Definition of Foreshadowing
An early scene in which Raskolnikov enters into a one-sided conversation with the garrulous alcoholic Marmeladov foreshadows important later events in the novel. Discussing his surprising marriage to the “well-bred” Katerina, Marmeladov states that she had “nowhere to go”:
You may judge thereby what degree her calamities had reached, if she, well educated and well bred, and of a known family, consented to marry me! But she did! Weeping and sobbing and wringing her hands—she did! For she had nowhere to go. Do you understand, do you understand, my dear sir, what it means when there is no longer anywhere to go? No! That you do not understand yet…And for a whole year I fulfilled my duties piously and sacredly and did not touch this” (he jabbed a finger at his bottle), “for I do have feelings.”