Foreshadowing in Short Stories
Stories with masterful hints of what's to come
The Gift of the Magi
Della and Jim are a young married couple too poor to buy Christmas gifts. Della sells her beautiful long hair to buy a platinum watch chain for Jim. Jim, meanwhile, sells his treasured pocket watch to buy decorative combs for Della's hair. Each sacrifices their most prized possession for the other, only to find their gifts are now useless - yet their love is the true gift.
The Necklace
Mathilde Loisel, a middle-class woman who dreams of wealth and luxury, borrows a diamond necklace from a wealthy friend for an elegant ball. She loses the necklace and, rather than confessing, she and her husband secretly replace it with an identical one, going deeply into debt. After ten years of grueling labor to repay the debt, Mathilde encounters her friend who reveals the original necklace was paste - worth almost nothing.
The Open Window
Framton Nuttel, a nervous man seeking a rest cure in the countryside, visits the Sappleton household with a letter of introduction. While waiting for Mrs. Sappleton, he is entertained by her fifteen-year-old niece Vera, who tells him a tragic tale about Mrs. Sappleton's husband and brothers who went hunting three years ago and never returned - their bodies never found. She claims Mrs. Sappleton keeps the window open in hope of their return. When Mrs. Sappleton arrives and mentions her husband will be back from shooting soon, Nuttel is horrified. When three figures approach across the lawn carrying guns, he flees in terror. Vera calmly explains his departure with yet another invented story.
The Cask of Amontillado
Montresor, nursing a grudge over an unspecified insult, lures his acquaintance Fortunato deep into underground catacombs during carnival season under the pretense of evaluating a rare cask of Amontillado sherry. Exploiting Fortunato's pride as a wine connoisseur and his drunken state, Montresor chains him inside a narrow recess and methodically walls him in with stone and mortar, entombing him alive. Fifty years later, Montresor recounts the crime, and the remains have never been found.
The Monkey's Paw
Mr. and Mrs. White acquire a magical monkey's paw from Sergeant-Major Morris, who warns them that its wishes come with devastating consequences. Their first wish for two hundred pounds is fulfilled when their son Herbert is killed in a factory accident and the company pays that exact sum in compensation. Grief-stricken, Mrs. White insists on using the second wish to bring Herbert back. When a terrible knocking begins at the door, Mr. White realizes what horrors may await and uses the third wish to undo the second before his wife can open the door.
To Build a Fire
A newcomer to the Yukon sets out alone on a brutally cold day despite warnings from an experienced old-timer. Accompanied only by a husky dog whose instincts sense the danger the man ignores, he presses forward through seventy-five-below temperatures. When he breaks through hidden ice and soaks his feet, his attempts to build a life-saving fire fail — first smothered by snow from a tree, then lost when his frozen hands drop the last matches. Unable to run to safety, the man succumbs to the cold, while the dog, guided by instinct rather than arrogance, trots on toward camp and warmth.