Cliffhangers are probably to blame for losing many nights of sleep while binge-watching tv shows. The cliffhanger is a popular fictional plot device. Today, we know the cliffhanger best as a staple of tv shows, a way to keep us hooked in an age when countless forms of media fight for our attention. But what is the function of the cliffhanger in literature?
Definition of a cliffhanger
A cliffhanger is a technique used in literature, theatre, film and television.
Cliffhanger
A cliffhanger is an abrupt pause in a plotline that leaves newly-introduced conflicts unresolved until the next instalment of the work.
Cliffhanger story ideas and exciting part
A cliffhanger occurs at the end of a chapter or instalment in a series. A cliffhanger is an exciting part of a story, as it leaves both the characters and the readers metaphorically hanging, waiting for the author to save them from their peril in the next instalment.
A cliffhanger often comes in the following forms:
- A revelation
- Threatens to turn the story's plot on its head.
- Changes how we see a character. For example, a "good" character may be revealed to be "evil".
- Changes our understanding of a plotline or the entire narrative up to that point.
- Danger
- A major event takes place
- Or the action is accelerated, with the characters finding themselves in danger.
- High-stakes choices
- A character has made a high-stakes choice that will significantly impact the plot.
- A character is faced with a moral dilemma and can't make a choice.
What's the difference between an ambiguous ending and a cliffhanger?
A cliffhanger is not a synonym for an ambiguous ending. An ambiguous ending is one left up for interpretation. To create an ambiguous ending, an author may choose to leave conflicts and plotlines unresolved, but this does not make it a cliffhanger unless it is part of a series. The term cliffhanger cannot be applied to a stand-alone work with an ambiguous ending, as a cliffhanger necessitates a follow-up resolution to the suspense created.
Although both plot devices leave the reader suspended, the author won't rescue us in an ambiguous ending; we must rescue ourselves. The reader must look for answers in the text or to their imagination, as the text won't provide any more information.
Do you disagree with this view? How do you classify the ending of a stand-alone novel like Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale (1985), when the ambiguities of its ending are resolved in a sequel much later, The Testaments (2019)?
The literary history of the cliffhanger
The origin of the popularity of the cliffhanger in English literature is the Victorian period (the reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901). Advances in printing technologies in the Victorian era made the distribution of literary works more accessible to wider audiences. Literature was primarily consumed in serialised form, as many books were published as instalments in weekly or monthly magazines. This is how the novels of Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, and Wilkie Collins, among others, were published and why they grew to mass popularity.
It is no coincidence that serialised cliffhangers punctuated novels. Cliffhangers were used to generate reader demand, driving readers to buy the next instalment of a periodical to find out what happens next.
Charles Dickens's The Old Curiosity Shop (serialised from 1840-to 1841) caused a riot at the New York docks as Dickens' fans impatiently awaited the latest instalment of the novel to be released. At the end of one of the instalments of Thomas Hardy's A Pair of Blue Eyes (serialised from 1872-1873), the protagonist's love interest slips and is left hanging off a cliff.
The cliffhanger is also a prominent feature in genre fiction and has remained a popular device across all types and genres of fiction.
Purpose and effects of the cliffhanger
The overarching purpose of the cliffhanger is to make a story more captivating and entertaining. The cliffhanger targets our insatiable desire for answers and resolutions and forces us to be more patient.
- The cliffhanger has tremendous power to hold the reader's attention. The reader is motivated to keep buying more parts of a work or quickly read through it.
- This is because cliffhangers create suspense: the plot and the readers are figuratively suspended by the cliffhanger's abrupt pause.
- Cliffhangers are used to create mystery and heighten the drama.
The cliffhanger causes a pleasure-in-pain feeling in us; we are frustrated because of the mystery created and because we care about the story, making it an enjoyable frustration.
Our frustration is a testament to the author's skill in creating an immersive fiction. The cliffhanger takes us out of this immersion and makes us imagine possible outcomes. Cliffhangers make us active, engaged readers.
Examples of cliffhangers
Examples of cliffhangers can be found across many genres of literature since the plot device was popularised in the Victorian era.
Classic literature: The Woman in White (1859-1860) by Wilkie Collins
The Woman in White is a lengthy Gothic sensation novel first released in serialised form in 'All the Year Round' magazine in 1859-1860.
Sensation novel
The sensation novel is a ''novel with a secret" that deals with shocking subject matter, such as madness. Sensation novels rose to popularity in the 1860s with the success of The Woman in White, and they were initially published in serial form. The cliffhanger was instrumental in heightening the drama of the sensation novel.
