Foil

Character Role Analysis

Maud/Helen

It's true that Maud and Helen are not BFF's. In fact, Maud can't really stand the sight of Helen, perhaps out of jealousy or because she really feels that the younger woman is insolent and a thief. Helen appears to hold Maud in contempt, rifling through her belongings and assuming that she can do everything in the house better than her employer. But they are foils to each other for other reasons, too.

Maud's approach to her relationship with her husband is reserved, oppressed, and sorrowful, while Helen, on the other hand, will have none of that. She is a pantheress, proud and beautiful, and doesn't seem like the type who would abandon her homeland to follow any man's whims. We can't say that she's any happier than Maud with her situation (after all, we don't actually get to know her very well), but she moves freely and has a command over the men in her life that Maud doesn't while she's alive.