Aiken uses foreshadowing to hint at the story’s supernatural elements before they appear. When Mr. Peters approaches and helps the swan, the creature reacts violently, “looking at him with hate in its yellow eyes” and thrashing with wings “powerful enough to break his arm” (225). The unsettling description of the swan and its “almost human” cries prepares the reader for the revelation that the bird is actually the King of the Forest.

The King’s warning overtly foreshadows the eventual consequences of Mr. Peters’s wish. Shortly after the King transforms, he warns Mr. Peters that humans rarely use their wishes wisely, noting how they usually “end up worse than they started” (226). Mr. Peters’s calm confidence and reflection on the forester who misused his wishes suggests his awareness of magical consequences. Yet he believes that he can avoid them by using careful judgment. Along with foreshadowing the consequences of Mr. Peters’s choices, the moment creates dramatic irony, as the reader recognizes that his confidence will lead to disappointment before he realizes it himself.

Aiken incorporates anecdotes into her narrative that foreground the story’s themes. First, Mr. Peters’s reflection on the forester who wasted his wish by accidentally asking for sausage highlights how impulsive wishes can spiral into unintended problems, emphasizing Aiken’s thematic focus on The Consequences of Desire. Although Mr. Peters believes that his awareness of such consequences will allow him to avoid making similar mistakes, the anecdote reinforces the idea that human desires often lead to unanticipated outcomes. 

The anecdote of the thieves underscores Overcoming Possessive Models of Relationships as a central theme of the story. Mr. Peters and his swans eventually become the subject of an anecdote themselves. His neighbors tell “a story that once when thieves tried to break into [Mr. Peters’s] house they were set upon by two huge white birds which carried them off bodily and dropped them in the river” (230). The anecdote makes it clear that the swans—Leita and Rhea—remain connected to Mr. Peters even after his wish has been undone and they are free to return to the river. Mr. Peters views Leita as a being with her own agency, dignity, and choices rather than as a wife he possesses.