a tense wait, creating anxiety, experienced by the spectator (Lavandier, 2005) in responce to lack of certainty [...] about what is going to happen, especially to characters with whom the reader has established a bond of sympathy (Abrams & Harpham, 2012, p. 295), i.e. the uncertainty over the dramatic answer [to the 'dramatic question']. (Lavandier, 2005) As a plot evolves it arouses expectations [hopes and fears] in the [concerned] audience or reader about the future course of events and actions and how characters will respond to them. (Abrams & Harpham, 2012, p. 295) What will happen? is the foremost question in the audience's mind. (Howard & Mabley, 1993, p. 134) Suspense is sometimes a curious mixture of pain and pleasure (Hiltunen, 2002, p. 11). Also see stakes, obstacle., [the viewer's] feeling of fear and excitement created and built up by the narrative, consisting of hope for a desired outcome and, simultaneously, fear that the opposite will happen. (Griffiths, 2015), Tension is a mental, emotional strain for the viewer, a pleasurable anxiety or apprehension resulting from watching an uncertain, undecided, or mysterious situation. It consists of hope for a desired outcome and simultaneously, fear that the opposite will happen. (International Screenwriters' Association, 2017)
