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Dramatic Irony
Definition of Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is a literary device in which authors hint at plot developments that don't actually occur until later in the story. Foreshadowing can be achieved directly or indirectly, by making... read full definition
Foreshadowing is a literary device in which authors hint at plot developments that don't actually occur until later in the story. Foreshadowing can be achieved... read full definition
Foreshadowing is a literary device in which authors hint at plot developments that don't actually occur until later in the... read full definition
Key Examples in An Ideal Husband
Act 1, Part 1
Explanation and Analysis—The Triumph of Venus:
Typically for Wilde, his description of the setting for An Ideal Husband, in Act 1, Part 1, paints a scene of extravagance and beauty anchored by an allusion to an actual work of visual art that foreshadows the central theme of the play:
At the top of the staircase stands Lady Chiltern, a woman of grave Greek beauty, about twenty-seven years of age. She receives the guests as they come up. Over the well of the staircase hangs a great chandelier with wax lights, which illumine a large eighteenth-century French tapestry—representing the Triumph of Love, from a design of Boucher—that is stretched on the staircase well.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Performative Posing:
In Act 1, Part 1, Robert Chiltern and Mrs. Cheveley interact for the first time in the play. Their interaction is rife with foreshadowing for the conflict to come, as Mrs. Cheveley reveals her shallowness and inscrutability.
Unlock with LitCharts A+Robert Chiltern: To attempt to classify you, Mrs. Cheveley, would be an impertinence. But may I ask, at heart, are you an optimist or a pessimist? Those seem to be the only two fashionable religions left to us nowadays.
Mrs. Cheveley: Oh, I’m neither. Optimism begins in a broad grin, and Pessimism ends with blue spectacles. Besides, they are both of them merely poses.
Sir Robert Chiltern: You prefer to be natural?
Mrs. Cheveley: Sometimes. But it is such a very difficult pose to keep up.
Related Themes:
Act 1, Part 3
Explanation and Analysis—The Brooch:
In Act 1, Part 3, Mabel Chiltern finds a diamond brooch stuck in a couch during a party held at the Chilterns’ house in London. The curious introduction of the brooch into the story foreshadows its role, at the end of the play, in unmasking Mrs. Cheveley’s deceit.
Unlock with LitCharts A+Lord Goring: I wonder who dropped it.
Mabel Chiltern: It is a beautiful brooch.
Lord Goring: It is a handsome bracelet.
Mabel Chiltern: It isn’t a bracelet. It’s a brooch.
Lord Goring: It can be used as a bracelet.
[…]
Miss Mabel, I am going to make a rather strange request to you.
[…]
Don’t mention to anybody that I have taken charge of this brooch. Should anyone write and claim it, let me know at once.
[…]
You see I gave this brooch to somebody once, years ago.
