Alfred Hitchcock's Use Of Suspense In Film

While watching Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock, I was able to notice two distinct themes throughout the film. These two themes are a quote about actions speaking louder than words and suspense. Hitchcock also had many different elements in his film to make it successful. My favorite element he used was sound with the radio in the background, street noise, and other ongoing conversations. One main theme that was shown through out the film was the quote “actions speak louder than words”.

Also because he didn’t even know who or what he was so that added suspense too. People at the party were running from him but he thought it was a monster behind him. “When I returned I found a stone trap door immovable” he thought it was the monster in the doorway it’s a mirror and he sees his

North by Northwest, is a 1959 American archetypal thriller film directed by auteur Alfred Hitchcock. This espionage neo-noir film follows protagonist Roger O.Thornhill who is mistaken for the fabricated George Kaplan. In an effort to clear his name, and demonstrate his guiltlessness, Thornhill is chased across the United States, and framed for the murder of U.N diplomat Lester Townsend. Thornhill is then forced to acquire Kaplan 's identity; whilst being confronted with a mysterious femme fatale named Eve Kendall. Through Hitchcock 's explicit usage of mis-en-scene and complex cinematic structures such as establishing shots, and point of view shots, this neo-noir film, draws intensely on the context of the 1950s era, by delivering stories

Suspense, the state of tension, anxiety, and uncertainty, like waiting for an outcome that comes very slow. Authors usually create suspense by using story elements. In the story “The Monkeys Paw” by W.W. Jacobs, he uses story elements such as foreshadowing, conflict, and surprise ending. Foreshadowing is one of the biggest ways that expresses suspense in the story. For example Sergeant Major Morris states that the first owner of the paw wished for death.

Webster’s Dictionary defines suspense as, “a mental uncertainty or anxiety or the state of being undecided or doubtful.” By using mystery elements in his or her writing, an author can give the readers the uncomfortable feeling of suspense while reading their suspenseful text. In various short stories, mystery elements create suspense in a variety of ways. The short stories, “Lamb to the Slaughter,” by Roald Dahl, “The Adventure of the Speckled Band,” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and “Invitation to a Murder,” by Josh Pachter create suspense as a result of the mystery elements they contain. “Lamb to the Slaughter” is one of the many examples of texts that includes suspense, which the author created throughout the story.

“The suspense is terrible. I hope it will last” (Oscar Wilde). Though this quote is ironic, the reasoning behind it is accurate, especially in literature. Though suspense can be quite off putting and frustrating for a reader, it also makes the story much more intriguing. Authors use suspense to pull a reader into their story, keeping them on the edge of their seats and always wondering what will happen next.

Peter Bogdanovich once said,” suspense is guided by an audience’s sympathy for its characters and an intense need for something dramatic to happen.” The six fundamentals of Good suspense: 1. Subjectivity. 2.

After reading acts one though four, it seems fair to say that Macbeth won’t be king for long. Most of the details in the play up to this point seems to point towards his destruction. His guilt over killing Duncan, the failed murder of Fleance, Lady Macbeth forcing him to commence the murders, the nobles suspicion of his murderous ways. I don’t know how exactly how he will fall however there are many possibilities onto how and seeing that most of England wants him dead, id probably start there. Act four’s main purpose, I think was to mostly deepen the plot and build suspense for act five.

“Suspense combines curiosity with fear and pulls them up a rising slope,” quote by Mason Cooley summarizes the idea of how W.F. Harvey creates suspense in his short story, “August Heats.” Everyone likes a little suspense in their life so W.F. Harvey attracts his audience by using foreshadowing, “the use of hints to suggest events later in the plot,” (source 1) a reversal is involved, “a sudden change in a character’s situation from good to bad or vice versa,” (source 1) and the narrator withholds information from the reader. With these steps the author intrigues the audience to continue reading and cause them to feel frightened as they read. W.F. Harvey first begins to get the character interested in the reading by the way he signals hints towards the reader in order to get them thinking about events that could possibly happen. As the reader continues reading W.F. Harvey introduces more hints that might change the way of thinking of the reader.

Hitchcock films are most often thrillers, pegged as such because of their suspense, psychologically complex characters, and twist endings. In a career spanning six decades he directed over fifty feature films. A film auteur is usually a writer and a director who use unique and personal styles in their films, so when someone was to watch another film of that person they will instantly refer to that filmmaker. Alfred Hitchcock is a perfect example of this because of several reasons.