Final answer:
Suspense in literature is the emotional tension that keeps readers engaged and anticipating outcomes. It can be created through various narrative techniques and is essential for keeping the audience invested in the story. The provided passages showcase diverse instances of suspense, encompassing themes of horror, tragedy, and the unknown.
Step-by-step explanation:
Suspense in Literature
The concept of suspense in literature is often constructed through narrative elements that engage a reader's emotions and curiosity. Suspense is the intense feeling that an audience goes through while waiting for the outcome of certain events. It builds tension and keeps the reader guessing about what might happen next. Various examples of suspense can be found in classical and contemporary literature, engaging readers in a thrilling or anxious state of anticipation.
In the examples provided, suspense is created in diverse ways. For instance, the jealous step-dame's actions, the spindle red and sightless orbits introduce a sense of impending doom and curiosity about the fate of the characters involved, which keeps the reader engaged. In the passage that describes the gladiator games, the use of first-person narrative conveys the speaker's horror and repulsion, creating a connection with the reader who anticipates the outcomes of such cruel entertainment with dread.
Aristotle's discussion on fear and pity in tragedy underlines the importance of a narrative's internal structure over spectacle to evoke suspense and emotional response. The expressions of terror in the battlefield, the agony of a mother losing her children, the terror induced by the rustling of purple curtains, the tragic fates within a mill, and the violence experienced by the riders all careen into moments rich with suspense. These scenarios heighten the reader's emotional engagement through the element of the unknown or the imminent.