Foreshadowing

//__Foreshadowing __//


 * Definition:: ** **(n.) To represent imperfectly [[image:images1.jpg width="241" height="304" align="right"]], prefigure. Basically, the hinting of something that is going to happen later in the story.**


 * Origin:: Old English **

Definition taken from: The Oxford English Dictionary- Online (www.oed.com)


 * See also:: hysteron proteron **


 * Examples ** from text:

1) In //The Lottery//, the beginning part of the story describes how the children of the village are collecting stones for the festivities to occur later. When first reading this, the reader would most likely just think that the children are collecting stones out of hobby or boredom. It is not until the end of the story that the reader finds out what the stones are for and what the lottery is all about. The stones are used to stone the winner of the lottery, thus, the beginning scenario of the rock collecting hints at the stoning of the "winner" that occurs at the end of the story.


 * ======The children assembled first, of course... **Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example, selecting the smoothest and roundest stones; Bobby and Harry Jones and Dickie Delacroix – the villagers pronounced this name “Dellacroy” – eventually made a great pile of stones in one corner of the square and guarded it against the raids of the other boys.** This foreshadows...======
 * Tessie Hutchinson was in the center of a cleared space by now, and... **A stone hit her on the side of the head**. Old Man Warner was saying, “Come on, come on, everyone.”

2) Kate Chopin's // Story of an Hour // foreshadows the ending of the story in the opening sentence, or at least hints that Mrs. Mallard’s heart condition will affect the outcome of the story. Reading on, the reader figures out that the outcome of the story is: Mrs. Mallard dying of heart disease after having one last moment of "joy".

>
 * Knowing that **Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble**, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband's death. This foreshadows...
 * When the doctors came they said **she had died of heart disease**--of the joy that kills.

3) Edgar Allan Poe, the master of mystery, used foreshadowing in many of his writings. My example comes from Poe's //The Cask of Amontillado//. There are several examples of foreshadowing within this story, but this one caught my eye, just because of it's humor. Fortunato and Montresor are talking while making their way down to the catacombs and Fortunato says...

> > > ”
 * “the cough's a mere nothing; it will not **kill me**. I shall not **die** of a cough.”
 * Montresor replies... “True--true...

This sequence is an example of foreshadowing because Montresor knows that Fortunato will in fact die. Not from a cough, but from dehydration and starvation in the crypt. Fortunato's death is ultimately the object being foreshadowed here. Turns out Montresor is funny as well as psycho.

(JH)