Foil

Character Role Analysis

Antiochus's Daughter and Thaisa

This one's easy. At various points in the play, Pericles makes a play for both of these women. Antiochus's daughter is having an incestuous affair with her own dad, so she's a lousy candidate for marriage. Thaisa is a virgin and has a healthy relationship with her father, so guess which one Pericles chooses to marry?

King Antiochus and King Simonides

If you read what we just said about Antiochus's daughter and Thaisa (Simonides's daughter), then you can probably guess what we're about to say. Antiochus is a lousy dad (hello, he's sleeping with his kid), and he's also a tyrant who likes to mount the heads of his daughter's suitors on his wall. King Simonides is a good dad: he hosts a jousting contest to help his daughter choose a husband, and his subjects love him for being a good, peaceable ruler.

The Fishermen and the Bawds

The fishermen and the people who run the brothel are all lower-class characters who speak in plain prose to signal their class status. That's where the similarities end. The fishermen are kind and generous. They help shipwrecked Pericles make his way to King Simonides's court, they give him clothes, and they make sure he's got something to eat.

The scumbags who run the brothel, on the other hand, are not so generous. They make their living buying and selling young girls, so instead of helping people like the fishermen do, they exploit other human beings for profit. The same can be said for the pirates who kidnap Marina and sell her to Bawd and Pander.