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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
Volume 4, Part 3: Chapters 12–15
Explanation and Analysis—Karataev's Story:
While enduring an arduous march as a prisoner of war, Platon Karataev tells a story to Pierre that foreshadows Karataev's own death. In the story, a merchant is falsely accused of murdering a fellow merchant. After 10 years of hard labor, which ruins the merchant's health, another inmate admits to the murder and, feeling guilty, writes a letter to the authorities that confesses to the crime and exonerates the now elderly merchant of guilt:
"It went all the way to the tsar. Time passed, the tsar’s ukase came: release the merchant, give him a reward, as much as they decided. The paper came, they started searching for the old man. Where’s that old man who has suffered guiltlessly and needlessly? A paper has come from the tsar. They started searching.” Karataev’s lower jaw quivered. “But God had already forgiven him—he was dead."
In the story, the Tsar calls for the man to be released and offers him a "reward" for his suffering. By the time the letter from the Tsar arrives, however, the man is dead. For the deeply religious Karataev, the man's death is a blessing that suggests that God has "forgiven" the man for his sins. Karataev's story is also prophetic, foreshadowing later events in the novel. After telling this story, Karataev is summarily executed by the French army because he is too ill to continue marching. Shortly after his death, Pierre and the other prisoners of war are liberated by the Russian army. As in the story, then, a possible reprieve from death comes moments too late for Karataev.
