Defenition:
1. Grave or even gloomy in character "a suit of somber black"; "a somber mood"
2. Lacking brightness or color; dull "children in somber brown clothes"
Passage:
To whatever tale she read she found an analogy in her own condition. The woodcutter's lost child, the unhappy goose girl, the persecuted stepdaughter, the little maiden imprisoned in the witch's hut--all these were but transparent disguises for Lena, the overworked kitchenmaid in the Quarrymen's Hotel.
- O’ Henry A Chaparral Prince
Explanation:
This passage has a somber tone. O’ Henry creates this tone by describing the girl using dark words with negative connotations that also create negative allusions. O’ Henry utilizes gloomy word phrases such as “lost child”, “unhappy goose girl,” “persecuted stepdaughter,” and “overworked kitchenmaid” to make the girl’s condition appear miserable, and thus create a dark tone. The tone becomes somber as the reader realizes that the author is seriously discussing the girl’s position in life. This realization is created by paralleling the negative allusionary descriptions of how the girl imagines her self to be to the actual position of the girl (“the overworked kitchenmaid”). The allusions make the reader remember the somber fairytales to the characters’ of which Lena compares her self, thus making her situation, and the author’s tone appear somber.