The Way Up To Heaven

Content Warning: This section of the guide contains descriptions and references to abuse and coercive control, accident, and death.

Tone is the attitude that the writer expresses toward the subject of their text. The story is told from the perspective of an unknown narrator who is who is observant, polite, and detached. This is indicated, for instance, by the narrator calling the two main characters “Mr.” and “Mrs. Foster” throughout the story, which maintains a sense of distance despite the intimacy with which the couple’s lives are described. This detached tone serves the story’s ambiguity, as it creates questions around intent and the narrator’s—and the reader’s—ability to be omniscient, and therefore to judge the behaviors and motivations of both Mr. and Mrs. Foster. The tone prevaricates, appearing to avoid making judgment while showing the deliberate cruelty of Mr. Foster very clearly: The narrator makes cautious statements such as “Mr. Foster may possibly have had a right to be irritated” (47) and “[a]ssuming (though one cannot be sure) that the husband was guilty” (48), which suggest his guilt while maintaining a scrupulous sense of the distance of the outside observer. The narrator’s tone toward Mrs. Foster’s potential guilt is similarly detached, judging from outward appearance and not revealing the extent of Mrs. Foster’s knowledge or culpability: “[T]here was something in her manner […] which appeared to hint at the possibility of a return in the not too distant future” (58).