Heart Of Darkness Foils Character Analysis

Character development is the heart and soul of a story. When one reads a book, they want to connect with the characters.This literary technique allows one to see who they are, why they are the way they are, how they think, etc. Authors often use character foils to develop characters and to move the plot along. They also utilize character foils to make the protagonist look better and to show off the characteristics of the protagonist, usually with another character that is the complete opposite or someone who has many different traits than the main character. In the novels, The Sun Also Rises and Heart of Darkness, the authors Ernest Hemingway and Joseph Conrad respectively both use foils to develop their protagonists.

In the Sun Also Rises,

we follow the thoughts and life of the first person narrator and protagonist, Jake Barnes. The reader can notice how he tries to normalize his life despite his condition and the after war effects that still burden him from time to time. He does this by hanging out with friends, various foods and by heavily drinking alcohol; alcohol is often a pastime for him and his friends to escape their trouble they face. One of Jake’s friends include Robert Cohn.. Easily influenced by the opinion and thought of others and books, Cohn changes his entire lifestyle to suit the ones that seem ideal in the books he reads. Robert is the first character the reader is introduced to in the Sun Also Rises, yet he is far from the story’s hero. He is the opposite the idealistic hero Hemingway likes to portray, a character who is strong, opinionated, knowledgeable and brave and other words a character like Jake, expect for the fact that the latter is impotent due to the fact that he still has hope for the relationship him and Brett. Despite being friends, Robert and Jake are almost complete opposites, presenting the use of foils in The Sun Also Rises. Robert wants to travel and leave Paris, whereas Jake content is content staying where he is. Robert is the only one of Jake’s friends that has not fought in the war so, he is not experiencing post traumatic stress disorder as can be inferred Jake might have.

Jake and Robert’s relationship to each other is one that is complex and seemingly one sided.

Jake refers to Robert as his friend and in multiple sections of the book, is spotted hanging out with him. However, there is a certain antagonism that Jake shows towards Robert. Underlying his feelings and jealousy, Jake acts like there is nothing wrong. In spite of that, his true feelings surface when he finds out about Robert’s affair with Brett. He starts to do things to annoy Robert like not hand over the telegram from Brett that stated Brett’s and Mike’s delay to Pamplona. Robert on the other hand still considers Jake his friend with no strong feelings of dislike. We see this opposite duo face challenges of their friendship. The purpose of the foil of Robert and Jake “Robert Cohn is the character that sparks the whole plot of the book. It’s his affair with Brett and its fallout that sets off the whole chain of jealous explosions that pepper the novel and fuel its action. While he’s not the hero, or even a particularly sympathetic character, he is central to the novel’s plot” (shmoop). In addition, Jake states "I have never seen a man in civil life as nervous as Robert Cohn--nor as eager. I was enjoying it. It was lousy to enjoy it, but I felt lousy. Cohn had a wonderful quality of bringing out the worst in anybody." (Chapter 10, pg. 98). This statement holds true since not only Jake but Bill, a friend of Jake, brought out their darker side, such as both making Anti-semitic

comments toward Robert. These events shows the purpose of the foil of Robert and Jake.

In the Heart of Darkness, the narrator and main character Marlow is a thirty two year old sailor who got an opportunity to go to the Congo, a place he dreamt of going ever since he was young.

On his journey, he comes to learn about Kurtz, the current manager of the ivory company that Marlow is going to work for. As he learns more about Kurtz and the other workers characteristics, he becomes disgusted of who they are. He disagrees with their viewpoints and even pause multiple times in his narration to collect himself. Even with his distaste of the workers, everything seems to shift for Marlow. He starts to ponder like the workers and even go against his viewpoints he had earlier in the book. “By the end of the novel, Marlow is almost unable to reintegrate himself into European society, having become convinced of the lies and "surface-truths" that sustain it. He tells his story to the men aboard the Nellie to share with them what he has learned about the darkness of the human heart — and the things of which that darkness is capable.” (cliff notes) . The foil in this novel is between Marlow and Kurtz,once almost complete opposites, their relationship turns complex where the reader can not seem to distinguish one from the

other.

The foil is the Sun Also Rises and Heart of Darkness is similar because in both novels it helps move the plot along. It differs since In the Sun Also Rises, Jake and Marlow remain opposites whereas in the Heart of Darkness Marlow and Kurtz go from opposites to almost the same person. If it was not for Marlow leaving the jungle, who knows what would've become of Marlow. Foils are very important to developing a novel and characters.