דמויות השוואה

A foil exists to show someone else

• Foil characters (foils) serve to illuminate, through contrast, the traits, attributes or values of another character.
• The verb is illuminate: the foil's job is to make someone else visible.
• So a foil is defined by its function, not by any quality of its own.

A foil needs no villain’s cape; their job is to make somebody else easier to see.

Name what is illuminated

• The CED names three things a foil can illuminate: traits, attributes or values.
• X is a foil for Y identifies a pair and stops.
• X's ease with money makes Y's carefulness legible as fear rather than virtue is the analysis.

A contrast reveals nothing without the shared half- name it first

A foil is not an opposite

• Students often look for a character who is the reverse of the protagonist in everything.
• The strongest foils differ on one axis and match on the rest — which is what makes the difference visible.
• Two characters alike in everything but one thing form a controlled comparison.

Foils can run both ways

• A foil illuminates the other character, and often the reverse is also true.
• When the illumination runs both ways, the pair is doing more work than a one-sided foil.
• Say which direction the text emphasises, and whether the second direction is available.

A foil pass

• Name the pair, then list what they share — that list should be long.
• Name the single axis on which they differ.
• Then say what that difference makes visible about the character being illuminated.