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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 Middlemarch
Prelude
Explanation and Analysis—Saint Theresa:
In the “Prelude” to the novel, Eliot includes an allusion to the story of Saint Theresa, a Catholic saint who lived in the early 1500s in Avila, Spain. Eliot tells Saint Theresa’s life story, describing the saint’s idealistic nature and also how, at times, her intentions were thwarted by everyday concerns and family members who underestimated her. In order to tie Saint Theresa’s story to the novel to come, Eliot concludes the Prelude in the following way:
Here and there a cygnet is reared uneasily among the ducklings in the brown pond, and never finds the living stream in fellowship with its own oary-footed kind. Here and there is born a Saint Theresa, foundress of nothing, whose loving heart-beats and sobs after an unattained goodness tremble off and are dispersed among hindrances, instead of centring in some long-recognizable deed.
Related Themes:
Book 2, Chapter 15
Explanation and Analysis—Lydgate in Paris:
When introducing readers to Lydgate, Eliot uses a flashback, as introduced by the narrator in the following way:
Unlock with LitCharts A+For those who want to be acquainted with Lydgate it will be good to know what was that case of impetuous folly, for it may stand as an example of the fitful swerving of passion to which he was prone, together with the chivalrous kindness which helped to make him morally lovable. The story can be told without many words. It happened when he was studying in Paris.
Related Themes:
Book 4, Chapter 37
Explanation and Analysis—Dorothea’s Class Change:
When Dorothea first learns about Will’s grandmother—who ran away from her wealthy family to marry a poor Polish musician whom she loved—Dorothea asks about how his grandmother navigated the change in her class status, as seen in the following passage:
Unlock with LitCharts A+"I wish I knew all about her!" said Dorothea. "I wonder how she bore the change from wealth to poverty: I wonder whether she was happy with her husband! Do you know much about them?"
Related Themes:
Book 5, Chapter 48
Explanation and Analysis—Dorothea's Tomb:
When Dorothea and Casaubon’s marriage is in a particularly stuck state—as Casaubon becomes increasingly focused on The Key to All Mythologies while Dorothea is aware that it will never be the great work he wants it to be—Eliot uses a metaphor to capture Dorothea’s experience of the marriage:
Unlock with LitCharts A+[Dorothea] longed for work which would be directly beneficent like the sunshine and the rain, and now it appeared that she was to live more and more in a virtual tomb, where there was the apparatus of a ghastly labor producing what would never see the light. Today she had stood at the door of the tomb and seen Will Ladislaw receding into the distant world of warm activity and fellowship—turning his face towards her as he went.
Related Themes:
