Foil

Character Role Analysis

Francis/Abbot Arkos, Dom Paulo/Thon Taddeo, Zerchi/Doctor Cors

As we've mentioned already, you can consider three of these characters protagonists in their own rights. And if you do, you can make a strong argument for the other three being antagonists. But we prefer to consider them foils of each other. Here's why.

The protagonist/antagonist relationship revolves around conflict. More often than not, this conflict results when characters' goals are in opposition to one another. For example, Megatron in Transformers want to destroy all humans, but Optimus Prime isn't into that idea.

Their goals conflict with each other.

The relationship between foil characters isn't necessarily about conflicting goals. Instead, the contrast between a pair of foils deepens our understanding of each character.

Consider these three pairs:

• Francis/Abbot Arkos: Both want to see Leibowitz beatified into sainthood, but Arkos plays the political game while Francis stays honest and true.
• Dom Paul/Thon Taddeo: Both want to use the Memorabilia to help and advance civilization. But Taddeo believes it should be in the hands of secular scientists, while Dom Paulo sees the Church as a protector of knowledge.
• Zerchi/Doctor Cors: Both want to care for the woman and her child, but Doctor Cors sees euthanasia as the most humane option. Zerchi believes that option is sinful, and only leads to further pain.

In each case, the characters have the same goal, but their methods of achieving that goal are different.