Literary notes about moody (AI summary)
In literature, "moody" is often employed to evoke a character’s inner turmoil or shifting emotional landscape. The term may indicate brooding introspection or a generally sullen attitude, as seen when a character is described as both bright at moments yet frequently somber and thoughtful ([1]), or as one who grows increasingly irritable and despairing over time ([2]). Authors use it to hint at deeper psychological complexity, imbuing their protagonists with an unpredictable, sometimes melancholic, air—whether in the wistful melancholy of a solitary journey ([3]) or the secretive, self-isolating manner of a man lost in thought ([4]). This versatility allows "moody" not only to define a character’s temperament but also to enhance the narrative’s overall tone, creating an atmosphere of introspection and latent tension ([5], [6]).
- At moments he would be apparently quite bright and happy; but as a rule he would sit moody and thoughtful.
— from The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - I grew, day by day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 2 by Edgar Allan Poe - CHAPTER VIII TOM dodged hither and thither through lanes until he was well out of the track of returning scholars, and then fell into a moody jog.
— from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Complete by Mark Twain - There was silence, while the moody man sat, slowly and unconsciously gathering his mantle about him, as if it were a pall.
— from The Piazza Tales by Herman Melville - He relapsed into a moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in Serpentine Avenue.
— from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle - These isolated hours of superstition came to Henchard in time of moody depression, when all his practical largeness of view had oozed out of him.
— from The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy
