How does the use of foreshadowing in A Doll's House and Oedipus Rex contributes to creating suspense?

Question

In these two stories by Henrik Ibsen and Sophocles, respectively. PLEASE HELP ME!!!!!

Answer 1

A Doll's House - Henrik Ibsen

Student Study Guides.

http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/id-80.html

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/dollhouse/

http://www.novelguide.com/ADoll'sHouse/

http://www.pinkmonkey.com/booknotes/barrons/dlshous.asp

http://www.jiffynotes.com/DollsHouseA/HistoricalContext.html

http://summarycentral.tripod.com/adollshouse.htm


Oedipus Rex / Oedipus the King - Sophocles

Student Study Guides

These links will give you a summary of the book, character analysis, plot and much more, so that you will be able to answer literary questions.

http://thebestnotes.com/booknotes/Oedipus_The_King/Oedipus_Rex01.html

http://www.antistudy.com/search.php?title=Oedipus+Rex

http://www.freebooknotes.com/book.php3?id=497

http://classics.uc.edu/~johnson/tragedy/oedipus_king.html

Answer 2

Am not familiar with A Doll's House, but as for Oedipus Rex (this is Latin for King Oedipus by the way), the reader is already given an idea of the main character's fate in advance, it's in how the events lead up to his fate no matter how hard he tries to avoid it that suspense is slowly built. If you're not familiar with the story:
King Laius of Thebes and his wife Queen Jocasta had a son named Oedipus, who the oracle predicted would kill his own father in the future. So his mother Jocasta ordered a servant to leave the infant for dead in the woods. But the infant was instead given to a shepherd and raised by King Polybius as his own son. When Oedipus grew up, he learned from the oracle the same prophecy his real father Laius heard, so Oedipus left Corinth to avoid the possibility of killing Polybius, whom he thought was his real father. On his way to Thebes, he got into a fight and killed another traveler, who turned out to be King Laius his real father but unknown to him. He went on to solve the Riddle of the Sphinx and freed Thebes from it's curse and as a reward, got the Kingdom and it's Queen, his real mother Jocasta as his wife. When he hears from Jocasta about her husband King Laius' murder, he swears to find the killer and punish him, not knowing it was he who did it. Thebes was then plagued by the Gods who frowned upon Oedipus' crime. When Oedipus is finally informed that Ploybius the man he thought was his real father had died and that he was only an adopted son, Jocasta is able to guess the truth and kills herself in grief. Oedipus blinds himself and spent his last days in exile exactly as he had promised was to be the fate of Laius' murderer.