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

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

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

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

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

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the time. One of the most ambiguous literary roles is

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

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

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combatants with while wearing colanders on their faces.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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They’re more like complementary colors than total opposites.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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There can be multiple foils in a novel as well.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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And supporting characters might have foils, too…

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Score one for the little guys.

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