Suspense

For the radio program, see Suspense (radio program).

For the genre, see Thriller.

Suspense or tension is the feeling of uncertainty and interest about the outcome of certain actions an audience perceives in a dramatic work. According to Aristotle's Poetics, suspense is an important building block of drama. In very broad terms, it consists of having some real danger looming and a ray of hope. The two common outcomes can be

the danger hits, whereby the audience will feel sorrowful
the hope comes true, whereby the audience will first feel joy, then satisfaction.

If there is no hope, the audience will feel despair.

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.