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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:
As Bertha looks forward to her dinner party, she reflects on the various people she has invited to it, including a “find” of hers named Pearl Fulton, whom she finds particularly mysterious, for reasons that later become clear:
They had people coming to dinner. The Norman Knights—a very sound couple—he was about to start a theatre, and she was awfully keen on interior decoration, a young man, Eddie Warren, who had just published a little book of poems and whom everybody was asking to dine, and a "find" of Bertha's called Pearl Fulton. What Miss Fulton did, Bertha didn't know. They had met at the club and Bertha had fallen in love with her, as she always did fall in love with beautiful women who had something strange about them.
The vagueness of the phrase “beautiful women who had something strange about them” seems to suggest that Bertha senses something hidden about Pearl—something that intrigues her. The implication here is that Bertha is attracted to Pearl but won't necessarily come right out and say so, even to herself. There's also a slight suggestion that Pearl might reciprocate her feelings. By the end of the story, though, it becomes apparent that Pearl may have appeared "strange" and inaccessible to Bertha because she has been keeping a secret from her: her affair with Bertha’s husband, Harry. Thus, it's arguable that Pearl’s supposed strangeness only foreshadows her eventual betrayal of Bertha.
But given the oblique, intimate moment Pearl and Bertha exchange at the end of the story, after Bertha spots Pearl and Harry embracing secretly, Mansfield seems to leave open the possibility that Pearl, too, may in some way be drawn to Bertha, yet unable to fully articulate her feelings: "Miss Fulton held her hand a moment longer. ‘Your lovely pear tree!’ she murmured." In gazing at the pear tree with Bertha, Pearl possibly experiences the same wonderment and feeling of unity as Bertha—though the close third-person perspective makes it impossible for the reader to know for sure. Mansfield’s foreshadowing therefore operates on two levels: Pearl’s mysteriousness might just be a product of Bertha’s own misapprehension, or it might indicate that Pearl shares Bertha’s desires. In either case, the story ends on a tragic note; it seems impossible that Bertha and Pearl will be able to connect again in the future.
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