Suspense is the build up of anxiety or excitement in a story. It is an incredibly useful literary element. People like to read suspenseful stories, and/or watch suspenseful shows and movies because suspense gets their hearts racing. Suspense in movies and books might keep the audience intrigued and make them wonder what will happen next. People also like suspense because they might like trying to figure out what will happen on their own. This will keep the audience intrigued because they want to know how close they were to the exact answer. There are many stories that display suspense and many different authors who wrote them. One book that used suspense was Cujo, by Stephen King. Cujo was a dog that was bitten by a bat. He then turns into …show more content…
Mood is how the audience feels about a piece of literature. This differs from tone because tone is the author’s mood about a piece of literature. Suspense and mood are often closely connected because how you feel about a text can help create suspense. If you feel tense or nervous about something that will add to the suspense already there; however, if you feel devastated or depressed about something, it may not add the same amount of suspense as it could’ve if it made you feel tense or nervous. An example of mood in Cujo is when Stephen King wrote, “She saw the dog’s tail and the top of its broad back over the hood of the Pinto. It was going around to Tad’s side of the car -- And Tad’s window wasn’t shut.” The mood of this piece of text evidence is nervous and maybe a little bit scared of what will happen to Tad. The mood in this part of the excerpt adds to the suspense because the suspense of this excerpt is already making you feel anxious, and the mood makes the suspense stronger. Another example of mood in Cujo is when Donna first heard Cujo growl. It had seemed directionless to her. It was nowhere and everywhere at the same time. She finally figured out that it came from the garage. The mood here would be nightmarish and a little nervous. This is because the reader would read the paragraph and think that it was something out of a nightmare, and they would be nervous for Donna because they wouldn’t want her getting hurt. The mood …show more content…
Dramatic irony means that the audience knows something that the character in the piece of literature doesn’t know. In Romeo and Juliet, the audience knows the ending at the very beginning, but still watches Romeo and Juliet fall in love and get married. Eventually, they both kill themselves thinking the other is dead. Suspense relies on dramatic irony because it makes the audience feel tense until the character finds out and the tension is relieved. Suspense also relies on dramatic irony because the audience may learn something the character doesn’t know, making the audience want to tell the characters themselves, knowing fully well that that’s impossible. An example of dramatic irony in Cujo is the car that Donna drives. Donna drives a Pinto which is known as one of the worst cars to ever have existed. The Ford Pinto would explode and had to be recalled. The Pinto in this story, however, saved Donna and Tad from being killed by Cujo. The audience knew that the Pinto was a bad car, but if they were reading the book, they would have realized that there were too many pages left for both of them to die. Also, if they had read this excerpt, they would have thought that StudySync wouldn’t’ve ruined the ending of a story written by Stephen King. Another example of dramatic irony is that Cujo had rabies. In the very beginning of the story, not the excerpt, Cujo gets bitten by a bat. In the excerpt, this can be figured out by how
There are many areas of suspense in the story, some that shock the reader suddenly, others that slowly creep up on them. There are many instances in which the author includes suspense: “The Hab [Mark’s only shelter on Mars] is now a bomb” (Weir 37). Our main character had been experimenting with different gases, and he hadn’t been careful enough which had turned the Hab into a dangerous place. This sentence contains suspense because the reader doesn’t know what’s going to happen to Mark now. In addition to that, he also uses suspense here, “5… 4… 3… 2… 1… ,” Johanssen [part of the Ares 3 crew] continued.”Activating Lighting Panel 41.” She pressed enter” (Weir 362). Weir makes readers anxious to know what happens next, and what happens once Johnassen presses enter. Overflowing with suspense, The Martian includes suspense all throughout the story, adding to the plot and making readers feel more engaged in the
Suspense is the quality of a story that makes you want to keep reading until you find out what happens, Richard Connell’s short story ‘The Most Dangerous game’ has exactly that. There is tension in the least expected parts of the story with the two main characters Rainsford and Zaroff the hunters. Suspense is found in the short story ‘The most Dangerous Game’ at parts when Rainsford and Whitney talk about Ship-Trap islands reputation, when Zaroff spots Rainsford behind the curtain, and lastly when Rainsford speaks to Zaroff about how his actions are murder.
The reader’s own thoughts and natural anxiety is incorporated through the suspense that the author brings into the story. This causes a heightened sense of investment in the story. This is done with natural building anxiety and the process of catastrophizing. Catastrophizing is the process in which someone believes a situation or thing is a lot worse than it actually appears to be. The average human does a lot with situations and will possibly read or watch things that are suspenseful to feed into catastrophizing to get a euphoric feeling about being right in the possibly unsettling situation.
In novels there are many literary devices that an author may use. Suspense is one that is used to grab the reader’s attention and keep reading. Mary Higgins Clark demonstrates suspense throughout her novel, A Stranger Is Watching by giving only so much information then she will direct your attention to something else so the reader keeps reading. Some suspenseful scenes that the author demonstrates in the novel are when an intruder is in the Peterson home and is pointing a gun at Sharon’s head, another is when Sharon is in the kidnapper’s car and cleverly puts her ring in the seat so maybe someone would find it, and when Mrs. Perry comes to the Peterson home and tells everyone that she knows the voice of the kidnapper.
Irony is a literary technique used by many authors throughout the American Literature, as it allows the author to develop a meaning in his story without blatantly stating them. In Order to attract the reader and make him thinking about the meanings behind the words and conceive the conclusions. Also many authors utilize the Irony to create humor such as F.Scott Fitzgerald who used a great deal of dramatic irony in his short story ‘The Camel’s back’ to show how one’s actions frequently overthrow their attempts to find love.
Horror stories are designed to make our pulses race and our skin tingle. A great horror story can reflect people’s biggest fears. They can also make us curious as well. Many horror stories create some type of suspense throughout the story line. All good horror stories feature a great deal of suspense. Suspense is the uncertainty or anxiety you feel about what will happen next in a story. In the short story, August Heat by W.F. Harvey, the author creates a lot of of suspense within it. Some methods that create some type of suspense are foreshadowing, or when an important character we care about is in peril.
Suspense is a concept brought by stressful moments in stories, these stressors can be brought through imagery and foreshadowing. With foreshadowing it brings you to a hypothesis scaring you on whether a character may die, imagery can bring a scary thought into your head through one of the five senses. Roald Dahl’s “The Landlady” is a murder story that takes place in London at a boarding home. In “The Landlady” there are two characters in conflict; Billy Weaver and of course the landlady. In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell Tale Heart” you have the narrator and an old man, but the old man has an eye that irritates the owner of the house. Over time the narrator obsesses over his visitor’s eye leading up to a dreadful end. Therefore, suspense is depicted
The suspense is defined as, “An anxious feeling caused by having to wait to see what happens.” (Scholastic Children’s Dictionary, 541). In other words, suspense is where you are unsettled of what may happen. Scary stories are written to cause a feeling of suspense. “The Monkeys Paw” and “Tell-Tale Heart” both have the same relationship with cause and effect, and both authors use repetition of sound to create suspense.
In the tragedy, Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare utilizes many instances of dramatic irony which is based on the disparity of reality and misconception. This literary element of dramatic irony is shown when the audience knows something that the characters do not. The usage of dramatic irony along with the usage of other literary elements makes each scene suspenseful, interesting and powerful. In the tragedy, there were multiple scenes with dramatic irony such as the scene where Capulet agrees to let Paris marry Juliet although in reality, she is already married to Romeo. Another scene where Shakespeare includes dramatic irony is when Juliet is found dead in her bed but actually she is alive and asleep. Ultimately, another scene where dramatic irony adds to the tragedy is when Romeo notices that Juliet looks alive but
Irony is the uses of word to express something different from and often opposite to their literary meaning. Irony is used across literary genres to a variety of effects. There are three main types of irony that were often used by many authors. First is verbal irony or the irony that happens when conversational expectation is undermined. Second is dramatic irony or the irony that occurs when audiences know something that the character doesn’t know and the last is situational irony or the irony that happens when a text’s plot takes a completely different turn than both the characters and the audience expect. In “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe, the story took place in the catacombs. This story concentrated on two characters which was Montresor and Fortunato. Montresor wanted to take a revenge on Fortunato because he was mocking him; therefore, Montresor planed everything out and convinced Fortunato by
Ray Bradbury often uses the element of suspense in his stories to keep them interesting. Suspense is used in stories to create attentiveness and make the reader uncertain about the outcome. Since “suspense is a genuine, distinct element in our emotional framework,” it is often used to hook the reader and then draw them into the story and create momentum for the plot. Although the goal is clear in suspenseful stories, suspense creates many ways in which the problem can be solved.
There are many instances where dramatic irony adds suspense to the plot. In Scene One, Romeo tries to avoid a fight between Tybalt and himself, because he is now married to Tybalt’s cousin, Juliet. Romeo’s lines may seem cryptic to Tybalt, who doesn’t know about the marriage, but to the reader, they make sense. Romeo’s “reason to love” (III.i.65) Juliet’s cousin is that he is now related to Tybalt, and it wouldn’t be pleasant for Juliet to find out that two men she loves would willingly fight each other to their death. Romeo is smart to try and stay away from a fight, and correct in saying Tybalt “knowest [him] not” (III.i.68). Because the marriage is a secret, Tybalt does not know that his enemy is referencing it, but the reader does know. This causes the dramatic irony, or the audience knowing something a character does not. Even though Romeo tries to stop any fight between Tybalt and himself, a brawl ensues, and Romeo ends up killing Tybalt, which leads to another example of dramatic irony. In Scene Two, Juliet is daydreaming about her night with Romeo. She is very excited and happy, unknowing of the fact that Romeo has just killed her cousin. The audience is aware of Romeo’s crime, which causes dramatic irony. A final example of this literary device is in Scene Four of Act Three, when Lady Capulet talks to Juliet about Tybalt and his killer. Lady Capulet doesn’t know that Juliet is married to Romeo, but the audience does. Juliet's lines have double meaning therefore, and are interpreted differently by the reader and Lady Capulet. Juliet tells her mother she “will not marry” (III.iv.122) and that if she ever does, “it shall be Romeo” (III.iv.123) she gets married to. Her mother thinks this means it is improbable Juliet will ever willingly get married. The reader knows that Juliet twists the words, so that she is not lying nor exaggerating, because she has already
One example of dramatic irony is when Oedipus is looking for the killer of the king Laius-his father. The irony here is that he is looking for himself because he is the murder of his father. Oedipus knows that he killed someone, but what he does not know is that it was Laius, the one he murder. Oedipus wants to punish the person who killed Laius, but we, the audience know that Oedipus was the one who killed Laius. Also Oedipus married Jocasta without knowing that she is his mother. We, the audience knew that he was Jocasta's son, but he was unaware of that.
Suspense is a mixture of many different feelings and emotions; this includes excitement, curiosity, anxiety, tension as well as several more. The majority of authors use suspense, it is a key to keep the reader interested in the story. They can do it as simple as complicating matters or having the character do something completely unpredictable. Roald Dahl employs various levels of suspense in one of his short stories named "The Surgeon." Some of the characteristics that authors tend to use when they write include dramatic irony. This is simply when the readers know information that one or more of the characters do not. Another characteristic is foreshadowing. Foreshadowing creates suspense because the author is basically giving hints and clues of what may happen
Defined by Dictionary.com dramatic irony is “irony that is inherent in speeches or a situation of a drama and is understood by the audience, but not grasped by the characters in the play” (“dramatic irony”). This type of irony is one that is not seen by characters, but is known to the reader. Towards the end of the story Josephine begs for Mrs. Mallard to open up the door and let her in, as she is afraid her sister is making herself ill (Chopin 201). This is dramatic irony as Josephine does not realize that her sister is not actually making herself ill, but is instead rejoicing in her husband’s death. Another instance at the conclusion of the story, Mr. Brently Mallard enters through the door, Richards quickly tries to block him from Mrs. Mallard seeing (Chopin 201). Richards assumes that Mrs. Mallard is still grieving from her husband’s death. He shields her from seeing Mr. Brently Mallard as he knows it will too much emotion. The dramatic irony is Richards does not realize that she is happy and blocking her view of her husband will make her upset, but only because Brently being alive means her freedom is