dramatic irony/ Hitchcockian suspense

Dramatic irony is a stylistic device in which the audience understands the work better than the characters (Britannica & Editors of Encyclopedia, 2020). This is a type of irony expressed in the structure of a piece of play either in a book or a film. There is a difference between the awareness of situations of the audience and the characters in the piece of work. Therefore, the characters’ words and actions assume a different meaning to the audience often a contradictory meaning from that of the characters. Dramatic irony is used more in the theatre than in other fields of the literary and performing arts.

In Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, the audience already knows that Oedipus’s acts are tragic ways before he recognizes them (Britannica & Editors of Encyclopedia, 2020). In William Shakespeare play called Othello, we see Othello’s trust in the dangerous Iago in the play. This device can also be found in the works of Henry’s short story, “The gift of the Magi” and Anton Chekhov’s work “Lady with the Dog.” (Britannica & Editors of Encyclopedia, 2020).

There is an irony in my script when the main character, Myro, decides to leave her wealthy lifestyle and run away with an ordinary servant of her father. Instead of Myro loving a fellow royal family, she falls in love with a servant. They decide to keep their love affair a secret until Myro’s father finds out and expels him from the castle. It is ironic how parents always want their daughters married, but they will put high standards on the man who asks for their hand in marriage.

It’s ironical, where instead of Myro leaving the abusive relationship she decided to remain and find out what is wrong with the husband. She risked her life living with this man suffering from a mental disease that was not known yet.

Hitchcockian suspense refers to the careful management of the differences between what the characters in a piece know and what the audience knows (Palmer, 2009). This device is mostly used in the film industry, especially the horror genre, where they apply it to reveal as little as possible. The audience is made to anticipate scary scenes from the film to experience less scary scenes on the screen. A lot is left to the audience’s imagination; for example, Hitchcock created stories of sexual frustration, murder issues, and obsession with insulation and implications instead of self-explanatory content (Palmer, 2009).

In my script, the story brings out a lot of suspense in that the audience is not sure of what happens next, what happens to Myro, whether she decides to leave Luke and return to her father or remain. The audience expects Myro to leave Luke for her luxurious lifestyle, but she chooses to suffer with him. Have left it to my audience’s imagination to imagine what the Myro’s father did concerning her disappearing from the castle and whether or not he got to find her.

It’s all about the audience imagination and seeing what the filmmaker did not portray, for instance, imagining the unshown monster as fierce and scary. For example, the movie Vertigo (1958) shows the obsessions of a stalker, and by doing so, the film ends up hiding the “nice guy” persona of Jimmy. In Rope (1948), the central protagonists are read today as being a homosexual couple. Therefore from the work of Hitchcock, we see that his film work was influenced by creative and social factors (Palmer, 2009).  Another perfect example of a movie that applies Hitchcock device is the Bird, that end with a lot of ambiguity or contains an unrevealed mystery.

Likewise, in my script, I have only highlighted only incidences that Luke is abusive to Myro and didn’t focus much on his character’s right side. Therefore it’s upon my audience to imagine and create that good character of Luke that have not explored in my script. The audience will be able to see how nice he was as described by his wife, Myro.

Again, my script has left my audience in suspense where they don’t know whether Myro will discover the issues with her husband or not.

3.2 Dreadful alternative

This refers to the consequences that the play’s hero faces if they don’t solve the film’s problem. Such a device makes the audience much excited to see how the hero of the play solves the problem and if they fail the kind of consequence they face.

Myro, the main character in my film, is faced with an abusive husband who has a mental condition that no one is aware of. Therefore in my film, I seek to portray the consequences she undergoes if she doesn’t solve her husband’s issues. From the script, we see  that she doesn’t leave Luke but decides to care for him as she finds out the problem with him.

My audience is going to be in anticipation to see what Myro does with Luke once he has been expelled from her father’s kingdom. Myro is faced with many decisions to make in my script; she has to face the consequences of serving as a servant to escape her father’s wrath.

Myro doesn’t seem to understand the problem of her husband, and therefore she can’t solve it. This made her endure harsh treatment and occasional physical abuse from her beloved husband. Consequently, she has to live with the consequences of a husband who oscillates between a loving gentleman and a monster.

 

3.3 Full circle ending/ book end scenes.

Full circle ending refers to when the climax actions return to the same place, scene or theme where the narrative or film began (2012). For example, in “it’s a wonderful life”, it starts with several people praying for George Bailey. In the end, George finds himself among the people who were praying for him (2012). This kind of end allows the writer to use satire and irony.

My script begins with Myro looking for love and finding it in Luke; likewise, the script ends with Myro still looking for love though she has married Luke. Her marriage turns for the worse, and Myro begins to look for love again in her mentally ill husband. Therefore the film comes back to the theme of love-seeking.

Book end scenes is where matching scenes of the end of the story and the beginning are used. This device is used to show how things have changed in the play or persisted in being the same. Again this stylistic device is used to indicate whether there is character development in the film or not. Book end scenes are mostly used in children films to show how the characters are applying the lessons they learned today; the same is applicable to issues presented in the beginning.

The script begins with Luke being the cause of the disagreement between Myro and her dad leading her to escape. As the script comes to an end, we see Luke begins to abuse Myro physically and emotionally leading her to face problems again. Again Luke is the source of the issues that Myro is facing.

Therefore Myro is stuck in her love affair with Luke, and it doesn’t seem to bring joy to her. Have used full-circle ending to show that the life of Myro has not changed to the positive but negatively, likewise, that of Luke too his mental illness affects his relationship with his wife. This has made him always have regrets after abusing his wife physically for no valid reason.

Have used book end scenes to show the development of my characters in that at the end, we see a change in the nature of Luke due to the mental illness. Luke has changed from the loving and good man that Myro loved to an abusive husband.

Part 4

Genre and Influences

4.1 Sports film

A sports film is a type of film genre that applies sport as the theme of the film. In sports film, the protagonist usually wins some competition or a big sporting event or loses; this leads to depression, enlightenment and soul searching (Drama, n.d.). My film script has applied thoughts from this genre of film where Myro decides to pursue love with Luke, a simple servant boy of her father.

Even though Myro is of high status in the community, she decides to pursue love with the lowest class in society. On the other side, Luke chose to keep the relationship a secret, although he fears his master. Because of the prize of love, Myro is ready to work as a servant in the castle in the Northern region owned by Lord Diplock.

In my script, we see Myro after escaping to the Northern Castle with her lover Luke discovers that there is something wrong with him. Because of their love, Myro has to endure the harsh treatment from Luke and endure the consequences by not leaving him but being concerned about him. She seeks to comprehend her husband’s behaviour, Luke, who sometimes is the best man in the universe and at other times is a monster.

4.2 Personal Drama

 

Personal drama as several features that include the following; an isolated character who tried to undergo some particular change, the story is a quest, a desire for order or validation from others (Parker, 1999).

In my script, it is evident that my main character Myro attempts to find love in a man of a different status than hers. Myro falls in love with the horse keeper of her father. Even when she runs away and becomes Luke’s wife, she doesn’t leave him but stays to find out what was wrong with her husband.

From my script, the story is a quest for love whereby Myro is searching for love and finds it in her father’s servant, Luke. From the start, we see how she could visit the horse stable occasionally to spend time with her lover Luke. Even when the affair is known to the master, and Luke is expelled from the castle, Myro decides to escape with him that night to pursue her quest for love. At the Northern castle when Luke begins to change in character, Myro doesn’t abandon him but she decides to stay and find out what was wrong with Luke.

We see that Myro really sought order in that she was looking for the solution to her husband’s issues, she was determined to finding out what was wrong with him. Although Myro was being abused by Luke emotionally and physically she choose order, that is to take care of him and seek to know what caused the sudden change in behavior.

4.3 Additional influences

Another influence leading to my script is a book I read by the name the Caucation Chalk Circle, where a character called Azdak, though he is from a low status in the society he is able to influence things in the government level. This character influenced the birthing of my main character Myro. Azdak wants to see law and order in his society and he is tired of seeing the judges receive bribes and make rulings in favor of the rich in society and the poor continue to suffer.

Azdak is of the ideology of equality and equity in the society just like the ideology of my main character Myro. Myro falls in love with a servant because she did not really care much about the social classes in the society and that she believed that we were all equal in the society.

References

(2012). Retrieved from https://www.bestlibrary.org/murrayslit/2012/10/full-circle-ending.

Britannica, T., & Editors of Encyclopedia. (2020, May 12). Dramatic irony. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/art/dramatic-irony

Drama, s.-s. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www,allmovie.com/subgenre/d965/alltime-desc/11

Palmer, L. (2009, November 16). Culture Warrior: What is Hitchcokian Suspense. Retrieved from https://filmschoolrejects.com/culture-warrior-what-is-hitchcockian-suspense

Parker, P. (1999). The art and Science of Screenwritting. Exeter, England: Ittelect books.

 

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