2.5 Foreshadowing versus forestalling
The dramatist’s chief aim in the first act should be to arouse and carry forward the interest of the audience, by using an interesting theme. Each act as we have seen, should contain a subordinate crisis that contributes to the main crisis of the play. Each act should have an individuality and interest of its own and the first act should be an introduction in relation to the whole play and provide at least a glimpse of something attractive beyond. The fostering of anticipation is very important to carry forward the interest. An interesting theme may be very helpful in this.
The challenge is to provide the audience’s interest with a clearly-foreseen point in the next act towards which it can reach onwards, or with a definite enigma, the solution of which can be looked forward to with impatient excitement. Intromissions of the supernatural provided a convenient method for the playwright to point the audience to where he wants the play to: “foreshadowing without forestalling.”