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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
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.
Coverdale makes a big deal out of this flower. He claims that it "struck deep root" into his memory due to its remarkable rarity. Not only is it brilliant and costly, but it also only lasts for a day. This evokes a feeling of temporality and impending doom, which subtly suggests the temporary nature of the project at Blithedale. Readers must also note that Zenobia replaces the flower each day, a gesture that recalls the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. Zenobia herself commits suicide in the final pages, and Priscilla takes her place as the womanly caretaker at Blithedale. Thus the descriptions of the flower in Zenobia's hair foreshadow both the demise of Blithedale and of Zenobia. This bolsters the author's message that trying to create a socialist utopia will have dangerous consequences.
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:
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!
Coverdale personifies his "horrible suspicion" by saying that it "crept" into his heart and "stung" it as if it were an adder (a venomous snake). He suspects that Hollingsworth cared for him when he was sick in order to gain his trust and later manipulate him into helping with his own project. In this passage, Coverdale uses fancy, circuitous language and emphasizes his own experience as if to blame himself for being suspicious. This shows his reluctance to believe that Hollingsworth would ever betray him.
This moment also foreshadows the discovery of Hollingsworth's true motives. The chapter ends abruptly after Coverdale's revelation, which highlights it as an important instance not only of personification, but also foreshadowing. The whole novel revolves around secrets and suspicions, which are brought to light later in the story. Here the narrator merely "wonders whether it is possible" that Hollingsworth is so manipulative, but in reality this "wondering" is a narrative device that turns the reader's mind to Hollingsworth's secret motive.
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."
This story foreshadows Priscilla's "ruining" the project by falling in love with Hollingsworth, which makes Zenobia commit suicide, after which Hollingsworth falls ill and Blithedale falls apart. Furthermore, at the end of Chapter 13, the narrator describes how Zenobia tosses a piece of gauze over Priscilla's head to mimic the veil:
Zenobia, all this while, had been holding the piece of gauze, and so managed it as greatly to increase the dramatic effect of the legend, at those points where the magic veil was to be described. Arriving at the catastrophe, and uttering the fatal words, she flung the gauze over Priscilla’s head; and, for an instant, her auditors held their breath, half expecting, I verily believe, that the Magician would start up through the floor, and carry off our poor little friend, before our eyes. As for Priscilla, she stood, droopingly, in the midst of us, making no attempt to remove the veil.
In this passage, Zenobia's audience "held their breath" while Priscilla remains impassive. She seems uncomfortable yet resigned; she does not attempt to take off the veil. This is the most obvious example of foreshadowing Priscilla's true identity as The Veiled Lady. Zenobia often strives to conceal the truth, as with her pseudonym and her secretive past, but here she gives very liberal hints about it. This example of foreshadowing is significant because it suggests one of the novel's major revelations, which readers find out at the very end of the story. This moment reflects many others in the texts; every character has a secret about which the narrator hints before telling of his discovery of the truth.
Related Themes:
