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How Does Agatha Christie Use Foreshadowing In

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Foreshadowing. A warning or indication of a future event. In both Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie and Sydney Lumet’s adaptation of the same name, there are many examples of foreshadowing created by clever wording and visual effects. In her film adaptation Sydney Lumet both uses Agatha Christie’s foreshadowing techniques, and still uses some of her own. In the realm of mystery, foreshadowing is a clever way to create suspense. Sydney Lumet and Agatha Christie use both clever word play and repetition to create foreshadowing that helps the reader to have a chance at guessing the truth before the detective reveals it. In Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express Mary Debenham speaks to Colonel Arbuthnot of a future, where a struggle will be in the past. “Not now. Not now. When it’s all over. When it’s behind us -- then--” (9). Additionally, the …show more content…

Not now. When it’s all over. When it’s behind us. Then.” Christie uses repetition to create suspicion in the reader. By having Mary repeat her point over and over, Christie is implying that what she has to say is important and the reader should pay close attention to it. This statement foreshadows that both Mary and Colonel Arbuthnot are involved in something suspicious. Lumet seems to agree with the methods of Christie as many lines in the film are almost the exact same as quotes from the book. Christie also uses Poirot as a vessel to deliver her foreshadowing, “Monsieur, in my experience when a man is a position to have as you say, enemies, then it does not usually resolve into one enemy only.” (23). Lumet seems to agree with the way that Christie uses this line as in the movie Lumet decided Poirot should instead phrase it differently, “Merely that

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