"It's our turn now, to go to the South Sea Island - to make a safari - to be exotic, far-off! - But I'm not patient. I don't want to wait till then. I'm tired of the movies and I am about to move!" - Tom.
For this blog, I am going to answer a question found on page 1119 in my book.
How is dramatic suspense created? Contrast the amount of information possessed by the audience as the play proceeds with the knowledge that various individual characters have: what is the effect of such a contrast?
One way that dramatic suspense is created is when Tom tells Jim secretly that he is going to leave his family just like his father did. Personally, I found it a little shocking since it seems that the family has had a lot of difficult times after their father left. Why, then, would Tom feel like he could just leave Amanda and Laura. The information the audience knows is very different to the amount of information Amanda and Laura have. We realize that pretty soon, the electricity is going to go out since Tom didn't pay the bill and Amanda and Laura are going to be left to fend for themselves. The effect of this contrast is that the audience feels a bit sorry for Amanda and Laura since we have a feeling that their fate is not going to end well. It also keeps the audience alert and entertained because we are anticipating something terrible to happen. The audience knows something Amanda and Laura do not and we are interested to see how everything will play out.
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