The Happy Prince
by Oscar Wilde

The Happy Prince: Foil 1 key example

Key Examples in The Happy Prince

Foil
Explanation and Analysis—Wealth vs. Poverty:

Wilde uses a foil in “The Happy Prince” to emphasize the opposing characteristics of the rich and poor. The seamstress, for example, serves as a foil for the Queen’s "maids-of-honour," for whom she is making a luxurious dress:

Her face is thin and worn, and she has coarse, red hands, all pricked by the needle, for she is a seamstress. She is embroidering passion-flowers on a satin gown for the loveliest of the Queen’s maids-of-honour to wear at the next Court-ball. In a bed in the corner of the room her little boy is lying ill. […] His mother has nothing to give him but river water, so he is crying.