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Allusions
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
Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Broken Bird:
As Arthur collapses onto the stage in King Lear, Mandel uses foreshadowing and a simile to create uncertainty around what’s happening to him, blurring the line between performance and reality:
"Down from the waist they are Centaurs," he said, and not only was this the wrong line but the delivery was wheezy, his voice barely audible. He cradled his hand to his chest like a broken bird. The actor portraying Edgar was watching him closely. It was still possible at that moment that Arthur was acting, but in the first row of the orchestra section a man was rising from his seat.
Arthur’s misplaced line—a rarity for him—and wheezing, faulty delivery foreshadow immediately that something is wrong. However, the moment remains ambiguous for the audience and for the other actors because of the part he is playing. King Lear is a frail, deteriorating character who is skirting the line between sanity and madness at this point in Shakespeare’s story. Because of this, Arthur’s wobbling body and mumbled delivery aren’t necessarily a clear signal that something is wrong. “The actor portraying Edgar” is not immediately startled but is instead “watching him closely” to figure out whether Arthur is simply leaning into the part or experiencing a real medical emergency.
The simile “he cradled his hand to his chest like a broken bird” also points to Arthur’s fragility in his final moments. Likening his hand to a wounded bird suggests that Arthur’s clutching something to him that is delicate and beyond saving. It’s as if his hand is a microcosm of the world that is about to collapse. However, like the incorrect line about "centaurs," it’s unclear to the people watching Arthur if this is part of his portrayal of Lear's madness. This tension between theater and real life reinforces the passage’s nightmarish unpredictability. The audience of the play, like the actor onstage with Arthur, must wait to see what is real.
Related Themes:
Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—Last Call:
After Arthur’s final, fatal performance in King Lear, some of the audience gather in the theater lobby to drink and commiserate. During this scene, Mandel uses foreshadowing to hint at the impending collapse of the world:
In the lobby, the people gathered at the bar clinked their glasses together. “To Arthur,” they said. They drank for a few more minutes and then went their separate ways in the storm. Of all of them there at the bar that night, the bartender was the one who survived the longest. He died three weeks later on the road out of the city.
The passage explicitly signals the fate of the people who have lingered in the lobby. Here, the author is making it clear that their casual farewell to Arthur is also, unknowingly, a farewell to the lives that they knew. The mention of the bartender surviving “the longest” of “all of them” only to die three weeks later foreshadows the rapid spread of the Georgia Flu. It makes the idea of escape seem impossible, as if their deaths have already happened even as they stand there drinking. By specifying that the bartender’s brief survival is comparatively the longest, the passage informs the reader that the flu pandemic will very shortly claim an extraordinary number of lives. The phrase “the road out of the city” further reinforces this chillingly bleak future. By implying that there is only one “road” that leaves the city, Mandel is foreshadowing the narrowed, desolate world to come. This phrasing also suggests inevitability, as if there is no real hope of escape from the virus-laden city streets.
Related Themes:
Chapter 15
Explanation and Analysis—Two Birds:
Although she and Arthur often throw glamorous dinner parties, Miranda feels out of place and consistently uncomfortable in his community of actors and Hollywood luminaries. As Arthur jokes about the purpose of one of these parties, he uses an idiom to joke about what he and his wife are trying to achieve, foreshadowing their future troubles:
There are ten guests here tonight, an intimate evening to celebrate both the anniversary and the opening weekend figures. “Two birds with one stone,” Arthur said, but there’s something wrong with the evening, and Miranda is finding it increasingly difficult to hide her unease.
When a person uses the idiom “kill two birds with one stone,” they usually mean that they are attempting to solve two problems with a single overarching solution. However, Arthur refers to “killing” two celebrations, not two problems. It’s his wedding anniversary to Miranda, and his latest film has achieved an excellent opening weekend. Arthur’s use of the phrase suggests that getting this party over with would be a welcome outcome. However, in this context, it comes across as dismissive. By framing their anniversary as a “bird” to kill with a "stone," Arthur has reduced his marriage to one half of a minor problem.
Miranda’s discomfort reinforces this impression. She recognizes that something feels off and “wrong with the evening,” even if she doesn’t quite know what it is. Her growing unease here suggests that she knows something is amiss with her marriage. It subtly foreshadows their upcoming divorce, as well as providing context for Miranda’s discomfort with Arthur’s glamorous life as an actor.
Related Themes:
