Foreshadowing is a literary device that hints at events or outcomes that are to unfold later in a story. In foreshadowing, authors prepare readers for future developments by including subtle cues or hints. This creates a sense of anticipation, tension, or inevitability. These clues can take the form of dialogue, imagery, actions, and so on.
In this article, we look at examples of foreshadowing from The Great Gatsby and Shakespeares' Romeo and Juliet.
Why writers use foreshadowing
Writers employ foreshadowing for several reasons. It helps build suspense and engage readers, encouraging them to speculate about the story's trajectory. It also adds layers of meaning and depth to a narrative. Readers can go back and see how the writer was setting up the story for its denouement.
In short, foreshadowing can help a story remain consistent, natural, and logical.
Examples of foreshadowing
1. Foreshadowing in The Great Gatsby (1925)
F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby employs foreshadowing to hint at the novel's climactic events. One notable example involves the description of Tom Buchanan early in the narrative:
"It was a body capable of enormous leverage—a cruel body."
This depiction of Tom's muscular physique and underlying cruelty foreshadow the violence that he is capable of and will enact directly against his mistress and Gatsby. The following passage uses vivid imagery to underscore the themes and plot of the story:
A breeze blew through the room, blew curtains in at one end and out the other like pale flags, twisting them up toward the frosted wedding-cake of the ceiling, and then rippled over the wine-colored rug. . . . The only completely stationary object in the room was an enormous couch on which two young women were buoyed up as though upon an anchored balloon. They were both in white, and their dresses were rippling and fluttering as if they had just been blown back in after a short flight around the house. I must have stood for a few moments listening to the whip and snap of the curtains and the groan of a picture on the wall. Then there was a boom as Tom Buchanan shut the rear windows and the caught wind died out about the room, and the curtains and the rugs and the two young women ballooned slowly to the floor.
The short passage plays out the novel’s entire plot and themes. Gatsby is in love with Daisy, a married woman. The dream-like description of the wind, women, and curtains suggests that Gatsby is engaging in lurid fantasy. Tom, Daisy’s husband, will dissolve the dream as suggested in the violent way in which he shuts the window and everything settles back to normal.
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2. Romeo and Juliet (1597)
In Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare frequently uses foreshadowing to heighten the play’s tragic result or ending. A good example occurs in Act 1, Scene 4, when Romeo expresses a sense of foreboding:
I fear, too early: for my mind misgives
Some consequence yet hanging in the stars
Shall bitterly begin his fearful date.
Here, Romeo is anticipating his tragic fate that begins with him attending the feast of a rival family, the Capulets. In Act 3, Scene 5, Juliet also says:
O God, I have an ill-divining soul!
Methinks I see thee, now thou art so low,
As one dead in the bottom of a tomb.
Either my eyesight fails or thou lookest pale.
This foreshadows the tragic death of Romeo in Juliet's tomb.
Cite this EminentEdit article |
Antoine, M. (2024, December 20). What Is Foreshadowing? EminentEdit. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/what-is-foreshadowing |
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