Other fixed forms include limerick, sestina, and villanelle. However, poems written in a fixed form may not always fit into categories precisely, because writers sometimes vary traditional forms to create innovative effects. See also open form. Flashback A narrated scene that marks a break in the narrative in order to inform the reader or audience member about events that took place before the opening scene of a work. See also exposition.
Flat character See character.
In Shakespeare's Hamlet, Laertes acts as a foil to Hamlet, because his willingness to act underscores Hamlet's inability to do so. The metrical unit by which a line of poetry is measured. A foot usually consists of one stressed and one or two unstressed syllables. See also iambic pentameter, line, meter. Foreshadowing The introduction early in a story of verbal and dramatic hints that suggest what is to come later.