are direct results, or effects, and it is the duty of the imagination to determine their causes. In one the cause is found to be the character of the person performing the act under consideration; in the other the cause is found to be his mood, or emotion.

Mood may be told directly, that is, declared, or it may bemade known by means of a hint. To say, "As the boy left his mother ’ s room he was very angry" is to declare mood: to say, "As the boy stamped out of his mother ’ s room his face was flushed, and he slammed the door till the bric-a- brac rattled," is to make known mood by means of three hints. The former statement in no way appeals to the im¬agination of the reader, since, by telling everything, it leaves nothing for the imagination to do. The latter statement, however, tells one thing with the evident purpose of making something else known, and to determine what that some¬thing else is, is left to the imagination. This having been determined, the imagination, thus kindled, at once strives to obtain other details connected with the boy ’ s action and character. And in this fact lies the superiority of the hint over the declaration. The reader is satisfied only when his imagination is given something to do, when he himself is permitted to write part of the book, so to speak.

Influenced by the principle that art is always suggestive, the reader has already concluded, no doubt, that among trained writers the mood hint rather than the mood declara¬tion is the favored form. Merely a cursory examination of the literary masters will show the truth of this. So true is it, indeed, that it may be Stated that a writer is seldom at his best when he declares mood. Even the most eminent authors, it must be acknowledged, at times use the mood declaration, but most readers will agree that such use generally results in a loss of power.

The mood hint is much more frequent than the character hint; in fact, by every mind it is continually seen and under

stood. Every smile, every frown, many tones of the voice, many sudden motions and acts, the shrugging of the shoul¬ders, the biting of the lips, a wave of the hand,—all manifest moods of greater or less importance.

But concrete illustrations are better than explanation:

In a high school a paper of interest to a class was removed from the teacher ’ s desk, supposedly by a pupil. While the principal was trying to make clear the odium of the act, one girl slowly lowered her head, and then blushed until even her neck and ears were a burning crimson.

At a breakfast table a young woman went into ecstasies over a great bunch of roses. When handed the card that accompanied them and told that they had been left for her, she compressed her lips and, although a delightful talker, ate her meal in unbroken silence. When urged by a little girl to smell the beautiful flowers, she replied, "I do not care to smell them."

A gentleman in a Madrid hotel was handed a packet of letters. Running them over, he selected one and began to read it. A moment later he dropped his head on his arm at the table at which he was sitting. He soon rose, and, leaving the untouched letters, started toward his room, his eyes full of tears, the open letter still in his hand. His Spanish guide, noticing him, hurried to him, and, taking both his hands in his own, looked into his face silently for a moment and then said, "I received a letter in England that way once."

He spoke; and all the blood left Rustum ’ s cheeks,

And his knees tottered, and he smote his hand Against his breast, his heavy mailed hand,

He passed his trembling hand all about the hole, trying to think it possible that his eyes had deceived him; then he held the candle in the hole and examined it curiously, trembling more and more. At last he shook so violently that he let the candle fall, and lifted his hands to his head, trying to steady himself that he might think. Had he put his gold somewhere else? . . . Again he put his trembling hands to his head, and gave a wild ringing scream, the cry of desolation. For a few moments after, he stood motionless; but the cry had relieved him from the first maddening pressure of the truth.—Ibid.

On a couch she lies, no food

Receiving, her whole frame subdued by grief; And since she marked the treachery of her lord, Melts into tears incessant, from the ground

Her eyes she never raises, never turns

Her face aside.—Euripides in "Medea."

Why with fresh tears do you thus keep

Those eyelids moist? From your averted cheeks Why is the color fled, or why these words

Receive you not with a complacent ear?—Ibid.

From each of the above incidents a definite mood may be read as clearly as though it had been declared, and the exact degree of the feeling is more keenly appreciated than it would be from any general statement about guilt, or anger, or annoyance, or grief, or sympathy.

A scene can be bothe a mood hint and a character hint.

As illustrations consider two incidents from life:

For some weeks Mr. A had been having trouble with the family housekeeper. He wished her to follow certain pre¬scribed plans, while she preferred her own plans. One morning, after some special insistence on her part, Mr. A pushed her out the kitchen door with such force as to break down a section of the porch railing.

By accident a little girl overturned a table containing valuable china. Without a moment ’ s hesitation, the mother, as a punishment, thrust the child ’ s hand into the flame of a gas stove, and, before she realized what she was doing, had so burned two fingers that they had to be amputated.

These illustrations have been selected from the fact that in them the character and the mood are both very evident. Many cases will be found in life and in literature which must be considered and explained, but in which the character is not so openly shown, although perhaps it may be made known just as fully. In all study of hints the greatest care must be used, as some of the most im¬portant traits and moods thus made known by an artistic writer are exceedingly elusive. In an essay entitled "The Art of Seeing Things" Mr. John Burroughs says:

During some great fête in Paris, the Empress Eugenie and Queen Victoria were both present. A reporter noticed that when the royal personages came to sit down Eugenie looked behind her before doing so, to see that the chair was really there, but Victoria seated herself without the backward glance, knowing there must be a seat ready for her: there always had been and there always would be. The correspondent inferred that the incident showed the difference between born royalty and hastily made royalty. I wonder how many persons in that vast assembly made this ob¬servation; probably very few. It denoted a gift for seeing things.

III

As has been said earlier, in life mood hints are more fre¬quent than character hints. The same is true in literature.

As the first illustration of their use in literature let us turn again to the incident in "Captains Courageous" re¬ferred to in the chapter on character hints. The German has given Harvey the "Wheeling stogie," and the lad has "lit the unlovely thing with a flourish:"

"You like my cigar, eh?" the German asked, for Harvey ’ s eyes were full of tears.

"Fine, full flavor," he answered through shut teeth.

Here "eyes full of tears" and "shut teeth" are mood hints that make known the suffering of the lad more fully than a paragraph of abstract statements could make it known, while "with a flourish" shows not only something of the lad ’ s feeling of perfect confidence, but also not a little of his accustomed haughtiness and superiority (char¬acter).

Later when he is declaring to Captain Troop that ’ the sooner he takes him back to New York the better it will pay him, ’ Troop says:

" Meanin ’ —haow? "

"Dollars and cents," said Harvey,. . . "Cold dollars and cents." He thrust a hand into a pocket, and threw out his stomach a little.

The Captain is not much impressed and suggests to the boy that ’ he take a reef in his stummick as it is filled with his vittles, ’ and "Harvey heard a chuckle from Dan, . . . and the blood rushed to his face."

Here the "chuckle" and the "rush of blood" are typical mood hints, while "the hand in a pocket" and "the thrown

out stomach" give us not only mood but also a dash of char¬acter. What moods and what character are here shown?

In the sixth scene of the first act of "Macbeth" we find King Duncan and his retinue welcomed to the castle of Macbeth, not by the host, but by his wife, and this in spite of the fact that the king has told Macbeth that he will visit him. Surprised not to find him at the gate, Duncan specifi¬cally inquires for him, thus calling our attention definitely to the fact that he is not there. When we are thus called upon to notice his absence, we begin to wonder about the cause of it. We soon remember Macbeth ’ s plot to murder the king, of which we have learned in the preceding scene, and we conclude that Macbeth simply cannot play the part• of host for fear of betraying himself. His absence thus becomes a mood hint to make us know the terribly dis¬turbed state of his mind, a feeling at which we do not at all wonder.

Later in the play, in the banquet scene, Act iii., scene 4, occurs one of the strongest mood hints in all literature. The purpose of the scene is to make known the mental agony of Macbeth and to measure the degree of that agony. And what must be the torture that causes a murderer so far to forget his caution as to tell to the world the secret of his awful crime, as Macbeth here does? Remorse of this kind can be revealed only by means of hints. No possible declaration can make a reader appreciate such suffering.

In the chapter entitled "Through the Flood" in the volume "Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush" the author makes Dr. Maclure take Tammas Mitchell to the stable, put a flail into his hands, and order him to stay there and work for an hour while Sir George, the Queen ’ s own surgeon, makes a final effort to save the life of Annie, Tammas ’ s wife.

Fifty minutes did the flail rise and fall, save twice, when Tammas crept to the door and listened.

What a measure of the man ’ s heart-breaking anxiety! Then Dr. Maclure comes and tells him that the operation is over, and Tammas says:

"Dis he think Annie . . . ’ 11 live?"

"Of coorse he dis, and be aboot the hoose inside a month; that ’ s the gude o ’ bein ’ a clean-bluided, weel-livin ’ —

" Preserve ye, man, what ’ s wrang wi ’ ye? It ’ s a mercy a ’ keppit ye [ held you up ], or we wud hey hed anither job for Sir George.

"Ye ’ re a ’ richt noo; sit doon on the strae. A ’ 11 come back in a whilie, an ’ ye ’ 11 see Annie juist for a meenut, but ye mamma say a word."

Here the joy comes in such sudden and unexpected waves that it is almost too much for even this sturdy son of the fields. His feeling, however, is made known to us, not by a declaration, but by the Doctor ’ s words telling us that Tammas almost falls.

IV

Besides hint and declaration there is really a third form combining them, which may be called "the declared mood hint,"

To say "She was very indignant," is to declare mood; to say with its context "The very nape of her white neck was rosed," is to make known by means of a hint that she is indignant; while to say, as Tennyson says in "The Prin¬cess," "The very nape of her white neck was rosed with indignation,"