What is Foreshadowing in Literature? (Definition)
Foreshadowing in literature is a detail that hints at events that will occur later, often to create suspense, expectation, or a sense of inevitability about the characters and their journey.
Foreshadowing can be direct, as in the Chorus specifying that “a pair of star-cross’d lovers” will “take their life” in the Prologue to William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. It can also be indirect; writers might set an ominous setting and tone to foreshadow a tragic conclusion, or include seemingly unimportant elements early on whose significance only becomes clear later. Whether direct or indirect, good foreshadowing adds depth to the story, making the conclusion feel earned.
Examples of Foreshadowing
Example 1: Foreshadowing in Romeo and Juliet
Foreshadowing is one of the main dramatic techniques in Romeo and Juliet. The lovers’ tragic end is directly foreshadowed from the very beginning of the play, when the Chorus famously forecasts their doom. However, there are many subtler hints throughout the play, such as the Nurse’s memories of omens from Juliet’s childhood and Romeo’s sense of foreboding about the Capulets’ fateful party. This foreshadowing emphasizes that the lovers’ fate is inevitable and that their sense of freedom is an illusion. Foreshadowing also creates the sense that the plot is hurtling unstoppably forward, just as the passions of Romeo and Juliet, Montague and Capulet, Tybalt, and Mercutio escalate uncontrollably.
Example 2: Foreshadowing in Macbeth
Most of the major events of Shakespeare's Macbeth are foreshadowed before they take place, although the hints can be incomplete or misleading. For example, when the witches first meet Macbeth, they reveal that he will someday be king, but they do not specify that he will obtain that position by murdering Duncan. The frequent use of foreshadowing also raises questions of agency and moral responsibility. To what extent is Macbeth responsible for his choices and actions, and to what extent is he simply fated to carry out these particular actions?
Example 3: Foreshadowing in Jane Eyre
Throughout Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, foreshadowing enhances the secrets kept from Jane. Brontë uses foreshadowing to demonstrate that the people who are either meant to care for Jane or, in the case of Mr. Rochester, claim to love Jane, have not been honest with her, highlighting that Jane’s place in the world is unstable. These ominous hints come to a head on Jane and Rochester’s wedding day, at which point she learns the truth: not only is Rochester already married, but his wife is being kept in a secret room on the third floor. This explains the strange happenings Jane has encountered thus far, all of which foreshadowed the reveal of Rochester’s lies.
Common Misunderstandings about Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is not the same thing as suspense. Rather, it is a literary device an author might use to drop hints about narrative events yet to come, whereas suspense is a technique used to create tension. Both terms can exist in tandem; foreshadowing is just one of many things an author might utilize to build suspense, along with cliffhangers, unreliable narrators, or an ominous atmosphere, but suspense doesn’t require foreshadowing to occur, and foreshadowing doesn’t always create suspense.
There is such a thing as false foreshadowing, also known as a red herring, in which something that appears significant is ultimately revealed not to be. A red herring is a technique meant to mislead the reader and characters, frequently utilized in mystery or detective novels. For instance, all signs may point to a specific character being the murderer, only for it to be revealed later that it can’t possibly be them.
Why Does Foreshadowing Matter?
Foreshadowing is a way to engage the reader. By leaving clues for the reader to pick up and parse for meaning, the author draws the reader into the story as a participant, particularly when the foreshadowing creates dramatic irony. Dramatic irony occurs when the reader knows something the characters do not. In Romeo and Juliet, the audience already knows what will happen to the titular lovers, but the lovers themselves do not. When Juliet first spies Romeo and says her “grave is like to be [her] wedding bed,” this line is an example of dramatically ironic foreshadowing.
Foreshadowing provides the story with a sense of inevitability, making the narrative feel cohesive and the resolution satisfying. Particularly subtle foreshadowing lends itself to a second reading. Some lines carry more weight once the ending is known, as in Jack’s insistence in Chapter 2 of William Golding's Lord of the Flies that, though they’re stuck on an island in the middle of nowhere, they’ve got to have rules: “After all, we’re not savages!”