Indirect Foreshadowing In Marie De France

Marie de France wrote several short poems, called lais. Many of these such as Equitan, Bisclavret, and Le Fresne focus on love that causes trouble for the characters. In Equitan, the main character falls in love with an Elven queen, a relationship about which he can tell nobody. Bisclavret falls prey to an unworthy wife and his beastly form. Le Fresne’s affair suffers due to her mother’s slanderous words and a lover who is ruled by his men. Marie de France uses both direct and indirect foreshadowing in these lais to imply that misfortune will fall upon the characters and each use works to keep readers intrigued in the story. In the poem Equitan, Marie de France uses foreshadowing when she directly states that cataclysm is impending upon the characters. Marie says this about the wife, “As his wedded wife the seneschal had a woman who was to bring great misfortune to the land.” This statement proves true as both the wife and king die in the end due to their romance, thus causing a new king to be necessary. Marie tells the audience that a tragedy will occur, and that is used to draw the audience into the tale. By stating it

This causes readers to have the feeling that something will occur without being completely sure, creating more intensity and more of a driving factor to finish the story. The finesse of the indirect foreshadowing causes the story to seem more elegant and gives more of a fairy tale quality rather than the disaster of Equitan. Indirect foreshadowing is much less drastic in how it informs readers that something will occur, and, in context, insinuates that the event will be less major that using direct foreshadowing. Though they are both foreshadowing, and ultimately have the same effect, the differences between the direct statement and the indirect suggesting alter the tone of the