How do I use names to foreshadow a plot twist?
If you’ve seen my other posts you know about the tragedy of Samuel Ashford. If you don’t, here’s the background/reason I’m asking this question
Samuel was a commoner and a poet. One day he was walking around and bumped into this noble dude named Aurelius Bell. He thought Aurelius was pretty and started fancily flirting with him.
Aurelius, not only being a noble but also a companion to the prince and an orphan who feels pressured to live up to his parents’ legacy, wants to ignore him but can’t because he actually really likes it, so he begins to give dry responses until he’s finally had enough and tells Samuel to buzz off. Samuel apologizes and asks if they can be friends because he doesn’t give a rat’s fart about classism. Aurelius leaves but hints to Samuel that he’ll meet him here again, as he only takes occasional trips to the city.
They eventually start writing each other through a noble friend of Samuel’s (there are some nobles who don’t care about classism, but we’ll talk about that later) and hanging out whenever Aurelius goes to the city. They gradually fall in love.
The annoying thing about being both a dumb teenager and an artist is that you do things without thinking of the consequences.
So one night they decided that Samuel would climb through Aurelius’ window in the middle of the night. Unfortunately some guards saw him and mistook him for a thief or a murderer, and one of the perks of being a commoner is that instead of just capturing him, they ran upstairs and killed him on sight. Aurelius couldn’t even comfort him in his dying moments because if he did he could be ostracized from society, leaving the prince, who had no other friends, completely alone.
So I was thinking, what if Caprise knew Samuel’s family? And, what if, since the incident with his death was so hushed up but the Rosewoods are very trusted, her parents knew the truth?
It would be that when Caprise was younger, she knew his mother and sister, but one day they stopped visiting, and Caprise was told that Samuel died, but not how
But the thing is, I want Samuel’s death to be a twist to the audience. I’ll mention in the beginning that “some random commoner” broke into Aurelius’ room and allude to Aurelius having trauma. I’m not sure if I’ll show him and Samuel meeting in a flashback scene or if that would be too obvious.
I was thinking that when Caprise herself starts dating a noble, her father could warn her, but once again that may be too obvious. Although I am also considering making it a piece of dramatic irony instead.
Anyways here’s the name-related part:
Even if I don’t use flashback scenes for Aurelius, I am most likely going to use them for other characters. So how could I utilize character names to, say, subtly show that the people in Caprise’s flashback are related to Samuel if I mention him by name in relation to Aurelius (or even just as the name of “random commoner”)? Could I still do that if I didn’t mention him?