Foils In Beowulf

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.

“Antigone” by Sophocles, tells the story of two brothers, of one is given a proper burial and the other is not. Throughout the story two characters contrast. In literature, a foil is a character that has contrasting traits from another character. These distinctions often better develop characters and help the reader notice the specific traits of each character. Antigone who is outgoing, aggressive, and willing to fight for what she believes in, contrasts with her sister, who is more introverted, soft-spoken, and cautious. Ismene is a foil for Antigone.

I have chosen to portray Unferth as a drunken mess to make his attacks towards Beowulf seem less truthful because Beowulf says that he will “tell the truth” (532) about incomplete story that Unferth has told. Beowulf portrays many desirable heroic characteristic in the poem such as courage and leadership, and I believe that my choice of making Unferth unable to collect his drunken thoughts into a accurate story further boosts the heroic traits of Beowulf. My use of description and powerful imagery such as “skull crushing waves” and (sea monsters lurking below) is to create a feeling that Beowulf has accomplished such massive feats in only this one section of his life. This further creates the heroic persona that Beowulf so greatly delivers.

In Grendel’s cave, Unferth stumbles in wishing he “had a chance. That [He] knew [He] had no more than that. It’s all a hero asks for,” (Gardner 89). Unferth believes that it does not matter if he lives or dies, or whatever the outcome would be, he just wants a chance to be a hero. He then speaks of what a true hero is; “The hero sees values beyond what’s possible. That’s the nature of a hero. It kills him, of course, ultimately, but it makes the whole struggle of humanity worthwhile,” (Gardner 89). In Anglo-Saxon times, it was normal for that to be the one goal of people’s lives. Unferth tells Grendel that he knows he is a hero, not by his successes or failures, but his dedication to the heroic craft . Unferth is very comfortable with his suicide for he knows he is a hero before the rewards and glory that come along. Unferth’s intentions are pure, but his actions are not. There is a clear hypocrisy between these characters where Beowulf acts like he wants to help, but has negative intentions. Unferth has the right intentions, but his actions are

In Robert Nye’s book, Unferth is portrayed as an antagonist, a character in a story that is an enemy to the protagonist, because he gets excited about Grendel’s massacres and tries to ruin Beowulf’s reputation and status by lying about him. According to Robert Nye’s book, Unferth says “Aloud, he praised King Hrothgar’s courage. Silently, he drank a toast to the demon Grendel.(pg.13)” This shows that Unferth celebrates Grendel and his killing. Unferth also says “You tried to drown your friend because he was a better swimmer than you!(pg30)”. This shows Unferth is supporting the demon Grendel instead of the hero Beowulf.

Foils exist in the epic Beowulf. Beowulf is written by an unknown author and is translated by Burton Raffel in the Anglo-Saxon era. There is a force, vitality, clearness and distinctiveness in the characters, not only in Beowulf’s personality, but in all the other personalities (Brooke). Beowulf and Grendal are very contrasting characters because of their distinct personalities. Beowulf is a famous soldier 's son “My father / was a famous soldier, known far and wide / As a leader of men” (Beowulf 174-175, 40). Beowulf comes from a much nicer background than Grendal 's. Grendal was spawned and not born unto the earth. “… He was spawned in that slime, / Conceived by a pair of those monsters born / Of Cain, murderous creatures banished / By God, punished, forever in the crime / of Able 's death” (Beowulf 19-23, 42). Grendal is spawned, making him not human. This proves that Grendal is a foil to Beowulf. Another foil is Grendal 's mom to Beowulf. Grendal 's mom is considered a demon like Grendal is.

      A foil is a minor character that helps develop a major character by sharing similarities and differences with the main character. This is a common practice Shakespeare uses within many of his plays. The use of

Beowulf is a man who desires to help the kingdoms around him with monsters they face. He has fought with sea monsters, ending their reign in the seas with ease, and he has taken on the task of ending Grendel’s rule over Herot, the mead-hall that belongs to an ally kingdom. He has taken on these challenges for the sake of helping the kingdom, however, at the end of chapter twenty-one it is said that, “Only Beowulf would risk his life in that lake; Unferth was afraid, gave up that chance to work wonders and win glory and a hero’s fame,” (Burton 64), hinting that he has also done it for the glory and treasure he will get in payment for his deeds. In chapter

Beowulf exposes Unferth’s shortcomings, but he explains it through piercingly negative manner. Unferth surely is shallow-minded for questioning Beowulf however the deprecation and harsh rebuttal provides no help for the situation. Beowulf has absolutely no respect for Unferth even knowing such personal information about him. The lack of sensitivity only feeds into Beowulf’s supremacy and he has no motive to possibly have Unferth help him in this dire situation of a monster. Beowulf thinks his higher achievements garner arrogant and degrading actions. In the novel’s final encounter of the original hero and villain, Grendel falls into Beowulf’s control. The defeated Grendel describes, “He smashes me against [the wall], breaks open my forehead. Hard, yes! Observe the hardness, write it down in careful runes. Now sing of walls! Sing!”(171). Although Grendel envisions much of these events, there is no mistake of his injuries. Grendel’s image of Beowulf can also connect to his actual personality without restraint. Beowulf has total domination over Grendel and he decides to torture him instead of quickly terminating the ordeal. The extensive torment bears no positive impact other than satisfy his own desires and prosper with superiority. Beowulf exerts greed and lives to be conceited while he ignores all oppositions.

Foils are common in any books, whether it’s the antagonist bringing out the best in the antagonist or the protagonist bringing out the worst in the antagonist. Foils are everywhere. In “Much Ado About Nothing” written by William Shakespeare, almost all of the characters can foil each other in some way or another. In the beginning, Claudio is falling for Hero on the day the meet. Hero is Leonato’s Daughter.

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 -

The foil in The Natural is Bump Bailey. He doesn’t accept Roy as a member of the team, and tries to make him feel unwelcome, making Roy more likeable in comparison to Bump, and when he dies Hobbs takes over and becomes a sensation. The second use of a foil in The Natural is Pop. Roy was a farmer who always wanted to be a baseball player, and Pop is in baseball and always wanted to be a farmer. The foil character in Beowulf is Unferth. In the story of Beowulf it mentions that Unferth can’t do his job, he’s drunk all the time, and he killed his brother. It highlights Beowulf’s virtues of strength and courage making him out as the perfect hero that embodies the Anglo-Saxon

Not only is Beowulf extremely courageous but he is the mold that hero's model themselves after he is noble, true to his word and his unquestionable trust in his skills. When Beowulf gets to Heorot and they begin to feast, Unfearth goes up to Beowulf, and questions the race that he and Brecca had in the fierce open sea saying that no matter what he had done before that he would not be able to defeat Grendel because many great warriors had come before him and his fate would be no different; however, Beowulf has trust in his skills that God has graced him with just as he did when he raced Brecca in the open sea. By Beowulf saying this, he is letting Unfearth know that now as well as when he raced Brecca he is the best and will not be beaten. Beowulf then begins to challenge Unfearth's skills by saying if he was really as courageous as he has been saying he is, then Grendel wouldn't be

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.