Foreshadowing, as
defined by Dictionary.com, means “to show or indicate beforehand; prefigure.”
Foreshadowing allows for
the writer to turn rather innocuous or unimportant details into something that
carries significance at the end of the work because of the way they move the
story along and/or affect the characters. Two things are key: Atmosphere and
symbolism. Atmosphere allows the reader to get a feel of the mood, what
emotions they should feel for the character and what sort of importance this
place or overall mood has on the character itself.
Foreshadowing often
works hand-in-hand with the symbolic meanings of things, people or events
according to that characters universe; or with the characters own desires and
fears, as a way for the writer to “tell the future” of that event or character
without spoiling the journey.
But in order to
foreshadow future events, you must first have a plan. A set up. Like building a
house, you must have a foundation before you can begin on anything else. With
foreshadowing, your foundation is what you want to foreshadow. Do you
want to foreshadow a death? A character having to face a fear? A character
having to do something in order to reach his goal? Or maybe you want to
foreshadow a big revelation that throws everything off track?
A good film that shows a
form of simple foreshadowing and a character overcoming his obstacle to
continue his journey, is Disney’s The Haunted Mansion. In it, the main
character’s son is afraid of spiders and won’t squish one on his bedroom window
with a rolled up magazine. Later on in the film, the main character and his
daughter are trapped in the mausoleum where they had to search for a key to
solve the mystery of the mansion. When the door closes, trapping them inside
with zombies that have come alive, wanting the key back, the son must open the
door. Only problem is, big spiders crawl out of the door and he doesn’t want to
get near them. In order to save his father and sister from the zombies, he has
to face his fear of spiders and open the door.
Whatever it is, you must
scatter clues early in the manuscript in order for any future events concerning
those clues to have any sort of impact. In her blog post about foreshadowing, blogger Debz Hobbs-Wyatt
says: “…Don’t draw the reader’s attention to something, some aspect of a
character’s personality, like a phobia of spiders, if you don’t draw on it
later.”
It might take a few
drafts, but, if done subtly, foreshadowing also allows you to reveal things
about a character, using bits and pieces of backstory to foreshadow reactions
and fears that may lead to certain decisions and actions later in the novel.
Foreshadowing can incite
many emotions but there are three chief emotion “types” of foreshadowing:
1. Doubt/ Dread: The
foreshadowing that incites doubt or dread, like any scene in the novel, should
fit with the character and situation. This type should be foreboding, incite
worry for the character.
An example of that type of
foreshadowing is shown in Suzanne Collins’s YA dystopian fantasy, The Hunger
Games, when Katniss tells her little sister, Primrose, that she won’t be
picked for the Reaping and sent to die in the Hunger Games, where children are
forced to kill each other for the entertainment of the public. The reader feels
Katniss’s dread about Prim being chosen for the Games—but this foreshadows
Prim’s name being chosen and Katniss’s choice to go in her place.
2. Excitement/Anticipation: This type is the
kind of foreshadowing that makes people curious as to how things connect, how
this symbol, event, or character, associates with the rest of the story. Most
often, this foreshadowing is used to indirectly suggest an outcome for a
character or event.
An example of this type of
foreshadowing occurs early in Robert Jordan’s epic fantasy, The Wheel of Time, in book one The Eye of the World. In it,
Moiraine, an Aes Sedai—a magician who can wield the One Power—tells Egwene, an
innkeeper's daughter from the village of Emond`s Field who can wield the One
Power, that she “…may go far. Perhaps even the
Amyrlin Seat one day, if you study hard and work hard.” The Amyrlin Seat, while
also being a chair where the head of the Aes Sedai sits, is also the title
given to them, likened to a king or queen. Much later in the series, just as
Moiraine said, Egwene does become leader of the Aes Sedai order.
3. Surprise/Shock: This type of
foreshadowing often comes with a huge revelation or an event that the character
didn’t expect. With a reader, the foreshadowing specifically for that moment will
often come during the second time reading the novel as they see what led up to
the climax, what clues they were given by the writer to try and piece together
the character’s journey.
An example of this is in J.K. Rowling’s
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the third novel in the Harry
Potter series. For this example, I’ll only be using the events from the
film adaptation as it’s been a while since I’ve read the novel and do not currently
have it on hand. In both the novel and the film, Hermione seems to be taking
two classes at the same time and managing to be present for each. Ron and Harry
can’t figure out how she can be in two places at one time. It’s revealed near
the end of the film, that Hermione has been using a Time Turner—a device that
allows the user to go back in time—in order to take two classes in the same
time slot. Using the Time Turner, Harry and Hermione travel back to save a supposedly
“dangerous” Hippogriff, named Buckbeak, from being slaughtered. Using Buckbeak’s
ability to fly, the pair are also able to retrieve Sirius Black, Harry’s
godfather, from Azkaban.
Earlier in the film, the event that
foreshadows the use of the Time Turner itself, is when Harry, Hermione and Ron visit
Hagrid and, somehow, end up being hit with thrown snail shells. When the Time
Turner is used, Harry uses these shells (in much the same manner as before) to get the
attention of his “alternate timeline” self, thus changing the outcome of many events.
Have you noticed examples of foreshadowing
in the books you’ve been reading? If so, what are some of the types you've seen?
- HC
