A glimpse into long-term suspect as a narrative technique in Literary Concepts

  

• A brief explanation of long-term suspense and how do writers create suspense with mysterious settings and circumstances?

   Firstly, suspense is a literary device that the writers often consult to keep the reader’s

intention awake throughout the work. So as to create suspense, there should be an action or

happening in a work of art to lead reader curiosity and wonder. The elements of suspense are

the diction, setting, tone and most importantly mood which is a thing that may shape all our

understanding of suspense if we misunderstand or misevaluate it, while we are dealing with

suspense. Also, tension, dark setting and mystery are the other important elements of

suspense, evoking our emotions.

   And when it comes to the long-term suspense, in other words, narrative suspense, our

understanding must be an entire story, which means it’s reference is the tension that is created

throughout the whole story. In long-term suspense, a question, problem or mystery is directed

to the reader at the beginning of the story. The reader has a feeling of anxious and uncertainty

as to what may happen when suspense shows itself. And as the plot marches on, it is being

uncovered phase by phase so as not to overwhelm the reader with the intensity of that

excessive tension that is built up till it is finally resolved around the climax or ending point.

   When we look more closely to the long-term suspense, we can take a look at the novel of ‘The

Silence of the Lambs’. In this detective and thriller novel written by Thomas Harris, the major

things that attract our attentions almost immediately are the dark imagery, intense mind play

and the unsecure mood of the novel as well as many other elements. The novel effectively

grabs and catches our attention so much that it is nearly impossible to put it away or have a

break thanks to the successfully created long-term suspense.With it’s gradually improving

plot, the reader climbs metaphorically the ladder of suspenseful plot step by step. With the

character’s gripping dilemmas, short sentences to increase tension and darksome, stressed,

uncertain general tone of the novel make the reader more absorbed. The protagonists are Dr.

Hannibal Lecter, Clarice Starling and Jack Crawford. The initial one is known with his

psychopathia with unprecedented intelligence who is jailed behind a bullet prof glass in a

maximum security lunatic asylum. He is put there after he killed and ate some of his previous

patients because Hannibal Lecter was actually a psychiatrist. The primary character that

contributes the plot knitted with the suspense as a narative technique is the Hannibal Lecter

and his being beautifully created dark, unsecure and gruesome character. Because the reader

always keep their caution while reading the novel thanks to the Lecter whose actions cannot

be made out in advance due to his lunatic tendency and acute mind and this creates a huge

amount of unsecurity and uncertainity that ends up with a perfect suspense from the beginning

till the end of the novel. Other characters are always in a mood of apprehension by being

beaten by him and this makes them always anxious in their actions related to him. Indeed, this

anxiety passes to the reader in a form of increased tension. On the other hand, Clarice Starling

who is an FBI trainee is called on by her superior to analyze Hannibal for the purpose of

catching a clue on how to seize another serial killer named Jame Gumb whose label is

“Buffalo Bill”. He chooses the girls as a victim in hope of sewing himself a girlish suit of skin

so that he can be a woman. Clarice seems vulnerable however she is determined enough to

embark upon a dark journey that she will soon with Hannibal Lecter and this is her character

dilemma to seem sensitive to deal with such a hard case but in fact, we see that she is not that

much delicate. Meanwhile, Dr. Frederick Chilton who is in charge of the asylum in which

Lecter is imprisoned, starts to being annoyed from the fact that Clarice is dropping over

Hannibal quite often and not telling him on their conversations. So he starts to chasing her and

Crawford and is out to screw them. As it can be seen, the events are going on consecutively

not as like action-packed adventurous action movies but like a real thriller detective movies

progressing with quiet and calm scenes with a sheer dark setting and intense feelings that

make the reader engrossed in it by wondering more and more what will happen as the plot

progress step by step till it reaches it’s climax and resolving point.

   Writers create suspense with mysterious settings and circumstances because when we face

something mysterious, most probably the thing that willl appear is something dark. And when

something is dark, we are automatically in the field of suspense. To put it simply, I would like

to take the novel of ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ again as an example. Harris creates a high

level of suspense by forming mysterious settings with his suitable characters for it. For

example, there are some specific mysterious events in the novel like that serial killer called

Bill, choses women as a victim. After, he strips the skin from their body when they are dead.

Then weirdly enough, he puts his victim’s throat a butterfly moth which we see afterwards

that this comes to mean that a symbolic alteration that the killer desires for his biological

gender. And all of them create a range of mysterious happenings that wait for coming to light.

Also, the mysterious settings of the characters are so beautifully handled that the reader wants

to understand their frames of mind and develop empathy with them. They want to understand

the character’s mindsets; because they are full of mystery. And the more they are mysterious,

the more the reader is hooked on knowing much more on them and that is why they keep the

reading. Undoubtedly, this is an absolute result of the suspense narrative technique that is

built with the mystery The character of Hannibal is handled perfectly mingled with the

mystery and contrast that he endears himself to reader somehow. Maybe that is because

Clarice encounters with only his good face, not evil sides. But Hannibal Lecter, a gruesome

cannibal, manipulates the reader very well with his being sympathetic that he evokes a

sympathy in reader’s mind. Even more, the novel ends up with a surprising phone call after

Clarice captures the serial killer after a great effort. Dr. Lecter calls her suddenly while she is

celebrating her success with other FBI agents. She asks his whereabout however the phone

call ends too fast without knowing the reason why he calls her and saying where he is. This, is

also another mystery for story to be continue. To wrap up, all these mysterious circumstances

and facts cater for the novel a perfect example of suspense and taste of enjoy for the reader.