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Suspense literary elements
Suspense literary elements
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Suspense literary elements
Suspense literary elements
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
How do Authors Create Suspense? Authors create suspense by not giving you much detail, and not telling you what’s happening or what’s not happening. In the two stories “The Tell Tale Heart” and “ The Pedestrian” both have many suspenseful moments. In the story, “The Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe the story starts out with not much background which leaves you wondering what’s going to happen.
As a maturing writer, one must evaluate literature to realize how to fully comprehend one's own writing and many other pieces of written works. The suspenseful and mysterious novel, Among the Imposters, by Margaret Peterson Haddix, presents a story imploring to be evaluated. In the novel, a young boy, Luke, has been locked away from the world as an illegal third child, he finds his opening to freedom when a deceased companion's father offers him a new identity. Readers will follow Luke on his unforgiving yet hopeful journey, as he attends his new school as a legal child. Readers will then learn the secrets to the government's prejudiced ways.
The novel, And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, begins with ten characters, each with a skeleton in his or her closet, on a remote island off the English coast. They soon realize that they have been brought there by an insane judge, who has tried each of them for criminal behavior in the past, and who now feels it is his duty to grant proper justice for each. The struggle to stay alive begins as each guest is eliminated. Walter Huston, Louis Hayward, and C. Aubrey Smith are among those marked for death. It is a novel full of suspense that can keep you guessing what will happen next with every page.
Alfred Hitchcock is remembered as the "master of suspense", most notably in one of his cinemas, "Psycho". Hitchcock used a variety of sensory details, to shock moreover frighten his audience. Three sensory details that he used, is when we notice a cop following Marion, we see that Norman is stalking Marion, and when a shadowy figure shows up while Marion is taking a shower. The first sensory detail that creates suspense is when we see the cop following Marion. We believe that the cop recognizes something is up furthermore, is going to assert Marion for stealing the money.
The third most outstanding author ever is still remarkably popular today. Agatha Christie has only been outsold by The Bible and William Shakespeare. Even forty-two years after her death, her short stories and novels are read by people nationwide. Christie didn’t always have the thought of being a writer, but the interesting events that took place in her life started her career.
When you watch a tv show and do you find it annoying when they go to commercial break right before something important is about to happen? That is an example of suspense. You usually sit through the commercials to see what happens right? It keeps you hooked. The short story that I will be referring to and drawing examples of suspense from is Pickman’s Model by H.P. Lovecraft.
In addition to dialogue, Agatha Christie also creates anxiety in the reader through the use of different elements. To begin with, suspense is first created when the gramophone record is played. By adding this to the novel the reader is informed that the guests are not as innocent as they seem to be when they first arrive. Readers are intrigued to see if the accusations in the Swan Song are true or not. The Ten Little Soldier Boys rhyme on top of each guests mantel piece also instills a feeling of foreboding in the reader.
Agatha Christie is one of the most well-known mystery authors of the modern era. Murder on the Orient Express is very similar to the book And Then There Were None because both books give lots of red herrings and the books also keep you intrigued. However, there were some parts of the book that went very slow, but these parts add to the suspense and it keeps you thinking. In addition, if you read And Then There Were None and didn't like it, this book has a little more suspense and overall is a better book than read
In And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie chronicles the deaths of the ten main characters. Slowly, one by one, each character is killed off by an unknown. At first, the deaths were suspected as suicides, but as the coincidences build up, the thought about murder provoked the remaining characters’ minds. 10… 9… 8… 7… 6… 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… everyone is killed. That isn’t the question though.
placed in their rooms and it was all meant to tie into the idea that the name of the island is Soldier Island. While the guests were relaxing in the drawing room after dinner The Voice came on accusing each of the guests of a crime but when they looked to see who was talking, they found nothing but a gramophone playing a record. After this, Mrs. Rogers, the butler’s wife, fainted but Tony Marston was the first to die. The Dr. Armstrong determined the cause of death was asphyxiation from drinking potassium cyanide.
This, coupled with her free imagination, likely led to Christie’s becoming a writer. She began writing as a teenager and published her first book, a detective novel, in 1920. Various life events, such as spending a season in Cairo and making two trips to the Near East, contributed to Christie’s knowledge of the world and would later influence many of her works. Married twice with one daughter and spending much of her time, especially during World War II, working in hospitals, Christie’s writing of over 80 short stories and detective novels was no small feat. She would go on to become the best-selling novelist of all time, and received many awards and recognition for her work before her death in 1976.
Christopher Marlowe is one of the most mysterious and interesting authors of his time. From being an English spy to writing some of the most influential works of his time, he has had literature enthusiasts amazed for centuries. First, his origin is an incredible tale. Second, His writings influenced and shaped the Renaissance period of history. Lastly, his works influenced even Shakespeare himself.
“She is the only mystery writer to have created two important detectives as characters, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple.” (“Agatha Christie Biography” 1) says her biography. Also, she was very creative with her characters; “Some of Christie’s early sleuths included the married Tuppence and Tommy Beresford, whose specialty was hunting down spies” (Agatha Christie Biography 2). She used other writer’s work to create hers. The author of, “Agatha Christie Biography” says, “Poirot’s character also makes clear Christie’s debt to the mystery writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930), the creator of the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes.
In Great Expectations there is suspense. Dickens was able to execute an immense amount of details using a wary mood that is about to take place within the story. Dickens indicated in the beginning that Pip was in the graveyard because of the fact that Dickens writes, “my first candies regarding what they were like, were unreasonably derived from their tombstones" (Dickens 1). The mentioning of the word “tombstones" indicates that Pip was at the cemetery which in fact creates a foreboding and uneasy atmosphere in regards of being in a creepy place by oneself in which case the author’s usage of theme. By placing this setting in the beginning of the first chapter lets the reader have a sense of anticipation in the beginning of story and gives
Charlotte Bronte knew as one of the most talented women authors of the Victorian era. She and her sisters, Emily and Anne grow up in Victorian England, they were inspired by the Romantic authors, and all of them write masterpieces in English literature. Charlotte Bronte faced a lot of difficulties, and obstacles in her life even though she manages to write important works in English Literature. For example, Jane Eyre, The Professor, Shirley, and Villette. At first, she writes Jane Eyre under pseudonym Currer Bell.