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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 4: Over Hill and Under Hill
Explanation and Analysis—Bilbo's Dreams:
Bilbo's dreams often foreshadow events just before they come to pass. One example of this motif is in Chapter 4, just before the party is kidnapped by goblins:
[Bilbo] could not go to sleep for a long while; and when he did sleep, he had very nasty dreams. He dreamed that a crack in the wall at the back of the cave got bigger and bigger, and opened wider and wider, and he was very afraid but could not call out or do anything but lie and look. Then he dreamed that the floor of the cave was giving way, and he was slipping—beginning to fall down, down, goodness knows where to.
As soon as Bilbo wakes up, he realizes that the wall of the cave has indeed cracked open, and the ponies have already disappeared into it. His dream does not seem especially prophetic or magical. Likely as not, he simply begins noticing his surroundings while he is still asleep. However, his ability to notice, and his gut feeling as he goes to sleep that something is wrong, suggests that he is more astute than anyone might give him credit for. When Bilbo worries about something or has a nightmare about it, he is not being an anxious coward unfit for adventures. Rather, he is most likely onto something and wise to be afraid.
In fact, in addition to demonstrating Bilbo's observant nature, this dream also foreshadows his growing courage. Bilbo dreams that he alone falls down into a cavern that leads to some deep unknown. Try as he might, he cannot "call out or do anything but lie and look." The crack in the cave and the fall into the unknown foreshadow not only the events of Chapters 4 and 5, but also the opening of the Lonely Mountain in Chapter 11. The side of the Lonely Mountain opens onto a passage that is darker than imaginable and remarkably similar to the goblins' crack in the cave wall. By that point, Bilbo is ready and willing to walk into the dark by himself. He meets Smaug inside and emerges victorious with some of the dragon's treasure. Bilbo has no choice but to be pulled into the goblins' lair; with his willing descent into the Lonely Mountain, he exercises the agency he cannot find here. It is his ultimate confrontation of the intense fear he feels in this dream.
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