Previous
Dramatic Irony
Definition of Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is a literary device in which authors hint at plot developments that don't actually occur until later in the story. Foreshadowing can be achieved directly or indirectly, by making... read full definition
Foreshadowing is a literary device in which authors hint at plot developments that don't actually occur until later in the story. Foreshadowing can be achieved... read full definition
Foreshadowing is a literary device in which authors hint at plot developments that don't actually occur until later in the... read full definition
Scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—We Shall Want Nothing:
While Faustus, Cornelius, and Valdes celebrate their mutual interest in the necromantic arts, Cornelius extols the many ways he believes that magic will fulfill their lives. He promises that their study of magic will be so full of spectacular delights that it will take the place of all other academic pursuits, dry up the seas, and bring the three of them untold riches beyond their wildest imaginings. Self-satisfied at the conclusion of this list, Cornelius asks Faustus a question that foreshadows the central conflict of the play:
Then tell me, Faustus, what shall we three want?
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—A Sound Magician:
When Faustus first appears on stage in Scene 1, he delivers a soliloquy which foreshadows his eventual fall to hell. At the start of the play, Faustus is introduced as an ordinary, successful scholar plagued by delusions of grandeur. Lamenting his dissatisfaction with the limitations of each standard field of academia, Faustus rejects medicine, law, and theology as insufficient. Instead, he turns to the study of magic in the hopes of gaining power, recognition, and glory:
Unlock with LitCharts A+O, what a world of profit and delight,
Of power, of honour, of omnipotence
Is promised to the studious artisan! [...]
But his dominion that exceeds in this
Stretcheth as far as doth the mind of man.
A sound magician is a mighty god.
Related Themes:
