Red herring (plot device)

From Wikinfo

In literature, a red herring is a plot device intended to distract the reader from a more important event in the plot, usually a twist ending.

The term "red herring" originates from the tradition whereby young hunting dogs in Britain were trained to follow a scent with the use of a "red" (salted) herring. This pungent fish would be dragged across a trail until the puppy learned to follow the scent. Later, when the dog was being trained to follow the faint odor of a fox or a badger, the trainer would drag a red herring (which has a much stronger odor) across the animal's trail at right angles. The dog would eventually learn to follow the original scent rather than the stronger scent.

In literature, the most commonplace use of a "red herring" is in mystery fiction. One particular character is described or emphasized in a way that seems to throw suspicion upon that character as the person who committed the crime: later, it develops that someone else is the guilty party.

In film, the "red herring" device is usually conveyed visually. An excellent example of this occurs in the 1947 suspense film The Spiral Staircase. The audience is aware that someone in the house is a serial murderer. Early in the film there is a thunderstorm: the pantry door abruptly opens to reveal the hulking figure of the caretaker Mr. Oates (actor Rhys Williams) framed in a flash of lightning as he bursts into the room. This is the first time the audience has seen this character; his distinctive entrance makes him seem sinister and aberrant, and therefore he is the obvious suspect in the murder mystery. But Oates is not the murderer, therefore this scene establishes him as a red herring.

A modern of a "red herring" is in the movie Saw. Determining the identity of the pyschopathic serial killer is one of the goals of his trapped victims (Dr. Lawrence Gordon and Adam). Suspicion is thrown first on Dr. Gordon, one of the kidnapped players in the psychopath's sick game, and later on Zep, an orderly at Dr. Gordon's hospital. At the end of the movie, Zep, who was earlier revealed as the kidnapper of Dr. Gordon's family, approaches the two kidnapped victims. Adam, who was earlier shot by Dr. Gordon and appears to be dead, gains consciousness and beats Zep to death. While Dr. Gordon attempts to escape before bleeding to death, Adam searches Zep's body for a key to his chain. He instead finds a tape recorder, describing the rules that the orderly must play the game by. Finally, the killer is revealed as the thought-to-be-dead cellmate of the victims. Such plot twists are shown to be foundational to the use of the red herring.

See also

• Foreshadowing
• MacGuffin

References

• Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Red_herring_(plot_device)" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_herring_(plot_device), used under the GNU Free Documentation License