The tone of “A Little Cloud” shifts between optimistic and resigned, depending on how Little Chandler is feeling about himself and his life. This is because the narrator, though third-person, stays extremely close to Little Chandler’s perspective over the course of the story. The following passage—which comes as Little Chandler is walking to meet his successful friend Gallaher at a fancy restaurant—demonstrates the narrator’s optimistic tone:
Little Chandler quickened his pace. For the first time in his life he felt himself superior to the people he passed. For the first time his soul revolted against the dull inelegance of Capel Street.
The hopeful tone comes across in this passage in descriptions of how Little Chandler “quickened” his pace, how he “felt himself superior to the people he passed,” and how “his soul revolted against the dull inelegance” around him. It is notable that, though the tone is optimistic, it is not necessarily joyful. This is because Little Chandler clearly feels resentment toward the people around him (as well as the city of Dublin itself) and only feels optimistic in this moment because he sees himself as “superior.”
Later in the story, the narrator’s tone is more resigned, as seen in the following passage (when Little Chandler returns from his dinner with Gallaher and looks around his small home):
He found something mean in the pretty furniture which he had bought for his house on the hire system. Annie had chosen it herself and it reminded him of her. It too was prim and pretty. A dull resentment against his life awoke within him. Could he not escape from his little house? Was it too late for him to try to live bravely like Gallaher?
The frustrated, resigned tone comes across in the narrator’s descriptions of the “mean” furniture that was “too prim and pretty,” inspiring in Little Chandler a “dull resentment” and sense that he can’t “escape from his little house.” The tone here makes it clear that Little Chandler is deeply dissatisfied with his life yet does not have the energy or sense of empowerment to make a change.
