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Dramatic Irony
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
Foreshadowing
Explanation and Analysis—The Rope:
In an example of foreshadowing, Maurya warns Bartley not to take their family’s rope to tie up his horses for their journey to the sea:
You’d do right to leave that rope, Bartley, hanging by the boards. It will be wanting in this place, I’m telling you, if Michael is washed up to-morrow morning, or the next morning, or any morning in the week, for it’s a deep grave we’ll make him by the grace of God.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—The Boards:
When describing the staging at the beginning of the play, Synge writes, “Cottage kitchen, with nets, oil-skins, spinning wheel, some new boards standing by the wall, etc.” It becomes clear over the course of the play that the “new boards” mentioned here are ones Maurya preemptively purchased for Michael’s coffin. In this way, the boards’ presence from the very first scene foreshadows both Michael’s and Bartley’s untimely deaths.
The meaning of the boards is established a couple pages into the play when Maurya tells Bartley the following:
Unlock with LitCharts A+It’s a hard thing they’ll be saying below if the body is washed up and there’s no man in it to make the coffin, and I after giving a big price for the finest white boards you’d find in Connemara.
Related Themes:
