is a
technique whereby an author will give the reader a clue as to something that will happen later
in the story. In movies, for example, if a gun appears in the first half of a movie, this
usually foreshadows that the gun will be used at some point in the second half of the movie.
Likewise, if a character coughs in the first half a movie, this often foreshadows that they will
suffer with an illness, or even die, in the second half of the movie.
Shakespeare liked to use foreshadowing in many of his plays. For example, in
Romeo and Juliet, Juliet has a vision in the first half of the play. In
this vision she sees Romeo "As one dead in the bottom of a tomb." This foreshadows his
death in the second half of the play when he dies in the Capulet's family tomb. In
Julius Caesar, Caesar's wife has a dream in which his statue bleeds
"like a fountain with an hundred spouts." Later in the play, Caesar is repeatedly
stabbed by a group of conspirators, who then wash their hands in his
blood.
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