A foil character is a character that portrays opposite characteristics of another character to highlight the other’s traits. The characters Don Pedro and Don John in the play Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare is a great example of such. Much Ado About Nothing is a play about deceit, conflict, and love. The main conflict in this play is when Claudio and Don Pedro are fooled into believing that Hero has cheated on Claudio right before their marriage. This causes Claudio to shame Hero publicly and ruin her image. The meaning of the play is that good will always prevail. This meaning is illuminated by Don Pedro’s foil character Don John by their opposite traits of honesty and dishonesty. To illustrate, Don Pedro is quite honest. We
