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(SE) 135812 Inszenierung von Spannung & Suspense –
literarische Schocktherapien
(WiSe 2020/2021)
Lehrende: Aage Hansen- Löve
Name: Margherita de Gregorio Matrikelnummer: 12025710
Titel:
The Elements of Suspense
Abstract: When we talk about suspense as a literary strategy, the
categories to which we (legitimately) refer are those of the Thriller, the Crime,
or the Detective story. These, however, are genres born in relatively modern
times, which do not include a large portion of the literary production that has
preceded them. For this reason, after a brief historical excursus of the suspense,
I will try, during the course of this essay, to define the concept of suspense and
most importantly to identify some of the typical strategies aimed at the
production of this experience. In particular, I will refer to the Odyssey, the
Oedipus the King, and the Decameron, as they are part of those genres that
predate the Thriller.
In the last section, I will focus instead on three very famous films directed by
one of the greatest masters of suspense: Alfred Hitchcock. Although in this case
we refer to visual art, the American director has literally helped to define and
redefine the concept of suspense in the Hollywood industry (and not only
there). It would be a shame, therefore, not to discuss more closely masterpieces
such as "Rare Window", "Psyco" and "The Birds".
Statements like “I was sitting on the edge of my seat waiting to see what would happen next” or “this book was a real page turner” are typically associated with a specific experience that is: Suspense. Suspense was born and developed in the nineteenth century from the French feuilleton, giving rise to plots centred on the triangle of crime-investigation- reparation in at least three variants: the “mystery novel”, based on the dimension of the past, which has as its objective the knowledge of who committed the crime and the methods used in practice; the noir, centred on the dimension of the present, where the action predominates over the person who performs it; the "novel of suspense", centred on the dimension of the future, in which the end is the prevention of the criminal act. In addition, the detective story becomes predominant in the nineteenth century, when reality itself appears as a hidden plot of events and the ordinary citizen is unable to control the truth of what surrounds him (for example the value of paper money, the financial flows of banks, the semiotic codes of professional orders. Truth and security represent the main rewards that readers of suspended-structure narratives expect in this era, which not coincidentally sees the genesis of police forces (it was not until 1840 that a Metropolitan Police department was formed in London). In the attempt to define suspense, it would be impossible not to mention Alfred Hitchcock’s own words: “There is a clear difference between surprise and suspense […]. We are sitting here and having an innocent conversation. Let us assume that there is a bomb
Thrillers are usually characterized by a feeling of pleasurable fascination and excitement over what is to come next, mixed in with apprehension, anticipation, and sometimes even, fear. These feelings develop throughout a narrative of unpredictable events that make the reader or viewer think about the consequences of certain characters’ actions. Consequently, the audience intuitively associates the term suspense with a state of uncertainty, bated breath, anxiety, bewilderment. However, although it is common to identify the suspense in close connection with the thriller genre, this psychophysical experience made its way into the literary genre centuries before its modern placement into one specific genre. Already Quintilian, a Latin rhetorician of the first century AD, stressed the importance in writing, to keep the reader's interest engaged with artificial digressions and original plots. The expression he used was: "tenere animos suspensos"; from "Suspensum", past participle neuter Latin of the verb "suspendĕre" (to suspend). Thought to be one of the earliest prototypes of the thriller genre, Homer’s Odyssey uses similar techniques as today’s modern thrillers. The hero of this epic poem, Odysseus, voyages home to be with his wife, Penelope, through extraordinary hardships and trials. He contends with Cyclops, a one-eyed giant, and the Sirens, who sing sailors to their death, all while battling the sea on his journey home from the Trojan War. These encounters leave the reader wondering if Odysseus will ever make it home, and if so, how he will do it. Moreover, much of the inaction in this epic focuses on the question of when Odysseus will finally reveal his identity. He spends three books with the Phaeacians before he
finally tells them who he is. Similarly, in Odyssey 13-15, we find Odysseus in the hut of Eumaeus before he finally reveals himself to Telemachus in Odyssey 16. Next, we go from Odyssey 17 to 23 before Penelope discovers that the most recent beggar to visit her house is actually her husband. Several times, between Odyssey 19 and 21, Penelope is within a few feet of Odysseus, but she still does not realize she is in her husband's presence. At one point, after Odysseus' nurse Eurycea discovers this beggar's true identity, she is on the verge of telling Penelope, but goddess Athene prevents it: “As she spoke, she glanced towards Penelope ready to tell her that her dear husband was home. But Penelope failed to meet her look with recognition because Athene had distracted her attention.” (Homer, Od. 19.475-479) Certainly, it could be said that Homer has unduly deferred the discovery of Odysseus' true identity. In fact, book 21 is concluded as follow (leaving the unveiling of his identity and the fulfilment of his revenge for book 22): “The guest in your hall has not disgraced you. I have not missed the target, nor did it take me long to string the bow. My strength is undiminished, not lessened as the Suitors’ taunts implied. Well now it is time for the Achaeans to eat, while there is light, and afterwards we shall have different entertainment, with song and lyre, fitting for a celebration.” (Homer, Od. 21. 424 - 430) Several studies investigate how specific text features are designed to inspire feelings of suspense in viewers or readers, and, in short, it can be said that the emotion of
of the characters. Elements external to the diegesis (for example, soundtrack music that has no source in the diegesis, a voice-over narrator who does not appear in the movie) are non-diegetic or extra-diegetic (Pramaggiore & Wallis, 2005). A commonly used technique is to insert non-diegetic animated sequences into live action movies (we see examples for this in Natural Born Killers; Watchmen; Kill Bill 1). Further evidence of the timelessness of the suspense-genre is Sophocles’ “Oedipus the King”, that features elements of a thriller play. Oedipus, in fact, spends the play investigating the murder of Laius, only to discover that he unknowingly committed the act. “So! I ask you then to continue with your proclamation but there is no need for you speak to me nor to them (indicating the chorus) from now on, because… because the wound that has ravaged this city, is you! You are the wound itself! You are what has polluted this city! You are the wound, and you are the murderer!” (Sophocles Oed., Act One) With these words, Tiresias, a blind prophet, set the actions in play that would turn the king into a beggar within the day. Through the so-called dramatic irony, whereby the protagonist is unaware of fundamental events/facts, which on the contrary are well known to the audience, Sophocles creates a strong sense of suspense. Furthermore, according to Aristotle in his "Poetics," The Oedipus Rex was the perfect example of a well-built plot.
In fact, in the opinion of the Greek philosopher, the best plot, is one in which “recognition” and “reversal” occur at the same time, as they do in Sophocles’s tragedy. He explains that every tragic plot involves a change of fortune, and such plots can be either simple (in which a change of fortune does not involve recognition or reversal) or complex (in which a change of fortune involves recognition, reversal, or both). Reversal “is a change to the opposite in the actions being performed,” which occurs because of “necessity or probability and in a way that seems likely and that follows logically from the story’s previous events”. Recognition “is a change from ignorance to knowledge, disclosing either a close relationship or enmity, on the part of the people marked out for good or bad fortune.” In Oedipus, for example, the messenger who brings Oedipus news of his real parentage, intending to allay his fears, brings about a sudden reversal of his fortune, from happiness to misery, by compelling him to recognize that his wife is also his mother. The fact that Oedipus can be seen as a suspenseful work lies precisely in the audience's inability to intervene in the hero's fate. According to Chatman, suspense can follow the character’s anxiety, uncertainty, and fears, or it can be depending on the narrator's anticipations of facts of which the character is unaware: “Uncertainty, often characterized by anxiety. Suspense is usually a curious mixture of pain and pleasure .... Most great art relies more heavily on suspense than on surprise. One can rarely reread works depending on surprise; the surprise gone, the interest is gone. Suspense is usually achieved in part by
“Adunque, acciò che in parte per me s’ammendi il peccato della fortuna, la quale dove meno era di forza, sì come noi nelle dilicate donne veggiamo, quivi più avara fu di sostegno, in soccorso e rifugio di quelle che amano, per ciò che all’altre è assai l’ago e’l fuso e l’arcolaio, intendo di raccontare cento novelle, o favole o parabole o istorie che dire le vogliamo, raccontate in dieci giorni da una onesta brigata di sette donne e di tre giovani nel pistelenzioso, tempo della passata mortalità fatta, e alcune canzonette dalle predette donne cantate al lor diletto.” “Adunque, disse la reina, se questo vi piace, per questa Giornata prima voglio che libero sia a ciascuno di quella materia ragionare che più gli sarà a grado.” This work, composed between 1349 and 1353, is nothing but a collection of novellas connected to each other by a macro-text. The particularity of the novella lies precisely in its short and concise structure, in the presence of a conflict that must be brought to its dissolution and in the regular presence of a symbolic element around which the story develops. As Paul Hayse writes: “bei der Auswahl für unsern Novellenschatz an der Regel fest, der Novelle der Vorzug zu geben, deren Grundmotiv sich am deutlichen abrundet und – mehr oder weniger gehaltvoll – etwas Eigenartiges, Spezifisches schon in der bloßen Anlage verrät.” Heyse’s “Falkentheorie” states that every novella must have a problem or conflict around which the plot revolves. Such conflict can be taken up by a recurring symbol
and thus illustrated. The example he gives for his thesis, is the novella of Federigo degli Alberighi and his “falcone”; a depleted knight decides to sacrifice the only remaining asset to him, for the love of a woman. This symbolic element can be found in many novellas, along with other elements typical of suspenseful stories. The novella of Simona and Pasquino, for example, features some of these elements. We are in fact anticipated the tragic death of the two young protagonists (foreshadowing) both, by Emilia's introductory words and by the summary that Boccaccio premises to the novella. “La Simona ama Pasquino; sono insieme in uno orto; Pasquino si frega a’ denti una foglia di salvia e muorsi; è presa la Simona, la quale, volendo mostrare al giudice come morisse Pasquino, fregatasi una di quelle foglie a’ denti, similmente si muore.” “Care compagne, la novella detta da Panfilo mi tira a doverne dire una in niuna altra cosa alla sua simile, se non che, come L’Andreuola nel giardino perdè l’amante, e così colei di cui dir debbo; e similmente presa, come l’Andreuola fu, non con forza né con virtù, ma con morte inoppinata si diliberò dalla corte.” We also know that death will come when the young people rub a sage leaf on their teeth. Furthermore, the unfounded accusation of an innocent (delaying element), the investigation carried out by the detective-judge, the inspection, the death of Simona
events) or figural (when the narrator assumes the knowledge and view of a character) perspective. One uses the term “narrative perspective” when referring to a set of features determining the way a story is told and what is told. It includes the person who is telling the story, or the narrator, as well as the character from whose point of view the story is told. These factors, combined with a narrator’s limited or omniscient perspective, his reliability and emotional involvement, produce the narrative perspective. In short: perspective in narrative texts can be seen as an umbrella term under which the various focalizations of a narrative text can be grouped. As Wolf Schmid writes in his “Elemente der Narratologie”, narrative perspective is to be understood as: "der von inneren und äußeren Faktoren gebildete Komplex von Bedingungen für das Erfassen Und Darstellen eines Geschehens" (Schmid 2005, p.125) Internal factors are elements that have to do with the narrator’s inner perception, knowledge, and horizon of evaluation; external factors are space and time. According to Schmid, the acts of narration must be distinguished between capturing and representing events. If there is incongruence between the two, then it has great significance for analysis and provides important information about narrative behaviour. Incongruent narration occurs when the narrator, as is the case with the figural or personal perspective, does not reproduce what he himself has perceived, but:
“scheinbar eigene Wahrnehmungen darstellend, in Wirklichkeit die subjective Wahrnehmung einer oder mehrerer der erzählten Figuren (reproduziert).” (Schmid 2005, p. 126). However, Boccaccio’s narrative does not yet know the art of internal focusing which will be fully established only with the nineteenth-century narrative. But in the novellas, it is equally possible to recognize some embryo of this procedure. In certain passages, the point of view coincides with his perception of reality, especially in moments of greater narrative tension. In the literary fiction the role of the narrator is entrusted to Emilia, who, although is external to the story and omniscient, nevertheless reveals her point of view in several moments throughout the narrative, as for example in the passage: “O felici anime [...]”. In the novella, even though the two protagonists share the same fate, Simona's is a more significant and dramatic presence since the mourning, the accusation and the necessity of the defence are added to the forced choice of suicide as the only proof of innocence. It is a gesture that implies the awareness of her powerlessness in front of an unmotivated judgment, which is the result of the other characters’ obstinacy, who show themselves in all their aggressiveness. Emilia (i.e., Boccaccio) participates in Simona's drama by underlining her innocence and putting the vulgar and impulsive male characters in a negative light.
“Rear Window” from 1954 contains some of Hitchcock’s most easily recognizable suspense elements. It is the story of the newspaper photographer Jeff (James Stewart) who has broken his leg. Confined to a wheelchair he spends the hot summer days and nights spying on his neighbours. He is spending so much time looking out the windows that he by chance sees that the man across the courtyard, Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr), allegedly kills his wife. But how does he prove it? Stella (Thelma Ritter), his nurse, and his beautiful girlfriend Lisa (Grace Kelly) reluctantly aggress to help him with the investigation. In one of the scenes, they lure Mr. Thorwald out of the apartment with a prank phone call, and Lisa and Stella go down into the courtyard digging up the rose bed in search of the evidence. They find nothing and, much against their plans, Lisa enters Thorwald’s apartment by the fire escape and immediately starts to search there for evidence. Stella rushed back to Jeff’s apartment. Jeff starts to get anxious right away. This was not what he planned and Thorwald could return every minute. Stella suggests that they call to Thorwald’s apartment when they see him return, and hopefully giving Lisa time enough to get out. But “Miss Lonelyheart”, in the apartment below Thorwald’s seems to be determined to commit suicide. Jeff and Stella’s attention instead shifts to her and they decided to call up the police and tell them of Miss Lonelyheart’s tragic attempt to end her own life. While on the phone with the police Jeff and Stella all too late realize that Thorwald is returning, and he is already outside his apartment. There is no time to warn Lisa. She is on her own. One trick that Hitchcock implemented with great success in “Rear Window” was to have the camera confined within Jeff’s apartment. The camera has, so to speak, also
broken its legs and is unable to leave Jeff’s side. This proves to be one of the key elements in the scene described above. Jeff is sitting across the courtyard and so are we, the viewer. All through the scene the framing of the images is getting closer and closer. In the beginning, where there is little danger, we see Jeff in a total shot and Lisa and Stella is an equally large framing. When Thorwald is returning the framing has slowly tighten more and more on both Lisa and Jeff. In the shot were Thorwald surprises Lisa, Jeff is shown in very tight close-up, and slightly from below frog perspective shot to intensify the feeling of horror he must feel seeing the love of his life in a brawl with a presume murderer. And there is absolutely noting he can do about it. These close-ups make the atmosphere more and more intensive. It is one of Hitchcock’s trademark techniques. Making the audience relive the agony and pain of the characters portrayed on screen. And as soon as the police arrives the frame is much wider again, and we can relax. The danger is over. Hitchcock tried to make what he called a “pure film” with “Rear Window” (Sinyard, 1994, p. 84) by using montage editing. James Stewart shows his great acting talent by downplaying his horror. His facial expression is hardly changing throughout the scene, but everyone in the audience feels the horror because of the crosscutting between close-ups of his face and the brawl at Thorwald’s apartment. The images express little by themselves but edited together they form a powerful synergy (Truffaut, 1973, p. 163). The pace of the editing also becomes much faster as the scene progresses. First, we see Jeff surveying the two women as they dig through the flowerbed. The cuts
Hitchcock clearly plays with the audience’s imagination; both in term of the sheer shock of seen Marion killed but also because of the different elements (the music, the framing, and the editing) combined intensify the shock (Sinyard, 1994, p. 113). The slow death of Marion is also reflected in the editing. Her life is slowly fading as the blood runs down the drain, and now there are only a few cuts between the shots. The camera is slowly moving away from the close-up of Marion’s eye, underlining the vanishing signs of life. In 1963 Hitchcock made “The Birds” which again underlined his ability to incorporate suspense in movies. But whereas “Psycho” involved a very interpersonal struggle, “The Birds” is much more a “mankind-versus-nature” film (Sinyard, 1994, p. 116). The birds in the quite coastal town of Bodega Bay have run amok for no apparent reason, and Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) and his new love interest Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) is caught in the middle of the mayhem. On request of the very worried grandmother Lydia Brenner (Jessica Tandy) Melanie aggress to pick up the children from school. At the school she sits outside waiting for the class to end. Little does she know that the birds are gathering behind her on the school’s playground. First, we see Melanie sitting down in a total shot establishing the scene showing that she is indeed sitting just next to the school. The framing of Melanie cuts to a medium shot and crosscutting between her and the climbing frame in the background. As the scene progresses and more birds are gathering on the climbing frame the crosscutting becomes faster and the framing of Melanie goes into a close-up of her face.
The framing of the climbing frame with the birds remains in a medium shot. There is no need to exaggerate the danger with the framing (Schmidt, 1995, p. 144). You, as the audience, already know, from previous scenes, what the birds are capable of. Melanie looks up occasionally, but does not see the birds flying in, and it makes the tension so much higher. When Melanie finally realizes that the birds are behind her, her facial expression is not much changed, and she does not say a sound. It would also become too overdramatic if she did (Schmidt, 1995, p. 144). When the children realize the horror the shot goes to a wide shot, as the rage of the birds is unleashed. The wide shot also underlines the helplessness of Melanie and the children. There is nowhere to hide. The structure of the three scenes analysed herein follows a very similar path. They all have the same build-up; the same kind of editing, the same gap of knowledge between audience and the characters, and more or less the same camera angles. These elements are only the most fundamental but combined all together, they can take a normal scene and transform it into a much more audience participant scene. This is the most important of all the elements required to create a believable suspense scene. In the case of the scene from “Rear Window” the audience knows just as much as James Stewart does. He on the other hand knows more than Grace Kelly. The audience and Stewart are one and the same. The audience is personified in Stewart’s role and vice versa. In “Psycho” you only have a very short warning before Anthony Perkins comes and slaughters Janet Leigh in the shower, but the suspense was built up in the many scenes
