Foil

Character Role Analysis

Pierre and Andrei

Pierre and Andrei are set up as a compare-and-contrast pair from the get-go, when we meet them at a party and see how cool, collected, cerebral, depressive, and non-physical Andrei is and how awkward, body-conscious, desire-filled, doubting, and naïve Pierre is. Throughout the book, their friendship puts their ideas about life into conflict, as Andrei withdraws from the world more and more and Pierre comes to embrace it.