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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 Brideshead Revisited
Part 1, Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Family:
In the following example of foreshadowing from Part 1, Chapter 1, Sebastian uses peculiar phrasing to describe Brideshead, causing Charles to feel an "ominous chill" of premonition:
“You must see the garden front and the fountain.” He leaned forward and put the car into gear. “It’s where my family live”; and even then, rapt in the vision, I felt, momentarily, an ominous chill at the words he used—not, “that is my house,” but “it’s where my family live.”
Related Themes:
Part 1, Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—Narcissus:
In Part 1, Chapter 2, Anthony alludes to Greek mythology when conversing with Charles, referring to an adolescent Sebastian as “Narcissus, with one pustule”:
Unlock with LitCharts A+"He never had spots you know; all the other boys were spotty. Boy Mulcaster was positively scrofulous. But not Sebastian. Or did he have one, rather a stubborn one at the back of his neck? I think, now, that he did. Narcissus, with one pustule."
Related Themes:
Part 1, Chapter 5
Explanation and Analysis—Sebastian's Ruin:
In Chapter 1, Part 5, Charles uses foreshadowing to allude to Sebastian’s future fall from grace, in the eyes of Lady Marchmain, the Flyte family, and "polite" English society:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Sebastian got very drunk before dinner in his mother’s house, and thus marked the beginning of a new epoch in his melancholy record, another stride in the flight from his family which brought him to ruin.
Related Themes:
Part 2, Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—Julia:
At the beginning of Part 2, Chapter 2, Charles begins his narration with foreshadowing, alluding to the fact that Julia will play a far greater role in the events of Brideshead Revisited than she has thus far:
Unlock with LitCharts A+It is time to speak of Julia, who till now has played an intermittent and somewhat enigmatic part in Sebastian’s drama. It was thus she appeared to me at the time, and I to her. [....] She told me later that she had made a kind of note of me in her mind, as, scanning the shelf for a particular book, one will sometimes have one’s attention caught by another, take it down, glance at the title page and, saying “I must read that, too, when I’ve the time,” replace it, and continue the search.
Related Themes:
