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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 Coriolanus
Act 2, Scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—A Sure Destruction:
After Cominius presents Coriolanus to the Roman masses, praising his heroic actions in battle in an exaggerated and idealized manner, his election to the consulship of Rome seems all but certain. Privately, Sicinius and Brutus discuss the character of Coriolanus, foreshadowing his downfall later in the play:
BRUTUS
I heard him swear,
Were he to stand for consul, never would he
Appear i’ th’ marketplace nor on him put
The napless vesture of humility,
Nor showing, as the manner is, his wounds
To th’ people, beg their stinking breaths. [...]
SICINIUS
I wish no better
Than have him hold that purpose and to put it
In execution.
BRUTUS
’Tis most like he will.
It shall be to him then as our good wills,
A sure destruction.
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