Foreshadowing is a literary device that writers utilize as a means to indicate or hint to readers something that is to follow or appear later in a story. Foreshadowing, when done properly, is an excellent device in terms of creating suspense and dramatic tension for readers. It can set up emotional expectations of character behaviors and/or plot outcomes. This can heighten a reader’s enjoyment of a literary work, enhance the work’s meaning, and help the reader make connections with other literature and literary themes.

Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes foreshadowing effectively in his short story Young Goodman Brown. The title character’s rendezvous with the devil is foreshadowed by many plot elements, including the example that his nighttime companion carries a crooked staff that resembles a ‘great black snake’. This foreshadowing indicates for the reader not only that the devil is Goodman Brown’s companion, but a sense of the impending temptation and test of faith to follow in the story. The serpent-like staff used by the devil in the story allows the reader to connect Hawthorne’s tale and themes with those of the book of Genesis and the Garden of Eden.