The 2008 English Literature exam’s Question 3 (the free-response question) asks for an analysis of the contribution of a foil in characterizing the main character, and also in illuminating the meaning of the work. Judging by the comments posted by teachers on the AP English listserv, the subject of the prompt was a good one. But most of us were unhappy with how much the definition of a foil was narrowed by the statement that only a “minor character [who] serves as a foil to a main character” would be appropriate to discuss. Many of our colleagues expressed worry about how strictly the students would have to adhere to this.

The listserv also posted an array of comments about the list of novels and plays that would serve writers well as they worked with the prompt. As usual, several Shakespeare plays were on the list. I decided to look at how many foils (major or minor) I included in analytical questions in the first four plays of the new Peoples Education Shakespeare Skillbook Series.

FOIL in HAMLET: Fortinbras

Lesson 19 begins with the following explanation of one of Hamlet’s major soliloquies:

Claudius has used the killing of Polonius as public proof of Hamlet’s homicidal madness, and has ordered him exiled to England. On his way to the ship, Hamlet comes upon the young Norwegian warrior, Fortinbras, also nephew to a king. Fortinbras is leading an army through Denmark. His purpose is to “gain a little patch of ground” in Poland, which, he claims to believe, rightly belongs to his country. Fortinbras is the perfect foil for Hamlet, his mindless aggression emphasizing Hamlet’s lack of action. In the soliloquy that follows, Hamlet nerves himself to punish Claudius:

 

HAMLET: How all occasions do inform against me

And spur my dull revenge! What is a man

If his chief good and market of his time

25 Be but to sleep and feed?—a beast, no more.

Sure, he that made us with such large discourse,

Looking before and after, gave us not

That capability and god-like reason

To fust in us unused. Now whether it be

30 Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple

Of thinking too precisely on th’event—

A thought which, quartered, hath but one part wisdom

And ever three parts coward—I do not know

Why yet I live to say ‘This thing’s to do’,

35 Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and means

To do’t. Examples gross as earth exhort me,

Witness this army of such mass and charge,

Led by a delicate and tender prince,

Whose spirit with divine ambition puffed

40 Makes mouths at the invisible event,

Exposing what is mortal and unsure

To all that fortune, death, and danger dare,

Even for an eggshell. Rightly to be great

Is not to stir without great argument,

45 But greatly to find quarrel in a straw

When honour’s at the stake. How stand I, then,

That have a father killed, a mother stained,

Excitements of my reason and my blood,

And let all sleep while, to my shame, I see

50 The imminent death of twenty thousand men

That, for a fantasy and trick of fame,

Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot

Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,

Which is not tomb enough and continent

55 To hide the slain. O, from this time forth

My thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth! (4.4.9.22–9.56)

Exercise A lays the groundwork for understanding the role of Fortinbras in defining Hamlet’s character. I omit exercise B in this article because it is concerned only with the first 35 lines. Exercise C asks for a more sophisticated reading of Fortinbras as foil to Hamlet, beginning in lines 36.

Exercise A: In lines 43–56, Hamlet ends his soliloquy by defining greatness and expressing his belief about honor. He then compares his behavior with that of Fortinbras. Paraphrase each of these three statements, beginning with line 43.

Suggested response to Exercise A (from the Teacher’s Edition):

A truly great man is one who will refuse to fight without good cause, but one who will not hesitate to do so when his honor is threatened.

I am not great, for honor demands that I should get revenge on the man who killed my father and dishonored my mother, giving me enough cause to satisfy both my reason and my passion.

I have done nothing, and I am shamed by this young man who, with no motive other than ambition, is leading 20,000 men to their deaths in a fight over so small a plot of land that the dead cannot all be buried on it.

Exercise C: Examine Hamlet’s diction in his description of Fortinbras, and discuss why he is an appropriate foil for Hamlet.

Suggested response to Exercise C (from the Teacher’s Edition):

Hamlet calls Fortinbras a “delicate and tender” prince, showing that the two are of equal rank, and yet Fortinbras, the younger and less experienced, is leading a huge and costly army to an offensive action. Hamlet admires Fortinbras for his “divine ambition,” which, we may assume, is a quality he values in a leader. He is also aware that Fortinbras shows great courage in scorning the dangers he faces for so small a reward, and gives him credit for defending his honor by doing so. Hamlet considers his own honor to have been far more compromised. Because he has not yet avenged the murder of his father and seduction of his mother, though to kill Claudius would not put 20,000 others in harm’s way, he must be both unloving and cowardly. He is shamed by Fortinbras’ example.

FOIL in KING LEAR: Cornwall and Regan’s Servant

Lesson 18:

The analytic questions here follow an overview of Act 3, scenes 3 to 7—too long to include here—in which certain events lead up to terrible blinding of Gloucester by Cornwall and Regan, which Exercise A asks students to articulate. Exercise B asks how Regan, Goneril, Cornwall, and Edmund are each characterized by their ideas about how to punish the “traitor” Gloucester, ; Cornwall’s suggestion that it is not fitting for Gloucester’s son, Edmund, to witness his father’s horrific torture, ; and Edmund’s taking this opportunity to leave Gloucester to his fate. Exercise C is about a nameless minor character:

Exercise C: Summarize Regan’s words and actions in the torture scene. Explain how the servant whom she kills is an effective foil, one who, by contrast, highlights the characteristics of another.

Suggested Response to Exercise C (from the Teacher’s Edition)

Exercise C: Regan first suggests that Gloucester be hanged immediately. She insists that he be bound more tightly: “Hard, hard,” and calls him “filthy traitor.” She plucks hairs from his beard. Regan helps her husband wring a “confession” from Gloucester, and calls her father “the lunatic king.” She overrides her husband, insisting that both eyes be put out: “One side will mock another. The other too.” Regan does not hesitate to kill the servant from behind. When Gloucester calls on Edmund to help him, Regan tells him that Edmund hates him and has betrayed him. She then commands a servant to thrust Gloucester out of his own gates, “and let him smell / His way to Dover.” Only then does she turn to her wounded and dying husband, and lead him away. The servant, who does not hesitate to kill the mighty Cornwall when his own master is being tortured, is the moral opposite of Regan. Regan has no moral compass, but follows her own best interests regardless of accepted morality.

FOILS in MACBETH (three lessons): Banquo, Macbeth, and Lady Macbeth as foils for each other, and Banquo again

 

Lesson 17:

On the night of Duncan’s murder, Banquo resists sleep. This passage introduces the motif of sleep and dreams, which continues throughout the play:

                        A heavy summons lies like lead upon me,              

And yet I would not sleep. Merciful powers,             

Restrain in me the cursèd thought that nature

Gives way to in repose. [2.1.6–9]

A moment later, Macbeth enters, and the two men speak of the witches’ prophecies. In this dialogue, Banquo makes his feelings about the prophecies quite clear. We already know Macbeth’s feelings:

 

BANQUO         I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters.

                         To you they have showed some truth.

MACBETH

                                                                           I think not of them;

   Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve,

  We would spend it in some words upon that business

   If you would grant the time.

           BANQUO                                           At your kind’st leisure.

          MACBETH  If you shall cleave to my consent when ’tis,  

       It shall make honour for you.

            BANQUO                                                  So I lose none                   

  In seeking to augment it, but still keep

 My bosom franchised and allegiance clear,

  I shall be counselled.   [2.1.18’27]  

All three of the exercises take us through the evidence of Banquo’s role as foil:     

 

Exercise A:  Recalling the witches’ prophecy to him, paraphrase Banquo’s words in the first passage. What thought does he fear? Why?

Exercise B: Paraphrase the dialogue between Banquo and Macbeth.

Exercise C: Explain Banquo’s role in this dialogue as a foil, or contrast, to Macbeth, highlighting Macbeth’s character through contrast to his own.

Suggested Response to Exercise A (from the Teacher’s Edition):

“I am heavy with drowsiness, but I am unwilling to go to sleep. Powers of good [angels], keep me, when I am helplessly sleeping, from dwelling on the temptation to hasten what the witches’ prophecy promises. I am afraid of dreams because I do not wish to do evil.”

Banquo has witnessed that the witches’ foreknowledge of Macbeth’s new title was correct, and he cannot forget that he was promised that he would be greater and happier than Macbeth as the father of kings. He is tempted to hasten the fulfillment of these prophecies, just as Macbeth is tempted to snatch the throne by force.

Suggested Response to Exercise B (from the Teacher’s Edition):

BANQUO      “I had a dream last night about the witches’ words. Part of their prophecy about you has already happened.”

MACBETH    “I haven’t thought of them. However, when we find time, we could talk about their promises, if you will.”

BANQUO      “Whenever you wish.”

MACBETH    “If you will support me when I am king, I will give you honors and power.”

BANQUO      “That would be fine if I lose no honor in seeking to gain more. If I may remain guiltless and not dishonored by evil actions, I would be receptive.”

Suggested Response to Exercise C (from the Teacher’s Edition):

Because he also has been tempted by the witches’ powerful promise, Banquo’s words and feelings remind us of how a decent, honorable man would behave in Macbeth’s position. Banquo calls on the powers of heaven to keep him from temptation. He unequivocally tells Macbeth that he will support him as king only if he can do so without staining his own honor. In contrast, how quickly Macbeth has given up the struggle with temptation, how easily swayed he has been by his wife’s taunting, and how determined he is now to grasp the dagger.

Lesson 20:

After the murder, Lady Macbeth enjoins her husband to “Go get some water / And wash this filthy witness from your hand” [2.2.44–45]. She then tries to send him back with the daggers to frame the grooms, but must go herself. Macbeth speaks in soliloquy:

What hands are here! Ha, they pluck out mine eyes.

Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood

Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather

The multitudinous seas incarnadine,

Making the green one red. [2.2.57–61]

When she returns from the grisly task, Lady Macbeth goads her husband:

 

My hands are of your colour, but I shame

To wear a heart so white.  [2.2.62–63]

Exercise A: List the strong nouns, verbs, and modifiers in the first passage. What does his diction reveal about Macbeth’s emotional state?

Exercise B [an exercise in how to say the blank verse, practice with observing enjambment and caesura and with the effect of monosyllables in slowing down speech, and how different pacing creates contrast]:

Read the first passage aloud several times, observing the pauses signaled by punctuation. Then look at the individual lines. When a line with ten or eleven syllables (the first and third lines) contains ten or more separate words, each a monosyllable, is it fast or slow? Compare these with the fourth line, which has eleven syllables, but only four words; count the syllables in the two polysyllabic ones. Discuss the difference in the pacing of the spoken line and the effect of the contrast.

Exercise C: Sum up how Lady Macbeth’s words in the second passage characterize her. In what sense is Macbeth the foil to his wife here? Is she also a foil to her husband? Why?

Suggested Response to Exercise A (from the Teacher’s Edition):

Nouns: hands, blood, hand, hand, seas

Verbs: pluck out, wash

Modifiers: clean, multitudinous, green, red

Macbeth’s hands horrify him. He repeats hands—hand—hand. He despairs of ever washing them clean, imagining instead that they will turn earth’s oceans red. The blood is proof of his guilt and shame; he is distraught.

Suggested Response to Exercise B (from the Teacher’s Edition):

A series of monosyllabic words cannot be pronounced quickly. The lines are also slowed down by the caesuras, two in the first line, one in the third. But the fourth line cannot be said slowly—it flows quickly. This contrast gives deliberation and gravity to Macbeth’s understanding of the personal consequences of his act, and the fourth line gives us a sense of how quickly the stain of his evil deed will pollute the whole earth.

Suggested Response to Exercise C (from the Teacher’s Edition):

Lady Macbeth, having smeared the drugged guards with blood from the daggers, now has hands as bloody as her husband’s, but she scorns Macbeth’s sensitivity to the horror of the murder and its consequences, viewing his misery as a lack of courage. Macbeth’s reaction to their crime is far more understandable to us than his wife’s and he serves as her foil: his feeling is the norm against which we can compare Lady Macbeth’s cold lack of human sympathy. Her reaction, in turn, makes her Macbeth’s foil, emphasizing his scruples by apparently having none of her own.

Lesson 23:

Just before he hires assassins to kill Banquo, Macbeth, in soliloquy, considers the witches’ prophecy about Banquo’s sons inheriting the throne:                                          

       To be thus is nothing

But to be safely thus. Our fears in Banquo       

Stick deep, and in his royalty of nature                 

Reigns that which would be feared. ’Tis much he dares,

And to that dauntless temper of his mind  

He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour

To act in safety. There is none but he

Whose being I do fear, and under him

My genius is rebuked as, it is said,              

Mark Antony’s was by Caesar. He chid the sisters   

When first they put the name of king upon me,

And bade them speak to him. Then, prophet-like,

They hailed him father to a line of kings.

Upon my head they put a fruitless crown,

And put a barren scepter in my grip,

Thence to be wrenched with an unlineal hand,        

No son of mine succeeding. If’t be so,

For Banquo’s issue have I filed my mind,    

For them the gracious Duncan have I murdered,      

Put rancours in the vessel of my peace                     

Only for them, and mine eternal jewel                     

Given to the common enemy of man                        

To make them kings, the seeds of Banquo kings.

Rather than so, come fate into the list                      

And champion me to th’utterance.  [3.1.49–73] 

 

Exercise A: Again Shakespeare makes Banquo a foil for Macbeth. Paraphrase the sentences in which Banquo’s traits are described, then explain how each of Macbeth’s is an opposite.

 

Suggested Response to Exercise A (from the Teacher’s Edition):

*I fear Banquo’s noble nature. (Compared to him, I am base.)

* Banquo is courageous (whereas I was afraid of a vision I had of a dagger and of             the voices in my head. I am afraid to go to sleep).

*Banquo is the only person I fear (and I have good reason to do so—he is not a fool, and he knows about the prophecy that tempted me to kill Duncan).

*Banquo bravely forced the witches to prophesy about his future. (I was passive).

*Banquo’s future will be far better than mine: his sons and their sons will be kings. (but not mine). If the prophecy is true, I have filled my imagination with filth, ruined my peace of mind, damned my eternal soul forever—for the sake of Banquo’s heirs, not for my own sons.

Exercise B: What do we learn about Macbeth’s state of mind from his diction and repetitions in the soliloquy?

 

Suggested response to Exercise B (from the Teacher’s Edition):

Macbeth’s diction shows his fear of Banquo, and his frustration that even killing Banquo will not change the prophecy. He does not feel secure on his throne: “To be thus is nothing / But to be safely thus.” He names his feelings repeatedly: “fears,” “feared,” and “fear.” He utters a repetitive list of Banquo’s fine qualities: “royalty,” “reigns,” “dares,” “dauntless,” “wisdom,” “valour.” He feels “rebuked” by Banquo’s nobility of character. When he recalls the prophecy, his diction reveals his frustration in obsessive repetition: “fruitless crown,” “barren scepter,” “grip wrenched,” “unlineal hand.” This continues with: “for Banquo’s issue,” “for them,” “only for them,” “to make them kings,” “the seeds of Banquo kings.” His listing of all the consequences of his murder of Duncan underscores his outrage that Banquo will enjoy all the benefits.

Conclusion:

This small sampling of the way that one literary device is called out in the Peoples Education Shakespeare Skillbook Series may, I hope, tempt you to have a look at one of these first four little books.