When we refer to tone, we are talking about the attitude a
writer takes towards a character or subject in a story. A tone can normally be summaried
in one or two adjectives, such as cheerful or optimistic. So, to work out the tone of a
particular text, you need to bear in mind such aspects as word choice, the theme and the
way that characters and issues are presented.
This story,
as with many of Guy de Maupassant's short stories, is focussed on grim irony as
characters have to endure shifts of fortune that defy our expectations. The way in which
Mathilde is shown to spend so long daydreaming about having wealth and her frustration
at her standard of living (which should be entirely acceptable), makes her eventual fate
of being consigned to a life of drudgery and hard work ironic in the extreme. There is a
massive disparity between her dreams of "great reception halls hung with old silks" and
the poverty to which she is reduced at the end of the tale. The fact that the cause for
her poverty was actually erroneous only serves to confirm the ironical tone of the
tale.
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