Foreshadowing
From Free net encyclopedia
Foreshadowing is a literary device in which an author drops subtle hints about plot developments to come later in the story. Each of these hints widens the range of possible consequences and maintains tension throughout the narrative as these possibilities narrow. When these hints are designed to mislead the audience into thinking something will transpire other than what actually does, it is referred to as a red herring. Unlike a flashforward, a foreshadowing only hints at a possible outcome of the story, without describing it explicitly. However, the difference between these two techniques may often be very vague.
An example of foreshadowing might be when a character uses a gun or knife early in the play/film/narrative. Merely the appearance of a deadly weapon, even though it is used for an innocuous purpose — such as being cleaned or whittling wood — suggests terrible consequences later on.
Foreshadowing is classically an intentional literary device wherein the author plays on common beliefs or logical causal connections that most viewers or readers will have some direct experience with, thereby causing them to anticipate a specific chain of events. However, there is also an unintentional form of foreshadowing, perhaps found in lesser quality authors' works, where due to the aforementioned common human experience, a reader or viewer will accurately predict an outcome. Such "formulaic" plots exist principally due to poor, unimaginative writing, but also arguably due to the pervasiveness of the "Jungian archetypes" and "Shakespearian plots" which run through the human condition to an extent whereby it is difficult to create a novel behavior pattern without painting highly unlikely causal connections. Examples: a character complains of a severe and atypical headache; the foreshadowing is of a coma, stroke or aneurysm. Someone does not complain of a severe headache and then find out that he has contracted athlete's foot fungus.