Analysis Of Snow Flower And The Secret Fan

Character foils are important to any story or play as they compare and contrast character traits as the story unfolds. The use of character foils allows the audience to understand a characters way of thought and the actions that they take. Character foils show the moral behaviour and can help the audience see contradictory factors that help advance the plot. Although characters may seem similar, the use of character foils can show their differences. In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the use of character foils proves Fortinbras is a stronger political leader over Hamlet, the contrasting view of Laertes as a son in comparison to Hamlet and Horatio being thought of as the better man in contradiction to Hamlet.

A foil is a minor character in a literary work that compliments the main character through similarities and differences in personality and plot. In William Shakespeare's play "Hamlet", the main character, Hamlet, has three major foils. These foils are his close friend Horatio, Fortinbras, Prince of Norway, and the brother of his love, Laertes. These three characters contradict and enhance Hamlet's major characteristics.

In many of Shakespeare’s plays, there is a major character, and a lesser character whose character traits directly contrast those of the major character. This literary device is called a foil. One example of this exists in the play Romeo and Juliet, in which Mercutrio foils Romeo’s character with his disdain for love and belief in man making his own destiny. Another example of foil exists in William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth. The character of Lady Macduff foils Lady Macbeth in her lack ambition, her genuine love of family life and her devotion to her husband.

In a literary work, a minor character, often known as a foil, possesses traits that

Foils in The Crucible In literature, a character’s true personality is revealed through the use of foils. A foil is a minor character that contrasts with a main character and highlights his or her particular characteristics. They are found in movies, television shows, novels, and plays. Foils can reveal both positive and negative traits. Throughout The Crucible, literary foils reveal the true personalities of many characters.

(If we look back to all the books we have read over the course of our life, we may see that a literary device commonly used by almost all writers would be foils. Foils are often put right next to one another, to emphasize the nature of each character, by putting a good character next to a presumably bad character, so that the bad character will look worse, but the good character will look exceedingly better. We have seen this writing technique in many different types of literature. For example, in mythology with the movie Troy, the foils were King Priam, and King Agamemnon. They may both be kings, but they have very different personalities. King Priam care not just for power, but he also cares for the people of his kingdom; however, King Agamemnon only cares about power.) (This idea of placing somewhat similar, yet mostly opposing characters side-by-side is also undoubtedly presented in the book To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Lee does an incredible job of creating these opposing characters for Jam and Scout to encounter, so that they can learn what is right and wrong, and so that they could go from innocence to experience.) (In To Kill a Mockingbird, three foils are very highly valued in the children’s transition from their state of innocence to their state of experience; these three foils include, Miss Maudie Atkinson & Miss Stephanie Crawford; Calpurnia and Lula; finally, with Atticus Finch and Mr. Gilmer.)

A foil character contrasts the personalities of another character, which particularly enlightens certain characteristics of the individual. This element portrays these characteristics in an obvious manner, as it benefits the reader or audience. By showing the characteristics of one, it directly heightens the character traits of the other, creating a foil illustration of an individual. Nowhere is this element of literature more prudent than in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, as he effectively engages the use of foil characters. In the play, two lovers from opposing, and hateful families fall in love, but the hatred between households lead to their downfall. Characters in the immoral city of Verona are set to represent key themes and

In the novel, The Joy Luck Club, the author, Amy Tan, employs various rhetorical devices at numerous points in the story to achieve a specific purpose, whether the aim is to expand a character’s development, to further the evolution of the plot, or to suggest a certain theme to the reader. In particular, one of the most common rhetorical devices exploited by Tan throughout the story is perhaps the anecdote, which forces the reader to analyze the hidden significance of it as its contents are much longer and more elaborate than other rhetorical devices which typically consist of a mere sentence or two. Each anecdote in the book carries substantial importance and yet, it seems that the fact that there are so many of them in the novel does not undermine each one’s individual magnificence. The most poignant anecdote in the book may in fact be the story of An-Mei’s mother of how she lost herself and became a concubine-against her will-to a notorious mogul named Wu Tsing. An-Mei’s mother ultimately chooses to commit suicide in hopes that it will save her two children from the neglect and wrath of her husband, who initially cares very little about An-Mei and her family but is convinced by Chinese myth to improve their standards of living, “Seeing her this last time, I threw myself on her body. And she opened her eyes slowly… I shut her eyes with my fingers and told her with my heart: I can see the truth too… Because we both knew this: that on the third day after someone dies, the soul comes back to settle scores… He (Wu Tsing) promised her visiting ghost that he would raise

Foil characters are defined as characters that are used to contrast another character. This character in most cases is the protagonist. Moreover, foil characters tend to be based on the protagonist’s hubris, wherein contrasting the fatal flaw shows how it has ballooned out of control. Foil characters further themes by highlighting the characteristics of certain characters that will help enhance the theme. The role of foil characters in Shakespearean tragedies is to show what could have happened if the protagonist made a different choice. Likewise, this idea is prevalent within Romeo and Juliet. Furthermore, this play portrays two children from warring families who meet and fall in love, but eventually kill themselves as their love is not

A foil is a minor character that helps the audience better understand a major character. A foil may exist as a comparison character, with similarities between the two, as well as differences that bring to light an important contrast between the foil and the main character. A foil may also just be someone for the main character to talk to, so we can know and understand their thoughts and feelings. Foils help us understand the obvious as well as the arcane. In the classic tragedy Hamlet, we see William Shakespeare employ foils to illustrate both examples. They become important literary tools that help the reader rationalize the concurrent theme of the play -

From a young age, Mrs. Breedlove has struggled to feel beautiful. From a nail through her foot to the judgment she received when she moved north, she has always been put down for who she is. As a young child she impaled her foot with a nail and it “left her with a crooked, archless foot that flopped when she walked” (Morrison 110). The first thing that began the curse of Mrs. Breedlove not being beautiful (besides her skin color), was as a child and got a nail right through her foot. The lack of medical knowledge and care left her with a limp that she was going to have for the rest of her life. From this one injury, she blames the rest of her misfortune in life off of it. She thinks her family does not like her because of it, and blames her foot for her

Star-Crossed Lovers A literary device is a technique that the author uses to convey his/her message and to give the passage a special effect. The different literary devices help readers interpret and analyze what they are reading. William Shakespeare, the author of Romeo and Juliet, uses a literary device called a “foil” to contrast characters’ personalities in the story.

The use of foils is evident in both stories to demonstrate how the lack of communication affects a relationship. In literature a foils is a character that shows qualities opposite of another character therefore emphasizing the differences between the two characters. In Moore’s “The Lonely Goatherd” Carl’s character is foiled with Hans. In the short story the reader becomes aware that Carl is sleeping with other women and not telling his wife, as well as he does not communicate how he is feeling with her: “She [Anita] has no idea how I feel” (184). The fact that Carl does not communicate with Anita is emphasized through Hans’ character because he is so open with Anita, the exact opposite of Carl: “Nestled between the hand-break and the

She considers that “some man had commanded her to lie with him and be his secret evil.” (Kingston 6). Kingston writes her initial version of the “No Name Woman,” who was raped, raided, and died an outcast, but Kingston determines that this telling does not fit her understanding of China. Therefore, Kingston entertains another hypothetical, that her aunt took a lover and saved him from shame by giving “silent birth” and not revealing the lover’s identity (Kingston 11). Here, Kingston critically examines the inherited talk-story of her mother to determine the meaning she should obtain from the death of her aunt. Her mother’s conclusion is that she must not become pregnant, but Kingston is uncertain about the simplicity of her mother’s story. In the “No Name Woman,” Kingston introduces the fictitious memoir structure that she utilizes through the variety of interpretations of her aunt’s story. Consistently through the memoir, Kingston writes contrasting accounts of the same stories and imagines the stories of others to further her themes about silence, authenticity, and identity formation.

Many characters have foils. A foil is a character that opposes another character, quite often the protagonist. Character foils are similar to the main character in some ways but often have one key difference. Sometimes, at some point the foils develop traits characteristic to the other. Often times, there is a factor, whether it be physical or psychological, which aids in the apparentness of the foils. In Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, Marlow and Kurtz represent foils driven by the wilderness.