Okay Kids:
Repeat after me...A "Foil" is a character that highlights a main character by contrast. Say it five times out loud.
Foils appear in many novels. Foils are cool because they help a reader to better understand a main character by possessing those character traits that are the opposite of the main character.
For example, if a main character is a brainy nerd, not very physically strong, an dpehaps indecisive, the foil will probably be not so smart but very strong--somebody who gets things done through brute force.
In A Tale of Two Cities there are a couple foils. Has anybody spotted these foils yet? There is more than one foil because there are so many characters in this novel.
Remember that literary term...Foil.
I will award the honorary title of "literary superstar" to the first student who identifies a Foil in this novel.
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When I read this over the first time, I was thinking either Sydney Carton or Mr. Stryver. But now that I gave it some thought, Mr. Stryver definitely seems to be a foil.
ReplyDeleteIn the chapter "Two Promises", Charles Darnay tells the Doctor he wants to marry Lucie. He gets really emotional and talks very romantically about her, but he stays cordial in front of her dad. Then, in the following chapter, "A Companion Picture", Mr. Stryver (I think) tells Carton that he plans to propose to Lucie. However, he seems to be more arrogant, saying that he needs a wife, Lucie is attractive, and she would be ecstatic to be with him.
Since you said that a foil highlights another character by doing the opposite, Mr. Stryver fits the bill. The chapter is already called "A Companion Picture", setting itself in comparison to the preceding chapter; then it becomes clear in the conversation between Stryver and Carton.
Carton could also be a foil. I can't really think in what way, though.