Narrative & Time
Foreshadowing
Introducing details that suggest events to come. Their significance may become clearer later in the story.
Romeo's "my mind misgives / Some consequence yet hanging in the stars."
Don't confuse it with Prolepsis. Prolepsis states the future outright; foreshadowing only seeds it. Chekhov's gun is its craft maxim.
Examples
Before the voyage, the sailor noticed a hairline crack in the mast. He painted over it and said nothing.
The unexplained structural weakness prepares the reader for possible trouble later; the future event is not narrated.
Often used alongside this device
Explore devices that often appear in the same passages as foreshadowing.
The rest of the family
In Medias Res Prolepsis Analepsis Free Indirect Discourse Stream of Consciousness Stichomythia