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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
Book 1, Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Down by the Flare:
Our Mutual Friend previews the future as early as in its first chapters. While waiting for Gaffer Hexam to return for the night, Charley and Lizzie gather before the hearth in Book 1, Chapter 3 to hear her stories:
‘There are you, Charley, working your way, in secret from father, at the school; and you get prizes; and you go on better and better; and you come to be a—what was it you called it when you told me about that?’
‘Ha, ha! Fortune-telling not know the name!’ cried the boy, seeming to be rather relieved by this default on the part of the hollow down by the flare. ‘Pupil-teacher.’
‘You come to be a pupil-teacher, and you still go on better and better, and you rise to be a master full of learning and respect. But the secret has come to father’s knowledge long before, and it has divided you from father, and from me.'
Staring at the fire, Lizzie prophecies Charley’s future success and its consequences. She foretells that Charley will become a “pupil-teacher” and separate himself from his family. The novel’s early scene is equal parts endearing and troubling. True to prophecy, the siblings do part ways: Lizzie sends her younger brother off to school, where he works his way up to become a teacher himself. Charley’s disdain for his sister grows in proportion to his social prospects. His shame towards Liz intensifies as he rises up the ranks at school and tries to hide his past. Liz falls from fireside prophet to reputational disgrace. Here, this early foreshadowing anticipates the sad separation to come and reveals the limits of their innocent childhood world.
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