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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
Chapter 7: My 'First Half' at Salem House
Explanation and Analysis—Steerforth's Spell:
In Chapter 7, David introduces Mr. Peggotty and Ham to his friend James Steerforth at Salem House. The way the narrator describes Steerforth’s effect not only on him but on the others as well foreshadows the way Steerforth will eventually lead little Em’ly astray:
There was an ease in his manner—a gay and light manner it was, but not swaggering—which I still believe to have borne a kind of enchantment with it. I still believe him, in virtue of this carriage his animal spirits, his delightful voice, his handsome face and figure, and, for aught I know, of some inborn power of attraction besides (which I think a few people possess), to have carried a spell with him to which it was a natural weakness to yield, and which not many persons could withstand.
Related Themes:
Chapter 8: My Holidays, Especially One Happy Afternoon
Explanation and Analysis—Careworn Clara:
In Chapter 8, when David returns home from Salem House for the holidays, he notices that his mother has changed since he last saw her. The change foreshadows her death soon after he leaves again for Salem House:
Unlock with LitCharts A+I remarked that my mother, though she smiled when Peggotty looked at her, became more serious and thoughtful. I had seen at first that she was changed. Her face was very pretty still, but it looked careworn, and too delicate; and her hand was so thin and white that it seemed to me to be almost transparent. But the change to which I now refer was superadded to this: it was in her manner, which became anxious and fluttered.
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Chapter 16: I Am a New Boy in More Senses Than One
Explanation and Analysis—Pirate Ship Dream:
In Chapter 16, a disconcerting conversation with Uriah Heep leads David to dream about him. The dream foreshadows Steerforth and Ham's eventual drowning:
Unlock with LitCharts A+This was the proximate cause, I suppose, of my dreaming about him, for what appeared to me to be half the night; and dreaming, among other things, that he had launched Mr Peggotty’s house on a piratical expedition, with a black flag at the mast-head, bearing the inscription ‘Tidd’s Practice,’ under which diabolical ensign he was carrying me and little Em’ly to the Spanish Main, to be drowned.
Related Themes:
Chapter 31: A Greater Loss
Explanation and Analysis—Troubled Sky:
In Chapter 31, immediately on the heels of Mr. Barkis's death, the Peggotty family suffers another tragedy when little Em'ly runs away with Steerforth. As he describes Ham's reaction to the news, David personifies the sky:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The face he turned up to the troubled sky, the quivering of his clasped hands, the agony of his figure, remain associated with that lonely waste, in my remembrance, to this hour. It is always night there, and he is the only object in the scene.
Related Themes:
