Foil

Character Role Analysis

Henry and Mary Crawford to Edmund Bertram and Fanny Price

The Crawfords are important in Mansfield Park as foils to Edmund and to Fanny. The Crawfords are really charming, often more than their counterparts Edmund and Fanny. The Crawfords roll (or ride) into town with their London ideas and big city attitudes and cause a huge amount of problems for everyone at Mansfield. It's like Footloose or something. But for all the trouble they cause, the Crawfords are still smart, sociable, fun, entertaining, though somewhat amoral. Edmund and Fanny are moral and conservative by comparison. But neither duo is all good or all bad. These four all have a very complex foil relationship and they all help to reveal their counterparts in good as well as bad lights.