Read the excerpt from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. "Well, it was this way,” returned Mr. Enfield: "I was coming home from some place at the end of the world, about three o’clock of a black winter morning, and my way lay through a part of town where there was literally nothing to be seen but lamps. Street after street and all the folks asleep—street after street, all lighted up as if for a procession and all as empty as a church—till at last I got into that state of mind when a man listens and listens and begins to long for the sight of a policeman.” What is the mood of the excerpt?
The empty streets, the “black winter morning,” and the speaker’s growing unease create a tense, ominous feeling. His longing to see a policeman suggests that he feels vulnerable and expects something unsettling might happen. The mood is foreboding, not optimistic or welcoming.
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