Foil

Character Role Analysis

Aragorn and Boromir

There are a lot of foils in The Fellowship of the Ring. We could start comparing Gimli to Legolas, Sam to Pippin, or Gandalf to Saruman. But one foil that seems more important than the rest is that of Aragorn—the rightful king of Gondor—and Boromir—the son of the Steward, next in line of the family that has ruled Gondor in the absence of royalty.

So there's some natural tension here: Boromir is afraid of Aragorn's threat to the throne while Aragorn is afraid of assuming the role of king at all. And this reveals what really separates our two central men: power. Boromir can't get enough of it. He wants the Ring for his people, so Gondor can use its power against the enemy. But Aragorn is afraid of the responsibilities he was born with and has been hiding his identity as a ranger.