Comparison: Readers are attracted to moments of intensity in a writer's work. By what means and with what effect have writers in your study offered heightened emotional moments designed to arrest the reader's attention?
Writers offer heightened emotional moments designed to arrest the reader's attention by using arguments and intense conversations. In Blood Wedding, one example of this is when the bridegroom is talking to the bride at the wedding in a conversation:
Bridegroom: But your father would have embraced you more gently.
Bride:(Gloomily) Of course.
(The bridegroom hugs her tightly, in a brusque manner)
Bridegroom: Because he is old!
Bride: (dryly) Let me go.
(p.70)
In this conversation, the bridegroom is talking to the bride. He does not notice the edge in the tone of the bride. He is oblivious to it. All brides should be happy at their weddings and she is not doing a very good job hiding her anger. This conversation catches the readers attention because the reader is frustrated that the bridegroom does not notice the bride's attitude very well.
In Oedipus, an intense conversation/argument is also used to catch the reader's attention:
Oedipus: So, you won't talk willingly - then you'll talk with pain.
The guards seize the shepherd.
Shepherd: No, dear god, don't torture an old man!
Oedipus: Twist his arms back, quickly!
Shepherd: God help us, why?- what more do you need to know?
Oedipus: Did you give him that child? He's asking.
Here the shepherd is resisting Oedipus and is not answering his question. This captures the readers attention - the reader knows that the shepherd did not kill the child when he should have, but Oedipus does not know that. It makes the reader want to see what Oedipus's reaction will be to what the shepherd says.
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