Foil

Character Role Analysis

Dorcas and Alice

Are any two characters less alike than Alice and Dorcas? On the one hand, we have Dorcas who slips on scandalous underwear every time she leaves the house, carries on an affair with a married man and then a real booger named Acton, loves dancing and drinking and slapping salesclerks' faces (!), and, oh yeah, really, really loves jazz music.

On the other hand, we have Dorcas's aunt Alice, who loathes jazz music and everything it stands for. You know: jazz and it's way of making young women provocative, interested in sex and drinking and wearing scandalous underwear. Alice likes spiritual music that affects the head and heart, while Dorcas loves stuff that affects her "below the sash."

Alice is button-up, Dorcas is skirts above the knee; Alice is interested in being ladylike and Dorcas is interested in being a wild child. They're like sultry, sexy, jazz-filled nights and pure, asexual, hymn-filled days.