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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
Act 2
Explanation and Analysis—Never Forget a Face:
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern come face-to-face with a haunting instance of foreshadowing when they watch the Tragedians rehearse the dumbshow. Continuing The Murder of Gonzago, two performers dressed exactly as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern take the stage. Stoppard’s protagonist pair watches them kneel before the King, board a ship, and get beheaded by the king. After their death, Rosencrantz approaches them in disbelief:
Ros: Well, if it isn’t—! No, wait a minute, don’t tell me—it’s a long time since—where was it? Ah, this is taking me back to—when was it? I know you, don’t I? I never forget a face—(he looks into the Spy’s face)…not that I know yours, that is. For a moment I thought—no, I don’t know you, do I? Yes, I’m afraid you’re quite wrong. You must have mistaken me for someone else.
The dumbshow eerily narrates Guildenstern and Rosencrantz’s fate. Life seems to mimic art, and the events of this rehearsal match the play’s plot to a T. By the end of Act 2, Guildenstern and Rosencrantz will be shipped to England to escort their childhood friend. At Act 3’s conclusion, they will be dead. The Murder of Gonzago explicitly foretells their execution at the end of the play.
For the readers who catch the suggestion, this moment sets up a sharp sense of dramatic irony. Rosencrantz comes tantalizingly close to recognizing himself in the dead Spy, yet—bewilderingly—fails to take the cue. He stammers and pauses and stares at the actor, only to let the dumbshow’s not-so-subtle subtext fly completely over his head. Refusing to accept the portrayal and ignoring the parallels, he dismisses the dumbshow’s significance with muddled carelessness. “You must have mistaken me for someone else,” he concludes.
By overlooking a sign that is nearly impossible to ignore, Rosencrantz offers a reminder that tragedy often stems from human misrecognition. The tragic quality of a work lies as much in its characters’ inability to see their misfortunes as in the conclusion itself. The play’s dramatic irony highlights the pair’s fallibility and blindness—a failure to recognize their fate, even as it plays out straight before them.
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