Foreshadowing in stories often embodies a classic warning of danger to come. The Brothers Grimms' tale "Little Red Riding Hood" illustrates this model clearly. In the second paragraph of the story, Little Red Riding Hood's mother warns her to "take these to your grandmother. ... Make haste before she gets up; go quietly and carefully; and do not run, lest you should fall and break the bottle." With this warning you already know that Little Red Riding Hood is going to disobey her mother in some fashion, and that her folly will land her into some sort of trouble, in her case the belly of a wolf.
Foreshadowing might not be more obvious than in the prologue of William Shakespeare's "The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet." Immediately the audience is introduced to the feud between the Montagues and the Capulets, and lines 5 and 6 state "From forth the fatal loins of these two foes / A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life." The audience is told the ending before the beginning, and yet, because of immersive qualities of the theatrical productions and Shakespeare's mastery of storytelling, the device is successful and satisfying.
A more subtle manner of foreshadowing than those used by the Brothers Grimm and Shakespeare is illustrated well in Daphne Du Maurier's short story, "The Birds." She opens this story with a sentence, "On December the third the wind changed overnight and it was winter." Here, in the very first line, the reader is introduced to a world where something has changed unexpectedly, and that it has become winter is an image loaded with portent. At this point the reader hasn't even seen the word "bird," yet the reader knows something ominous is waiting just beyond the horizon.
It should be noted that foreshadowing often bears alternate names, such as omen or premonition. Furthermore, and just as premonitions are not always true, foreshadowing is not always honest. Sometimes writers use foreshadowing techniques to lead their readers to believe that certain events will take place, or that a specific person is the one who acted in a certain way, when in actuality a surprise is in order. These dead-end leads are often called red herrings. And while a novice writer uses them in a garish manner that unsettles the reader, a masterful writer can use dishonest foreshadowing to craft a powerful literary effect of surprise and satisfaction.