Examples Of Foreshadowing In The Bloody Chamber

Foreshadowing allows authors to orchestrate their work such that the reader is compelled to read on. The effective use of foreshadowing makes the reader continue not only for pleasure, but also to further investigate the unknown. Angela Carter uses multiple literary devices in “The Bloody Chamber” to foreshadow the narrator’s grim future with the husband. She achieves this through her effective use of imagery, allusion, and symbolism.
Carter uses imagery to convey the dismal future the narrator will face with her husband, the Marquis. To achieve this, a hidden nature of the Marquis’ life is established by comparing his identity to a mask when Carter writes, “as if his real face, the face that truly reflected all the life he had led in the world before he met me, before, even, I was born, as though that face lay underneath this mask” (9). The image of the husband’s mask emphasizes his unknown past, as well as his hidden intention, and creates a sense of foreboding for the narrator. Further evidence of imagery being used as a tool for

This is done effectively when the narrator reveals her wedding ring to those closest to her for the first time and Carter writes, "My old nurse, who still lived with my mother and me, squinted at the ring askance: opals are bad luck, she said" (9). The importance of the fire opal ring arises due to the suspicions brought forth with it. The opal symbolizes misfortune, and helps to further foreshadow the narrator's inevitable outcome. In similar fashion, Carter uses a second gift, a ruby choker, to help further the sense of foreboding for the narrator by describing the gift as, "flashing crimson jewels round her throat, bright as arterial blood" (11). This wedding gift from the husband symbolizes a slit throat. Although created in defiance of death, Carter uses this gift to foreshadow the danger of death for the