The House of the Seven Gables

by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The House of the Seven Gables: Foil 1 key example

Chapter 5: May and November
Explanation and Analysis—Hepzibah and Phoebe:

Hepzibah and Phoebe are foils. One place where the narrator throws them into relief as such is in Chapter 5, when Hepzibah tells Phoebe that her heart is, metaphorically, a brittle teacup:

"[...]They were almost the first teacups ever seen in the colony; and if one of them were to be broken, my heart would break with it. But it is nonsense to speak so about a brittle teacup, when I remember what my heart has gone through without breaking.”

The cups—not having been used, perhaps, since Hepzibah’s youth—had contracted no small burden of dust, which Phoebe washed away with so much care and delicacy as to satisfy even the proprietor of this invaluable china.