How is the mood/atmosphere created in "The Demon Lover"?

To create the mood and the atmosphere in “The Demon Lover” Bowen uses the setting, which is thee narrator’s abandoned house and later the taxi.

 

Bowen also uses descriptive language to set the mood. She describes the storm as “ink-dark” clouds piling up giving the street “an unfamiliar queerness.” The house is described as having a “yellow smoke stain…[a] bruise in the wallpaper…[and] cracks in the structure” (Bowen). She describes the eerie feeling that comes over the narrator when she finds the letter addressed to her and when she is the room getting her things.

 

Bowen then uses the flashback to make the reader understand the narrator’s fear when she opens the letter. The narrator’s superstitions also contribute to the mood.