Theme Of Foreshadowing In The Barber

Register to read the introduction… First, it’s unnoticeable. Then it becomes more and more obvious as you go on. The barber was sharpening the blades on the strop when the captain entered. He creates a mental picture of the enemy’s neck, throat, veins... “An enemy under ones roof,” “taking pains to see that no single pore emitted a drop of blood,” “Bit by bit, the skin emerged.” The author is making his lust for the open skin on the captain’s neck, showing his strength towards himself to not make it bleed. This foreshadowing is telling you that the barber himself is possibly going to harm the captain. Self-conflict is shown a lot in the story as well. The barber is fighting against himself, within himself, whether or not to slit the captain’s throat. “And how easy it would be to kill him. And he deserves it. Does he? No! What the Devil! No one deserves to have someone else make the sacrifice of becoming a murderer.” The barber explains the internal conflict here. “I could cut his throat just so, zip, zip!” Should he kill the captain and get the leader done and gone? Or …show more content…
When the barber recognizes him and trembles, when the captain announces “not one will live,” describing the four rebels hanging naked, dead, when he sees the veins popping out of the skin, “waiting to be slit,” when he turns around to say something to the barber, there’s numerous uses of suspense. In the end of the story, when the captain turns around to say something to the barber, you get mixed emotions, and ask yourself about the feelings he was having. “They told me that you’d kill me. I came to find out. But killing isn’t easy. You can take my word for it.” In a way, the author shows remorse and guilt, but stuck-up, selfishness at the same time. You wonder if he wishes to be killed. Or if he would use it as an excuse to kill the barber? Or even if he knew the barber was too morally weak to do