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Allusions
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 The Blithedale Romance
Chapter 3: A Knot of Dreamers
Explanation and Analysis—Blithedale's Demise:
Coverdale often foreshadows Blithedale's demise, which gives the reader a sense of impending doom. In the first few chapters, Coverdale offers a number of images of temporal things—seasonal change, a blazing fire, and the flower in Zenobia's hair. Most notably, he spends a great deal of time describing Zenobia's exotic flower in Chapter 3:
Her hair—which was dark, glossy, and of singular abundance—was put up rather soberly and primly, without curls, or other ornament, except a single flower. It was an exotic, of rare beauty, and as fresh as if the hot-house gardener had just clipt it from the stem. That flower has struck deep root into my memory. I can both see it and smell it, at this moment. So brilliant, so rare, so costly as it must have been, and yet enduring only for a day, it was more indicative of the pride and pomp, which had a luxuriant growth in Zenobia’s character, than if a great diamond had sparkled among her hair.
Related Themes:
Chapter 7: The Convalescent
Explanation and Analysis—Suspicion:
In Chapter 7, when Hollingsworth implores Coverdale to be his friend and colleague in criminal reform, Coverdale expresses his feeling of claustrophobia by personifying suspicion:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Heaven forgive me! A horrible suspicion crept into my heart, and stung the very core of it as with the fangs of an adder. I wondered whether it were possible that Hollingsworth could have watched by my bedside, with all that devoted care, only for the ulterior purpose of making me a proselyte to his views!
Related Themes:
Chapter 13: Zenobia’s Legend
Explanation and Analysis—The Truth Behind the Veil:
In the latter part of The Blithedale Romance, Priscilla is revealed to be the woman behind the Veiled Lady, and Zenobia's "fanciful little story" in Chapter 13 alludes to this revelation. In this chapter, Zenobia spends a few pages spinning a yarn about a young man who takes a bet that he can discover the truth behind the Veiled Lady. When he meets her, she gives him a choice: kiss her and be bound to her forever, or view her face without knowing what she looks like, and allow her to become his "evil fate." He tells her he will take off her veil and catches a glimpse of her young beautiful face before she disappears; he wastes the rest of his life searching for her. Suddenly, a pale girl appears among a group of visionaries (who are obviously allegorical figures for the Blithedale team). A male figure announces that the maiden is "doomed to fling a blight over [their] prospects."
Related Themes:
