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Foil
Explanation and Analysis—Isabel and Henrietta:
As the other American-bred woman in the novel (with a very different approach to her time in Europe), Henrietta acts as a foil to Isabel. While Isabel is invested in her liberty—an American New World value—over the course of the novel she slowly assimilates into European Old World ways. This comes across in her decision to marry Osmond, as her decision to marry strips her of her liberty, and her decision to marry him in particular means she is assimilating into his very Old World life. Osmond prioritizes art and status above morals or close relationships, and Isabel finds herself adapting to this life, losing her own identity in the process.
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Foil
Explanation and Analysis—Osmond and Goodwood:
As Isabel’s two love interests at the end of the novel—whom she must choose between—Osmond and Goodwood act as foils to each other. Osmond represents the worst of the European Old World, prioritizing wealth and “sophistication” (via his art collecting) over all else. Goodwood, meanwhile, represents the American New World—he is a businessman with a modern outlook who says and does what he wants (rather than acting in a well-mannered fashion).
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Chapter 19
Explanation and Analysis—Isabel and Madame Merle:
As Osmond’s other love interest in the novel, Madame Merle acts as a foil to Isabel. Madame Merle represents the worst of European Old World values—she appears to be the epitome of sophistication, yet, beneath that façade, she is scheming and manipulative, especially when it comes to her relationship with Isabel.
Before Isabel learns of Madame Merle’s true manipulative character, she senses that there is something too “perfect” about her, as seen in the following passage:
Unlock with LitCharts A+If for Isabel [Madame Merle] had a fault it was that she was not natural; by which the girl meant, not that she was either affected or pretentious, since from these vulgar vices no woman could have been more exempt, but that her nature had been too much overlaid by custom and her angles too much rubbed away. She had become too flexible, too useful, was too ripe and too final. She was in a word too perfectly the social animal that man and woman are supposed to have been intended to be.
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