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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
Act 1, scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—Biblical Allusions:
King James I, who in 1603 became the primary patron of Shakespeare's theater company, is well known for commissioning a new translation of the Bible. Perhaps as a nod to his benefactor's interest in Christian theology, Shakespeare's Macbeth contains numerous biblical allusions.
Act 1, scene 3
Explanation and Analysis—Win Us To Our Harm:
In Act 1, Scene 3, Banquo warns Macbeth to be wary of the Weird Sisters' prophecy:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Banquo: And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray ’s
In deepest consequence.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—The Thane of Cawdor:
When Ross and Angus greet Macbeth with the title of Thane of Cawdor in Act 1, Scene 3, they foreshadow the fact that, like the Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth will eventually become a traitor to the crown. In Act 1, Scene 4, Duncan laments that the Thane of Cawdor, whom he regarded as a loyal friend, was able to deceive him:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Duncan: There’s no art
To find the mind’s construction in the face.
He was a gentleman on whom I built
An absolute trust.
Explanation and Analysis—Prophecies:
Macbeth is a play that explores the nature of free will and fate, so it should come as no surprise that prophecies appear frequently in the text. Although the play leaves it ambiguous as to whether these prophecies merely predict the future or actually shape it, they always foreshadow what is to come.
Unlock with LitCharts A+
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—The Sleepless Sailor:
The conversation that the Weird Sisters have in Act 1, Scene 3 about the sailor and his wife foreshadows events that occur later in the play:
Unlock with LitCharts A+First Witch: I’ll drain him dry as hay.
Sleep shall neither night nor day
Hang upon his penthouse lid.
He shall live a man forbid.
Weary sev’n nights, nine times nine,
Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine.
Though his bark cannot be lost,
Yet it shall be tempest-tossed.
Look what I have.Second Witch: Show me, show me.
First Witch: Here I have a pilot's thumb,
Wrecked as homeward he did come.
Related Themes:
Act 1, scene 4
Explanation and Analysis—The Thane of Cawdor:
When Ross and Angus greet Macbeth with the title of Thane of Cawdor in Act 1, Scene 3, they foreshadow the fact that, like the Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth will eventually become a traitor to the crown. In Act 1, Scene 4, Duncan laments that the Thane of Cawdor, whom he regarded as a loyal friend, was able to deceive him:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Duncan: There’s no art
To find the mind’s construction in the face.
He was a gentleman on whom I built
An absolute trust.
Act 1, scene 5
Explanation and Analysis—Biblical Allusions:
King James I, who in 1603 became the primary patron of Shakespeare's theater company, is well known for commissioning a new translation of the Bible. Perhaps as a nod to his benefactor's interest in Christian theology, Shakespeare's Macbeth contains numerous biblical allusions.
Unlock with LitCharts A+
Act 1, scene 7
Explanation and Analysis—Biblical Allusions:
King James I, who in 1603 became the primary patron of Shakespeare's theater company, is well known for commissioning a new translation of the Bible. Perhaps as a nod to his benefactor's interest in Christian theology, Shakespeare's Macbeth contains numerous biblical allusions.
Unlock with LitCharts A+
Act 2, scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—A Dagger of the Mind:
Macbeth's soliloquy in Act 2, Scene 1 demonstrates his feelings of guilt and self-loathing and foreshadows the madness that will consume him and Lady Macbeth in the aftermath of Duncan's murder.
This soliloquy includes various types of sensory imagery. Macbeth's senses become muddled, and he struggles to determine whether the dagger that he sees pointing the way to Duncan's chamber is real or illusory:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Macbeth: Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch
thee.
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation
Proceeding from the heat-oppressèd brain?
I see thee yet, in form as palpable
As this which now I draw.
Explanation and Analysis—Historical Allusions:
Upper-class men of Shakespeare's time were often educated in Greek and Latin, and Macbeth contains several allusions to Roman history that this portion of his audience would have appreciated. In Act 2, Scene 1, Macbeth makes a reference to an event that catalyzed the creation of the Roman Republic:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Macbeth: [A]nd withered murder,
Alarumed by his sentinel, the wolf,
Whose howl’s his watch, thus with his stealthy pace,
With Tarquin’s ravishing strides
Related Themes:
Act 2, scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—Biblical Allusions:
King James I, who in 1603 became the primary patron of Shakespeare's theater company, is well known for commissioning a new translation of the Bible. Perhaps as a nod to his benefactor's interest in Christian theology, Shakespeare's Macbeth contains numerous biblical allusions.
Unlock with LitCharts A+
Act 2, scene 3
Explanation and Analysis—Biblical Allusions:
King James I, who in 1603 became the primary patron of Shakespeare's theater company, is well known for commissioning a new translation of the Bible. Perhaps as a nod to his benefactor's interest in Christian theology, Shakespeare's Macbeth contains numerous biblical allusions.
Unlock with LitCharts A+
Act 3, scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—Historical Allusions:
Upper-class men of Shakespeare's time were often educated in Greek and Latin, and Macbeth contains several allusions to Roman history that this portion of his audience would have appreciated. In Act 2, Scene 1, Macbeth makes a reference to an event that catalyzed the creation of the Roman Republic:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Macbeth: [A]nd withered murder,
Alarumed by his sentinel, the wolf,
Whose howl’s his watch, thus with his stealthy pace,
With Tarquin’s ravishing strides
Related Themes:
Act 4, scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—Prophecies:
Macbeth is a play that explores the nature of free will and fate, so it should come as no surprise that prophecies appear frequently in the text. Although the play leaves it ambiguous as to whether these prophecies merely predict the future or actually shape it, they always foreshadow what is to come.
Unlock with LitCharts A+
Related Themes:
Act 4, scene 3
Explanation and Analysis—Biblical Allusions:
King James I, who in 1603 became the primary patron of Shakespeare's theater company, is well known for commissioning a new translation of the Bible. Perhaps as a nod to his benefactor's interest in Christian theology, Shakespeare's Macbeth contains numerous biblical allusions.
Unlock with LitCharts A+
Act 5, scene 10
Explanation and Analysis—Historical Allusions:
Upper-class men of Shakespeare's time were often educated in Greek and Latin, and Macbeth contains several allusions to Roman history that this portion of his audience would have appreciated. In Act 2, Scene 1, Macbeth makes a reference to an event that catalyzed the creation of the Roman Republic:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Macbeth: [A]nd withered murder,
Alarumed by his sentinel, the wolf,
Whose howl’s his watch, thus with his stealthy pace,
With Tarquin’s ravishing strides
Related Themes:
