Aim for FiveEnglish Literature

Unit 9 · Topic 9.3

9.3 Big events: competing values and suspense

The biggest events in a long work usually bring the central conflict to a head, showing two sets of values crashing into each other. As one event leads to the next and the pressure builds, the writer creates anticipation and suspense.

Key terms

  • competing values
  • central conflict
  • rising action
  • anticipation
  • suspense

Significant events reveal competing values

A long novel or play has many events, but only a few carry the central conflict. You can usually spot them because the characters' deepest values come into the open and can no longer both win. Love against pride, duty against freedom, loyalty against conscience: the big scenes force a collision.

When you write about a key event, name the competing values precisely, show where they clash in the scene, and explain what the outcome suggests about the work's ideas.

How writers build suspense

  • Raising the stakes: each event makes the outcome matter more.
  • Cause and effect: one event triggers the next, so pressure accumulates.
  • Delay: the writer holds off the confrontation, making you wait.
  • Giving the reader information a character lacks, or the reverse.
  • Timing: placing a revelation right before a confrontation, so a character walks in already provoked.

Darcy's first proposal

In Pride and Prejudice (1813), Elizabeth Bennet's first major confrontation with Mr. Darcy brings the novel's two title values into direct conflict. Austen sets it up carefully. Just before the scene, Darcy's cousin, Colonel Fitzwilliam, tells Elizabeth that Darcy recently "saved a friend from the inconveniences of a most imprudent marriage," and Elizabeth realizes that he separated her beloved sister Jane from Mr. Bingley. She is still angry when Darcy arrives.

Darcy bursts out, "In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed." But the narrator tells us he spoke as much of pride as of love: of "His sense of her inferiority—of its being a degradation—of the family obstacles which judgment had always opposed to inclination." Elizabeth refuses him sharply: "You could not have made me the offer of your hand in any possible way that would have tempted me to accept it."

The scene is the novel's turning point. Darcy's pride in rank collides with his love; Elizabeth's quick judgment and self-respect collide with his assumptions. The refusal shocks both of them into rethinking, which drives the rest of the plot.

Suspense on stage

Plays build suspense with objects and timing the audience can see. In A Doll's House, Krogstad drops a letter exposing Nora's forgery into the locked letter-box late in Act 2. Only Torvald has the key. For the rest of that act and into the next, the audience knows the letter is sitting there, while Nora frantically dances the tarantella to keep Torvald away from it. The longer the letter waits, the more the audience dreads the moment he reads it.

When that moment comes, the competing values in the marriage, Torvald's concern for his reputation and Nora's hope that he will sacrifice himself for her, finally meet head-on.

Worked examples

Try each one yourself first, then open the solution.

  1. Example 1

    Analyzing a key event's competing values

    Explain how Austen builds suspense before Darcy's first proposal and what values collide in the scene. Use Colonel Fitzwilliam's remark that Darcy "saved a friend from the inconveniences of a most imprudent marriage," Darcy's opening "In vain have I struggled," and Elizabeth's refusal.

    Show the solution
    1. Step 1: Trace the build-up: Fitzwilliam's casual remark leads Elizabeth to realize Darcy broke up Jane and Bingley. Austen times this revelation just before Darcy arrives.
    2. Step 2: Identify Darcy's competing values: "In vain have I struggled" shows love fighting his pride in rank, which he spells out by dwelling on her "inferiority" and her family's low connections.
    3. Step 3: Identify Elizabeth's values: loyalty to Jane and self-respect. Her refusal answers both his insult and his interference.
    4. Step 4: Name the outcome and its meaning: the collision humbles both, which sets up their later change.

    Answer: Sample answer: Austen times the proposal for maximum collision. Only hours earlier, Colonel Fitzwilliam's offhand boast that Darcy "saved a friend from the inconveniences of a most imprudent marriage" lets Elizabeth realize Darcy separated Jane from Bingley, so she meets him already furious. Darcy's opening, "In vain have I struggled," reveals that his love has had to overpower his pride in rank, and his dwelling on her "inferiority" shows that the pride hasn't really lost. The result is a scene where both title values crash together: his pride insults her, and her prejudice, sharpened by loyalty to Jane, makes her refusal absolute. Because neither character can stay the same after this, the scene turns the novel from a comedy of misjudgment into a story of self-correction.

Common mistakes

  • Summarizing a big scene without naming the values in conflict.
  • Treating the climax as one moment. Show the chain of events that built pressure toward it.
  • Calling an event "important" without explaining what changes because of it.

On the exam

  • Multiple-choice questions on longer fiction or drama may ask how an event affects the plot, or what values come into conflict in a scene. Look for the moment where the characters' priorities can no longer coexist.
  • In the literary argument essay, the climax and the events leading to it give you natural evidence from across the work.

Connected topics

Videos

  • "What is a Narrative Arc?": A Literary Guide for English Students and Teachers

    OSU School of Writing, Literature and FilmWatch on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

  • If One Finger Brought Oil - Things Fall Apart Part 1: Crash Course Literature 208

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  • Elements of Suspense Using Hitchcock Movies

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  • How to make your writing suspenseful - Victoria Smith

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  • Fate, Family, and Oedipus Rex: Crash Course Literature 202

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Check yourself

4 questions on 9.3 Big events: competing values and suspense. Pick an answer to see if you got it, and why.

Paragraph 1
ALGERNON. Well, that is exactly what dentists always do. Now, go on! Tell me the whole thing. I may mention that I have always suspected you of being a confirmed and secret Bunburyist; and I am quite sure of it now.
Paragraph 2
JACK. Bunburyist? What on earth do you mean by a Bunburyist?
Paragraph 3
ALGERNON. I’ll reveal to you the meaning of that incomparable expression as soon as you are kind enough to inform me why you are Ernest in town and Jack in the country.
Paragraph 4
JACK. Well, produce my cigarette case first.
Paragraph 5
ALGERNON. Here it is. [Hands cigarette case.] Now produce your explanation, and pray make it improbable. [Sits on sofa.]
Paragraph 6
JACK. My dear fellow, there is nothing improbable about my explanation at all. In fact it’s perfectly ordinary. Old Mr. Thomas Cardew, who adopted me when I was a little boy, made me in his will guardian to his grand-daughter, Miss Cecily Cardew. Cecily, who addresses me as her uncle from motives of respect that you could not possibly appreciate, lives at my place in the country under the charge of her admirable governess, Miss Prism.
Paragraph 7
ALGERNON. Where is that place in the country, by the way?
Paragraph 8
JACK. That is nothing to you, dear boy. You are not going to be invited . . . I may tell you candidly that the place is not in Shropshire.
Paragraph 9
ALGERNON. I suspected that, my dear fellow! I have Bunburyed all over Shropshire on two separate occasions. Now, go on. Why are you Ernest in town and Jack in the country?
Paragraph 10
JACK. My dear Algy, I don’t know whether you will be able to understand my real motives. You are hardly serious enough. When one is placed in the position of guardian, one has to adopt a very high moral tone on all subjects. It’s one’s duty to do so. And as a high moral tone can hardly be said to conduce very much to either one’s health or one’s happiness, in order to get up to town I have always pretended to have a younger brother of the name of Ernest, who lives in the Albany, and gets into the most dreadful scrapes. That, my dear Algy, is the whole truth pure and simple.
Paragraph 11
ALGERNON. The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility!
Paragraph 12
JACK. That wouldn’t be at all a bad thing.
Paragraph 13
ALGERNON. Literary criticism is not your forte, my dear fellow. Don’t try it. You should leave that to people who haven’t been at a University. They do it so well in the daily papers. What you really are is a Bunburyist. I was quite right in saying you were a Bunburyist. You are one of the most advanced Bunburyists I know.
Paragraph 14
JACK. What on earth do you mean?
Paragraph 15
ALGERNON. You have invented a very useful younger brother called Ernest, in order that you may be able to come up to town as often as you like. I have invented an invaluable permanent invalid called Bunbury, in order that I may be able to go down into the country whenever I choose. Bunbury is perfectly invaluable. If it wasn’t for Bunbury’s extraordinary bad health, for instance, I wouldn’t be able to dine with you at Willis’s to-night, for I have been really engaged to Aunt Augusta for more than a week.
Paragraph 16
JACK. I haven’t asked you to dine with me anywhere to-night.
Paragraph 17
ALGERNON. I know. You are absurdly careless about sending out invitations. It is very foolish of you. Nothing annoys people so much as not receiving invitations.
Paragraph 18
JACK. You had much better dine with your Aunt Augusta.
Paragraph 19
ALGERNON. I haven’t the smallest intention of doing anything of the kind. To begin with, I dined there on Monday, and once a week is quite enough to dine with one’s own relations. In the second place, whenever I do dine there I am always treated as a member of the family, and sent down with either no woman at all, or two. In the third place, I know perfectly well whom she will place me next to, to-night. She will place me next Mary Farquhar, who always flirts with her own husband across the dinner-table. That is not very pleasant. Indeed, it is not even decent . . . and that sort of thing is enormously on the increase. The amount of women in London who flirt with their own husbands is perfectly scandalous. It looks so bad. It is simply washing one’s clean linen in public. Besides, now that I know you to be a confirmed Bunburyist I naturally want to talk to you about Bunburying. I want to tell you the rules.
Paragraph 20
JACK. I’m not a Bunburyist at all. If Gwendolen accepts me, I am going to kill my brother, indeed I think I’ll kill him in any case. Cecily is a little too much interested in him. It is rather a bore. So I am going to get rid of Ernest. And I strongly advise you to do the same with Mr. . . . with your invalid friend who has the absurd name.
Paragraph 21
ALGERNON. Nothing will induce me to part with Bunbury, and if you ever get married, which seems to me extremely problematic, you will be very glad to know Bunbury. A man who marries without knowing Bunbury has a very tedious time of it.
Paragraph 22
JACK. That is nonsense. If I marry a charming girl like Gwendolen, and she is the only girl I ever saw in my life that I would marry, I certainly won’t want to know Bunbury.
Paragraph 23
ALGERNON. Then your wife will. You don’t seem to realise, that in married life three is company and two is none.
Paragraph 24
JACK. [Sententiously.] That, my dear young friend, is the theory that the corrupt French Drama has been propounding for the last fifty years.
Paragraph 25
ALGERNON. Yes; and that the happy English home has proved in half the time.
Paragraph 26
JACK. For heaven’s sake, don’t try to be cynical. It’s perfectly easy to be cynical.
Paragraph 27
ALGERNON. My dear fellow, it isn’t easy to be anything nowadays. There’s such a lot of beastly competition about. [The sound of an electric bell is heard.] Ah! that must be Aunt Augusta. Only relatives, or creditors, ever ring in that Wagnerian manner. Now, if I get her out of the way for ten minutes, so that you can have an opportunity for proposing to Gwendolen, may I dine with you to-night at Willis’s?
Paragraph 28
JACK. I suppose so, if you want to.
Paragraph 29
ALGERNON. Yes, but you must be serious about it. I hate people who are not serious about meals. It is so shallow of them.

Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, Act I (first performed 1895; published 1899)

Question 1 of 4

Algernon’s reply “The truth is rarely pure and never simple” (paragraph 11) works in the scene chiefly by

Question 2 of 4

Algernon’s complaint in paragraph 19 about women “who flirt with their own husbands” is comic chiefly because it

Paragraph 1
LUBOV. We go away, and not a soul remains behind.
Paragraph 2
LOPAKHIN. Till the spring.
Paragraph 3
VARYA. [Drags an umbrella out of a bundle, and seems to be waving it about. LOPAKHIN appears to be frightened] What are you doing?... I never thought...
Paragraph 4
TROFIMOV. Come along, let’s take our seats... it’s time! The train will be in directly.
Paragraph 5
VARYA. Peter, here they are, your goloshes, by that trunk. [In tears] And how old and dirty they are....
Paragraph 6
TROFIMOV. [Putting them on] Come on!
Paragraph 7
GAEV. [Deeply moved, nearly crying] The train... the station.... Cross in the middle, a white double in the corner....
Paragraph 8
LUBOV. Let’s go!
Paragraph 9
LOPAKHIN. Are you all here? There’s nobody else? [Locks the side-door on the left] There’s a lot of things in there. I must lock them up. Come!
Paragraph 10
ANYA. Good-bye, home! Good-bye, old life!
Paragraph 11
TROFIMOV. Welcome, new life! [Exit with ANYA.]
Paragraph 12
[VARYA looks round the room and goes out slowly. YASHA and CHARLOTTA, with her little dog, go out.]
Paragraph 13
LOPAKHIN. Till the spring, then! Come on... till we meet again! [Exit.]
Paragraph 14
[LUBOV ANDREYEVNA and GAEV are left alone. They might almost have been waiting for that. They fall into each other’s arms and sob restrainedly and quietly, fearing that somebody might hear them.]
Paragraph 15
GAEV. [In despair] My sister, my sister....
Paragraph 16
LUBOV. My dear, my gentle, beautiful orchard! My life, my youth, my happiness, good-bye! Good-bye!
Paragraph 17
ANYA’S VOICE. [Gaily] Mother!
Paragraph 18
TROFIMOV’S VOICE. [Gaily, excited] Coo-ee!
Paragraph 19
LUBOV. To look at the walls and the windows for the last time.... My dead mother used to like to walk about this room....
Paragraph 20
GAEV. My sister, my sister!
Paragraph 21
ANYA’S VOICE. Mother!
Paragraph 22
TROFIMOV’S VOICE. Coo-ee!
Paragraph 23
LUBOV. We’re coming! [They go out.]
Paragraph 24
[The stage is empty. The sound of keys being turned in the locks is heard, and then the noise of the carriages going away. It is quiet. Then the sound of an axe against the trees is heard in the silence sadly and by itself. Steps are heard. FIERS comes in from the door on the right. He is dressed as usual, in a short jacket and white waistcoat; slippers on his feet. He is ill. He goes to the door and tries the handle.]
Paragraph 25
FIERS. It’s locked. They’ve gone away. [Sits on a sofa] They’ve forgotten about me.... Never mind, I’ll sit here.... And Leonid Andreyevitch will have gone in a light overcoat instead of putting on his fur coat.... [Sighs anxiously] I didn’t see.... Oh, these young people! [Mumbles something that cannot be understood] Life’s gone on as if I’d never lived. [Lying down] I’ll lie down.... You’ve no strength left in you, nothing left at all.... Oh, you... bungler!
Paragraph 26
[He lies without moving. The distant sound is heard, as if from the sky, of a breaking string, dying away sadly. Silence follows it, and only the sound is heard, some way away in the orchard, of the axe falling on the trees.]
Paragraph 27
Curtain.

Anton Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard (1904), the end of Act IV, translated by Julius West (1916)

Question 3 of 4

Anya’s “Good-bye, home! Good-bye, old life!” and Trofimov’s “Welcome, new life!” (paragraphs 10–11) contrast with Lubov’s farewell in paragraph 16 chiefly to show

Paragraph 1
As I said this I suddenly beheld the figure of a man, at some distance, advancing towards me with superhuman speed. He bounded over the crevices in the ice, among which I had walked with caution; his stature, also, as he approached, seemed to exceed that of man. I was troubled; a mist came over my eyes, and I felt a faintness seize me, but I was quickly restored by the cold gale of the mountains. I perceived, as the shape came nearer (sight tremendous and abhorred!) that it was the wretch whom I had created. I trembled with rage and horror, resolving to wait his approach and then close with him in mortal combat. He approached; his countenance bespoke bitter anguish, combined with disdain and malignity, while its unearthly ugliness rendered it almost too horrible for human eyes. But I scarcely observed this; rage and hatred had at first deprived me of utterance, and I recovered only to overwhelm him with words expressive of furious detestation and contempt.
Paragraph 2
“Devil,” I exclaimed, “do you dare approach me? And do not you fear the fierce vengeance of my arm wreaked on your miserable head? Begone, vile insect! Or rather, stay, that I may trample you to dust! And, oh! That I could, with the extinction of your miserable existence, restore those victims whom you have so diabolically murdered!”
Paragraph 3
“I expected this reception,” said the dæmon. “All men hate the wretched; how, then, must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things! Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us. You purpose to kill me. How dare you sport thus with life? Do your duty towards me, and I will do mine towards you and the rest of mankind. If you will comply with my conditions, I will leave them and you at peace; but if you refuse, I will glut the maw of death, until it be satiated with the blood of your remaining friends.”
Paragraph 4
“Abhorred monster! Fiend that thou art! The tortures of hell are too mild a vengeance for thy crimes. Wretched devil! You reproach me with your creation, come on, then, that I may extinguish the spark which I so negligently bestowed.”
Paragraph 5
My rage was without bounds; I sprang on him, impelled by all the feelings which can arm one being against the existence of another.
Paragraph 6
He easily eluded me and said,
Paragraph 7
“Be calm! I entreat you to hear me before you give vent to your hatred on my devoted head. Have I not suffered enough, that you seek to increase my misery? Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it. Remember, thou hast made me more powerful than thyself; my height is superior to thine, my joints more supple. But I will not be tempted to set myself in opposition to thee. I am thy creature, and I will be even mild and docile to my natural lord and king if thou wilt also perform thy part, the which thou owest me. Oh, Frankenstein, be not equitable to every other and trample upon me alone, to whom thy justice, and even thy clemency and affection, is most due. Remember that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed. Everywhere I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded. I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous.”
Paragraph 8
“Begone! I will not hear you. There can be no community between you and me; we are enemies. Begone, or let us try our strength in a fight, in which one must fall.”
Paragraph 9
“How can I move thee? Will no entreaties cause thee to turn a favourable eye upon thy creature, who implores thy goodness and compassion? Believe me, Frankenstein, I was benevolent; my soul glowed with love and humanity; but am I not alone, miserably alone? You, my creator, abhor me; what hope can I gather from your fellow creatures, who owe me nothing? They spurn and hate me. The desert mountains and dreary glaciers are my refuge. I have wandered here many days; the caves of ice, which I only do not fear, are a dwelling to me, and the only one which man does not grudge. These bleak skies I hail, for they are kinder to me than your fellow beings. If the multitude of mankind knew of my existence, they would do as you do, and arm themselves for my destruction. Shall I not then hate them who abhor me? I will keep no terms with my enemies. I am miserable, and they shall share my wretchedness. Yet it is in your power to recompense me, and deliver them from an evil which it only remains for you to make so great, that not only you and your family, but thousands of others, shall be swallowed up in the whirlwinds of its rage. Let your compassion be moved, and do not disdain me. Listen to my tale; when you have heard that, abandon or commiserate me, as you shall judge that I deserve. But hear me. The guilty are allowed, by human laws, bloody as they are, to speak in their own defence before they are condemned. Listen to me, Frankenstein. You accuse me of murder, and yet you would, with a satisfied conscience, destroy your own creature. Oh, praise the eternal justice of man! Yet I ask you not to spare me; listen to me, and then, if you can, and if you will, destroy the work of your hands.”

Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, Chapter 10 (1831 edition). Victor Frankenstein is the narrator.

Question 4 of 4

The creature’s warning in paragraph 3, “If you will comply with my conditions, I will leave them and you at peace; but if you refuse, I will glut the maw of death,” builds suspense chiefly by

0 of 4 answered