What is Foreshadowing? — Literary Definition and Examples
Foreshadowing literary definition
Foreshadowing is the use of hints or clues within a literary work that suggest the occurrence of future events or plot twists. Foreshadowing creates suspense and tension to keep readers’ attention and connect them emotionally to the text, heightening their enjoyment of the work and enhancing the author’s themes.
Types of foreshadowing
The four main types of foreshadowing are:
subtle
direct
partial
fallacy
When writers provide indirect hints that something may happen in the future, they use subtle or indirect foreshadowing, which can be so subtle that readers might not recognize it until later in the story.
Through direct foreshadowing, authors explicitly reveal what will happen later in the text. Authors typically use direct foreshadowing when the process of getting to what is foreshadowed is more important to the storyline than the outcome.
Partial foreshadowing reveals only a fraction of what is to occur as a way to increase suspense.
Fallacy (Red Herring) foreshadowing occurs when an author misleads the reader by presenting information that seemingly suggests what will happen later in the text. Therefore, this type of foreshadowing is common in mystery novels where authors purposely deceive their readers.
Foreshadowing examples
Foreshadowing is a literary technique that has been employed in works of literature for centuries while also finding a role in contemporary media over the last hundred years. The following are examples of foreshadowing in literature and movies:
Literature
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding: At the beginning of the novel, when a plane full of boys becomes stranded on an island without adults, one of the characters foreshadows the group’s downfall: "We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages." As the plot progresses and the rules break down, the boys become vicious and violent.
"The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe: Within Poe's short story, two men are walking through damp catacombs when the one named Fortunato proclaims that he "shall not die of a cough," to which the other man, Montressor, replies, "True-true." Montressor knows Fortunato will not die from a cough because later in the story, Montressor buries Fortunato alive. Therefore, Montressor's seemingly insignificant comment foreshadows Fortunato's death.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee: In the novel, lawyer Atticus Finch gives his son Jem advice regarding courage: “I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what." At the time, Atticus is defending a Black man wrongly accused of assaulting a woman. Atticus foreshadows that he will not win the case, yet he still believes defending the man is the right thing to do.
Movies
Jurassic Park: Toward the beginning, Ian Malcolm, a mathematician invited to experience the park, foreshadows the chaos to ensue after learning how the dinosaurs are controlled: "If there's one thing the history of evolution has taught us, it's that life will not be contained. Life breaks free, it expands to new territories, and crashes through barriers painfully, maybe even dangerously."
Avengers: Tony Stark (Iron Man) makes an offhand remark about someone on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s helicarrier playing Galaga, a game where the player must defend the world from aliens. The game's objective ends up being the same objective for the Avengers.
Sixth Sense: At the start of the movie, a young boy tells his psychiatrist that not only does he "see dead people," but they also "don’t know they're dead." This confession reveals the movie's ending, as the psychiatrist is unaware that he himself is dead.