Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing is a narrative technique that plants clues or signals about events and developments that occur later in a story.

Dramatic irony: A storytelling effect in which an audience knows something that one or more characters do not. Foreshadowing can create dramatic irony when a hint informs the audience before the characters understand its significance.
Narrative: A representation of connected events, usually involving characters, settings, and change over time. Foreshadowing is a technique for arranging information within a narrative.
Prophecy: A declaration that predicts or reveals events believed to be determined by divine or supernatural forces. A prophecy can foreshadow later events directly, while leaving their interpretation uncertain.
Oedipus Rex: A Greek tragedy by Sophocles in which Oedipus discovers that he has unknowingly fulfilled a prophecy. Its prophecy establishes the tragic outcome before the characters understand how it will come to pass.
Chekhov's gun: A principle of narrative economy that urges writers to make significant details serve a later purpose. It describes the expectation that conspicuous details introduced early will matter later.
Plot: The structured sequence of events and causal relations in a story. Foreshadowing links an earlier plot detail to a later development.
Dream sequence: A narrative passage depicting a character's dream within a larger story. Dreams can present distorted images that anticipate later events.
Macbeth: A tragedy by William Shakespeare about a Scottish nobleman whose ambition leads him to murder and tyranny. The witches' equivocal predictions foreshadow Macbeth's rise and downfall.
Red herring: A misleading clue that distracts from the explanation or outcome of a mystery. Unlike a genuine foreshadowing clue, it encourages an interpretation that later proves false.
Narrative time: The ordering and duration of events as presented in a narrative. Foreshadowing depends on presenting a hint before the event it anticipates.

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