Tone
The author’s attitude toward the subject or audience, conveyed through word choice and style.
Tone is the emotional coloring of a text, which can be solemn, playful, bitter, tender, or detached. Writers control it through diction, syntax, imagery, and pacing, shaping how readers feel about what they read. Tone differs from mood: tone is the writer’s stance, while mood is the atmosphere the reader experiences.
Example
Faulkner’s tone toward Emily mixes pity, fascination, and quiet horror, treating the townspeople’s gossip with a gravity that makes her decline feel both sad and grotesque.
A Rose for Emily · William Faulkner