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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 The Turn of the Screw
Preface
Explanation and Analysis—Necessary Danger to Life:
It's not just that Douglas talks in the frame narrative about how horrible the governess's story is—the frame narrative also foreshadows the horror to come in subtler ways, like when Douglas sets the scene by describing the ominous events preceding the governess's employment at Bly:
There had been for the two children at first a young lady whom they had had the misfortune to lose. She had done for them quite beautifully—she was a most respectable person—till her death, the great awkwardness of which had, precisely, left no alternative but the school for little Miles.
Related Themes:
Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Conversations:
Many of the interactions that the governess has with Mrs. Grose contain some foreshadowing, as the governess senses that Mrs. Grose knows more than she’s letting on. For instance, when the governess first meets Mrs. Grose in Chapter 1, she's a little disconcerted by just how glad the older woman seems about her arrival:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The only thing indeed that in this early outlook might have made me shrink again was the clear circumstance of her being so glad to see me. I perceived within half an hour that she was so glad—stout, simple, plain, clean, wholesome woman—as to be positively on her guard against showing it too much. I wondered even then a little why she should wish not to show it, and that, with reflection, with suspicion, might of course have made me uneasy.
Related Themes:
