Out of the books that I have read, I have found that the moments of intensity differ in the way that author portrays it. Since freshman year, I have read all different genres of books, thus I almost can expect how the author will portray the climax or other intense parts of the book. However, plays and novels are surprisingly similar in the ways that the intense moments are portrayed.
Take Oedipus the King for example. The climax of this play is obviously when Sophocles describes Oedipus blinding himself. Like most novels, he builds up suspense to heighten the intense moments to grab the readers attention. Throughout the whole play, Sophocles foreshadows a tragic ending, but the reader obviously does not know what it is. This is very common in plays, especially tragedies, because that is exactly what they are aimed to do at an audience. In The Stranger, Camus does this as well. Camus builds up suspense right before Mersault kills the Arab by using the sun. However, Camus does not foreshadow to the climax as much as play writers do in their works. However what differs the two is when the suspense kicks in. In The Stranger, for example, Camus creates suspense right before he kills the Arab, while in Oedipus the King, Sophocles creates suspense from the beginning of the play when Oedipus wants to discover the truth behind who killed Laius. I think that play writers do a better job at creating this suspense, and intense moments because they design it for an actual audience, rather than a reader. Having a gradual increase in suspense starting from the beginning of a play sets the mood for the rest of it, and it is almost a surprise at when the intense moment occurs.
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