Can anyone tell me what foreshadowing is?

"Pardon this gush of sorrow; these ineffectual words are but a slight tribute to the unexampled worth of Henry, but they soothe my heart, overflowing with the anguish which his remembrance creates" (Frankenstein, 114).

Monday night, I read about how Clerval's presence in England affects Victor. Perhaps Frankenstein would rather be alone in England, but Henry could act as a shield "between [Victor] and the intrusion of [his] foe," which is always handy (111). Also, compared to Victor's gloominess, Henry is always "joyful," and Victor appreciates his "devoted and wondrous friendship" (113). So when I first read the quote above, I was confused why Victor felt sorrowful and didn't realize until later that it was foreshadowing!

Sure enough, Victor finds Clerval "strangled" by the creature, just like William was strangled (128).

Wait, I have one more! "Those were the last moments of my life during which I enjoyed the feeling of happiness," says Victor right after his wedding (142). Since the audience know that Victor survives and ends up on Walton's ship, we know that he can't be referring to his future death; the one that would make the most sense would be Elizabeth's death. And looking ahead two pages, "She was there, lifeless and inanimate, thrown across the bed, her head hanging down, and her pale and distorted features half covered by her hair" (144).

These instances of foreshadowing in the novel build suspense, and they help the reader realize that even though what happened to Victor in the past was horrible, he's still got a ton of crap to go through later on.

On a practical level, what's up with the cross-dressing?

"I would cure you, if you would but call me Rosalind and come every day to my cote and woo me" (As You Like It, III.ii.45).

Let's talk about dramatic suspense.

At first, suspense occurs as the audience worries about the fate of Orlando with a crazy Duke and Oliver coming after him, but I'm not going to talk about that. Once we get past that, we find suspense as Rosalind forms this weird plan in her mind to . . . I'm not really sure I understood her methods throughout the play. I mean, she got what she wanted in the end, but I feel like there must have been an easier way to do it than cross-dressing.

My point is that Rosalind knows how she's going to end up with Orlando and even how she's going to get three other couples to get married by the play's end. We, as the audience, don't know what exactly is going to happen because while we get a lot of information from Rosalind, we can't read her mind like we can in some literature. There's a discrepancy between what Rosalind knows about her plan and what the audience knows about her plan, and since the audience increasingly learns more and more details of Rosalind's scheme, suspense is created.

Let me point out one more suspenseful thing, here. "Let your wedding be tomorrow" (V.ii.69). "To-morrow meet me all together" (V.ii.71). "To-morrow is the joyful day, Audrey; to-morrow will we be married" (V.iii.72). With the repetition of the word "tomorrow" (with or without a hyphen), I got pretty excited about tomorrow. And I think that tomorrow lived up to all the hype -- the ending was very happy. A little too happy for me, maybe. The real question is . . . did Avatar live up to the hype? Man, I'm full of Parks and Rec references tonight.

Suspense!

"Do it not with poison, strangle her in her bed, even the bed she hath contaminated" (Othello, IV.i.191-2).

One of the questions in the book asks how Shakespeare creates dramatic suspense -- in other words, what makes the reader ask, "What's going to happen next?"  The quote above is an instance of dramatic irony PLUS an example of where the reader awaits the fates of characters, two main factors in the suspense of this play.

Dramatic irony is a driving force behind the suspense in Othello.  The Moor of Venice endows Iago with the epithet "honest" because he believes Iago that Cassio and Desdemona are having an affair.  This explicitly conflicts with what the audience knows: that Desdemona is honest, and Iago is the disloyal character to Othello.  While that's the main irony in the play, other examples appear -- "Oh, no," speaks Iago of Othello to Roderigo, "he goes into Mauritania, and takes away with him the fair Desdemona, unless his abode be lingered here by some accident, wherein none can be so determinate as the removing of Cassio" (IV.ii.217-9).  This is a false statement, but Roderigo does not know that -- Iago successfully manipulates him to kill (or at least pathetically try) to kill Cassio.  The question from the reader then becomes, "When and how will these clueless characters* figure out what's actually going on here?"

Another creation of suspense is the audience's awaiting the fates of the characters.  Obviously, since this is the Tragedy of Othello, Othello is going to die somehow -- but how?  The quote above builds suspense because it lays out the plan for Desdemona's death.  Will Othello be successful in this scheme?  If so, how will that affect Othello, her husband, and Emilia, her friend?  More importantly, while killing Desdemona, will he go with a pillow or just use his hands?  I'm just asking a bunch of questions to which I already know the answers, but those were the questions I was asking myself as suspense built.

*clueless characters: everyone but Iago