The novel is told from multiple perspectives, one of which is the diary entries of the heroine Marian Halcombe. Marian suspects that Fosco has been conspiring against her sister, Laura. Marian's chapter ends with a cliffhanger as the reader discovers that the novel's villain, Count Fosco, has found her diary and plans to use it against her. He writes the following postscript:
Vast perspectives of success unroll themselves before my eyes. I accomplish my destiny with a calmness which is terrible to myself. Nothing but the homage of my admiration is my own. I deposit it with respectful tenderness at the feet of Miss Halcombe.
I breathe my wishes for her recovery.
I condole with her on the inevitable failure of every plan that she has formed for her sister's benefit.
- Chapter 9.
Fosco's access to the diary undermines Marian's plans to save her sister and leaves the reader excited to find out how this will change the plot's direction.
The cliffhanger created by Fosco's entry is a revelation that reframes Marian's narrative, changing our understanding of it; the entry also reveals that Laura is genuinely in danger.
Genre fiction: Catching Fire (2009) by Suzanne Collins
Catching Fire is a young-adult dystopian novel written by Suzanne Collins, and it is the second book in The Hunger Games series. The series is set in the fictional country of Panem in North America, where, every year, a boy and a girl from each of the country's 12 districts must fight to the death until only one winner remains. The battle, known as 'The Hunger Games', is for the entertainment of the rich few who live in the Capitol.
The first book, The Hunger Games (2008), ends with the protagonist Katniss and her friend Peeta winning the 74th annual Hunger Games. In the second book, Katniss is told by the President that her rebellions in the Games have led to uprisings against the Capitol. The Capitol decides that the tributes will be the surviving victors from previous Games. She destroys the arena with her crossbow and is rescued by some rebels. She wakes up en route to District 13 and wants to know what happened to her family. These are the final lines of the book:
"After the Games, they sent in planes. Dropped firebombs." He hesitates. "Well, you know what happened to the Hob."
I do know. I saw it go up. That old warehouse embedded with coal dust. The whole district's covered with the stuff. A new kind of horror begins to rise up inside me as I imagine firebombs hitting the Seam.
"They're not in District Twelve?" I repeat. As if saying it will somehow fend off the truth.
"Katniss," Gale says softly.
I recognize that voice. It's the same one he uses to approach wounded animals before he delivers a deathblow. I instinctively raise my hand to block his words but he catches it and holds on tightly.
"Don't," I whisper.
But Gale is not one to keep secrets from me. "Katniss, there is no District Twelve."
- Chapter 27.
The book ends in a cliffhanger for the final book in the series, Mockingjay (2010), as Katniss discovers that her home district has been destroyed due to her rebellion in the arena. This sets up suspense for the next book, as Katniss and the reader are both left hanging.
Popular tv show: Doctor Who, Series 4, Episode 12, 'Stolen Earth' (2008)
The British sci-fi tv series Doctor Who is a show full of exciting, dramatic cliffhangers. If you don't know anything about the show, you need to know three things: one, that it is about a Time Lord's adventures through time and space; two, that the doctor regenerates when they have been fatally wounded; three, the regeneration saves the Doctor's life, but the cost is the doctor becomes a different person with the same core ideals and memories but with a different personality and body. The Doctor's regeneration is a big deal because it ushers in a new era for the show.
One of the show's most exciting cliffhanger-ending episodes is the end of Season 4, Episode 12, in which the Doctor is shot by a Dalek (a villain in the show) and starts regenerating. The episode ends with the Doctor saying, 'I'm sorry, it's too late. I'm regenerating', and then his body glows white, with shooting beams of light. Usually, episodes end with clips showing what will happen 'Next time', but this episode ends with a suspenseful 'To be continued.'
But we won't spoil what happens next!
Cliffhanger - Key takeaways
- A cliffhanger is an abrupt pause in a plotline that leaves newly-introduced conflicts unresolved until the next instalment of the work.
- The origin of the popularity of the cliffhanger in English literature is the Victorian period. Literature was mostly consumed in serialised form, as many books were published as instalments in weekly or monthly magazines.
- Cliffhangers are featured prominently in the literature of Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy and Wilkie Collins.
- The purpose of cliffhangers is to make a story more captivating and entertaining. Cliffhangers create suspense, leading to a sort of pleasure-in-pain feeling in us. Cliffhangers make us active, engaged readers.
- Two examples of literary works which use cliffhangers are Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White (1859-60) and Catching Fire (2009) by Suzanne Collins. An example from a popular tv show is the ending of the Doctor Who episode 'Stolen Earth' (2008).
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