Romeo and Juliet: Foreshadowing 9 key examples

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

Prologue Explanation and Analysis—The Chorus's Opening :

In the Prologue to the play, just before Act 1, the Chorus foreshadows Romeo and Juliet's eventual deaths, and describes an ironic end to the plot to come:

Two households, both alike in dignity
(In fair Verona, where we lay our scene),
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife.

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The Chorus serves a clear narrative function: its dialogue (which appears in the Prologue and at the beginning of Act 2) helps to set up and explain the plot, and it also establishes the play's tone. The Chorus's introduction in the Prologue is a rather heavy-handed form of foreshadowing that lays out a road map for the entire play. Though the "star-crossed lovers" aren't named—nor are the warring "households"—as the play's action unfolds, it becomes clear that Romeo and Juliet will die by suicide. As a result, the Prologue becomes a kind of prophecy, guiding the plot and creating suspense, as the audience anticipates the events to come.

The Chorus also clarifies one of the fundamental situational ironies of Romeo and Juliet. Though Romeo and Juliet will die, bringing unending grief to both families (who must grapple with the loss of the children they formerly neglected and oppressed), "their parents' strife" will simultaneously die and be ended forever. Thus, Romeo and Juliet's deaths serve as a kind of sacrifice, ensuring peace in Verona. Though the end of the play is undoubtedly tragic, this aspect of the conclusion offers some consolation to the audience, suggesting that even powerful rifts can be healed, and that the injustices of the past are not bound to recur in perpetuity.

Related Characters: Romeo, Juliet, The Chorus Related Symbols: Related Themes: Love and Violence ' data-html='true' data-placement='auto bottom' data-template='

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Related Quotes: Act 1, Scene 4 Explanation and Analysis—Romeo's Moment of Doubt:

In Act 1, Scene 4, Romeo has misgivings about attending the Capulets' ball and ends up foreshadowing his own "untimely death":

I fear too early, for my mind misgives
Some consequence yet hanging in the stars
Shall bitterly begin his fearful date
With this night’s revels, and expire the term
Of a despisèd life closed in my breast
By some vile forfeit of untimely death.

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Romeo is dejected because Rosaline hasn't returned his love, which makes him feel pessimistic and unsettled. Although Rosaline won't factor into the play as further events unfold (and is never seen on stage), Romeo's anxieties are justified. He correctly predicts that the "night's revels" will result in his own death, which his depressed state of mind leads him to view as the expiration of the term of his own "despisèd life." (Ironically, and tragically, Romeo will regain his youthful exuberance and faith in life's possibilities by falling in love with Juliet during the "night's revels.")

Romeo appears cautious and diffident in several moments in the play, including this one. These qualities put him at odds with his kinsmen, Benvolio and Mercutio, who are more bold and rash (particularly Mercutio, who ends up stepping in for Romeo in a duel with Tybalt). Whereas Benvolio and Mercutio use violence as a means of action—to attempt to exert control over their own lives, and intimidate others—Romeo accepts that he cannot control his own destiny, and that he may not be able to avoid the "fearful date" of his "untimely death." "But he that hath the steerage of my course / Direct my sail," he declares at the end of this monologue, describing fate as an external force that will "direct" the course of his life.

Thus, Romeo's foreshadowing—a pessimistic vision that is eventually proven correct—elucidates a key aspect of his personality. He is gentler and more wary than his male compatriots, and this makes him somewhat of a misfit in Verona's patriarchal society, in which masculinity is associated with brashness and hubris. Later, after Mercutio's death in Act 3, Scene 1, Romeo will claim in a fit of self-hatred that Juliet's "beauty hath made me effeminate / And in my temper softened valor’s steel" by driving him to forfeit his duel with Tybalt. Yet it seems clear that Romeo's personality has always been more "effeminate." Far from weakening his character, Romeo's tenderness and cautiousness make him an ideal lover—far more caring, compassionate, and considerate than the other young men in Verona, who can only brag about their own sexual aggression.