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What is a Foil? 11141 Views


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Description:

This video defines a foil and identifies foil characters in Harry Potter, Romeo and Juliet, and Return of the King. How do you identify a foil in a story? What purpose do they serve? How do they relate to the protagonist? Can a character be their own foil?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:04

What is a Foil? a la Shmoop There are dozens of roles for a fictional

00:09

character to fit into. Some of them can be pretty easy to spot…

00:13

The protagonist and antagonist are often the hero and the villain, for example.

00:17

And the sidekick is the one who never gets any of the glory.

00:21

But others are more difficult to spot, and not because they insist on wearing camo all

00:26

the time. One of the most ambiguous literary roles is

00:29

the foil. How do you identity the foil in a novel?

00:32

If the summer Olympics are coming up, a foil is the little bendy device people poke their

00:37

combatants with while wearing colanders on their faces.

00:40

Or it’s something you wrap your baked potato in.

00:42

Or it’s a math method for multiplication, meaning first-outside-inside-last…

00:47

You know, we have a guide on that last one… But we’re focused on literature, where a

00:52

foil is a character whose main purpose is to offer a contrast to another character,

00:57

usually the protagonist. Foils set off and accentuate the main character

01:02

and are convenient ways to complicate and deepen the characterization of the protagonist.

01:07

They’re more like complementary colors than total opposites.

01:11

Foils are the white spaces to the protagonist’s pen-and-ink drawing, the blush to their cheekbones,

01:17

the frosting to their cupcake… Basically, everything the foil is, the protagonist

01:22

is not. The foil's differences highlight the key qualities of the main character.

01:27

Sure, it can be as simple as protagonist vs. antagonist.

01:31

Voldemort’s villainy and selfishness reminds us how good Harry Potter is, and how much

01:35

he values his friends. Although the antagonist is often the foil,

01:36

he doesn’t have to be. A foil is any character that makes the traits of another stand out

01:40

in sharp contrast. For instance, a character’s best friend

01:44

can be a foil if she’s always volunteering time at a charity and giving sandwiches and

01:49

blankets to homeless people… …reminding us that, despite saving that

01:52

turtle from a burning house, our protagonist is actually… pretty darn selfish.

01:59

There can be multiple foils in a novel as well.

02:02

In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo’s first love Rosaline is a foil to Juliet, and Juliet’s

02:08

other suitor, Paris, is a foil to Romeo. You might say Romeo has been… foiled again…

02:11

Finally, a character can even foil himself. And not because he’s giving himself highlights.

02:13

In Return of the King, Frodo can be his own worst enemy, and his bad side makes his good

02:18

side even, um, gooder, by comparison. So a foil isn’t just a handy sun-tanning

02:25

aid. It’s a way for an author to make their characters even deeper.

02:29

So when you’re hunting for the foil, remember the following:

02:32

The foil is often the person that enhances the protagonist’s attributes.

02:36

But the foil isn’t necessarily the antagonist. It could be a friend or a rival.

02:41

And supporting characters might have foils, too…

02:44

Score one for the little guys.

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