Foil

Character Role Analysis

Paul and Victor

Paul, Madame Aubain's son, and Victor, Félicité's nephew, meet as children and hit it off right away. Madame Aubain doesn't like it that "Félicité's nephew was so familiar towards her son" and puts an end to it. This is where the foil relationship begins, with Paul as the middle class boy and Victor as the lower class boy. That's probably the single biggest difference between the two, but it determines everything.

Paul goes off to boarding school; Victor goes off to be a sailor. Paul grows up and spends all his mother's money in taverns; Victor dies of yellow fever in Cuba on the job. Paul finally ends up married and doesn't take care of Félicité, who helped raise him; when Victor was alive he always remembered to bring his aunt gifts and send her letters.