Great Expectations has many characters that are foils of each other. These are characters whose characteristics diverge greatly. Foils in Great Expectations include Biddy and Estella; Joe and Mrs. Joe; and Pip and Estella. A character foil in Great Expectations would be Biddy and Estella. Biddy is sweet and has a warm heart. Pip notes, "She was pleasant and wholesome and sweet-tempered" "(Dickens 117). Pip thinks she has a lovely personality and she is pretty, but compared to Estella she is common. Biddy is sweet and kind unlike Estella. Pip has many thoughts about Estella and shares them when he asked by Ms. Havisham what he thinks of her, "I think she is very pretty I think she is insulting" "(55, 56). Estella is beautiful and Pip agrees but she is cold on the inside and is unable able to love. Biddy's and Estella's aspects on life are completely different, Biddy is a common sweet girl and Estella is a spoiled brat who was raised to break mens' hearts. They are both strong women but their positions in society make them quite different. To conclude, their contrasting personalities bring out each other's differences.
Another foil would be Joe Gargery and Mrs. Joe Gargery. Pip thinks very well of Joe and says so when he gave a little introduction for Joe, "He was a mild, good-natured, sweet-tempered, easy-going, foolish, dear fellow,--a sort of Hercules in strength, and also in weakness"" (6). Clearly, Joe is a very nice man to Pip, because Pip did not say one thing that would make a negative impression on him. He is kind of a childhood hero to the kid. On the other hand, we have Mrs. Joe. Mrs. Joe is Pip's older sister and guardian. Pip does not think of his sister in a nice manor. She is somewhat aggressive towards him and sometimes loses her cool which is implied by Pip's comment: " knowing her to have a hard and heavy hand, and to be much in the habit of laying it upon her husband as well as upon me.
