Foil

Character Role Analysis

Edmund and Hubert

Edmund and Hubert are both squires under Sir Nigel, positions that bring them together so we can tear them apart… er, compare them. Yeah, that's what we mean.

While Edmund is an orphan who has been working as an apprentice for Otto, Hubert's grown up as the "son of a wool merchant from the west—a man with glass windows in his house" (3.37). Well then. Fancy. While Hubert's had it made in the shade, Edmund's spend his life doing whatever it takes to scrape by.

It isn't just their backgrounds that stand in contrast, though. Hubert really doesn't have much willpower and goes so far as to ask Sir Nigel if he can sail home early. War is just not for him. On the flipside, even when Edmund has the chance to go home, he kind of wants to stay: "I wanted to leave this place. But I also wanted to enter the gates of Jerusalem with King Richard" (42.15). We're not saying he thinks war is a super good time, but Edmund certainly seems much more willing to set himself aside and consider the bigger picture.