Foils In Shakespeare's The Tragedy Of Romeo And Juliet

Some say that opposites attract; in some cases they do and in some they do not. A foil is a character who is opposite of another character in order to highlight certain characteristics in both characters. An example of foils in a play that Shakespeare wrote, Romeo and Juliet, including rambunctious Tybalt and the tranquil Benvolio. Another example is the obnoxious funny Mercutio and the lovey dovey Romeo. Romeo and Juliet was a Shakespearean play written 1595 by William Shakespeare. This story of two star crossed lovers takes place in Italy featuring two rival families who cannot stand each other. These two characters are total opposite of each other and bring out the worst and best of each other.

In William Shakespeare’s timeless play Romeo and Juliet, two star crossed lovers are faced with great adversity as they hide their romance from their feuding families. As author James Lane Allen once said, “Adversity does not build character, it reveals it”. Romeo, a Montague, struggles to hide his love for the Capulet daughter, Juliet, from his family and friends. The challenge of lying to his closest companions, and going against his family’s ways to secretly marry Juliet causes Romeo to act erratically and carelessly. Throughout Act 3 Scene One, Shakespeare exposes the lovestruck Romeo’s mercurial nature and impulsivity through his thoughtless actions.

The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, the children of two rival houses fall in love but were destined to die tragically from the beginning they met. The events causing the death of the star crossed lovers could be traced to Romeo’s best friend Mercutio. Mercutio is the one and only best friend to Romeo. He is very hot tempered, comical, and seems to view life in an unserious manner.

The story of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare revolves around Romeo and his troubling love life. Romeo overcomes many obstacles and broken hearts on his journey to find the love of his life with his best friend Mercutio by his side. A young Juliet walks into Romeo’s life leaving him speechless and amazed, but their parent’s rivalry will end up being the reason why Romeo and Juliet kill themselves, so they won't have to live a life without each other. Although Romeo and Mercutio are best friends, they are both very different in the way they live their life. Although they both are very friendly and caring people, Mercutio and Romeo differ in their feelings about love and how serious they take life.

Character Defense: Romeo We perceive that Romeo is innocent due to his apparent love for Tybalt and his clear disesteem to the brawl unfolding. He wanted to advent the violence thrust upon him by his love (Tybalt). He cared too much to fight him but when a good life-long friend, Mercutio, is murdered in front of his very eyes he is shaken to the core. He did this while not in the correct state of mind, cleary in a haze of sorrow and guilt not yet fully comprehending the effects of his actions. His gentle altercation with Tybalt defines his love for his friends and family.

Literary devices help in such a way that need them to survive; they help by showing what are the meanings of sentences and how they work. They usually make the sentence that make more powerful and more vibrant to the reader and show that sentences can be more stunning in a way. In Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, are many different foils in the play. The two families, the Capulets and the Montagues, they differ from just how do not like each other, and on how they battle most of the time. These fights usually happen from one person getting mad at a person from a different family, some might fight from one liking a person and the person might have person that wants to be with them but they are not letting that happen. Some might also get in fights from how they dislike each other and how the Prince has to break up the fights in which they might want to keep fighting. Shakespeare uses a foil to deepen understanding of the play by showing how people are differing from one another.

So, Mercutio once again instituted the chain of events consummating in Romeo and Juliet’s deaths. Romeo’s first encounter with Juliet and Romeo’s banishment all arose because of Mercutio, who is most at fault for Romeo and Juliet’s death. Without Mercutio’s interference, Romeo’s unrequited love for would have continued since he would have never met Juliet. Consequently, a chain of events would not have developed leading to Romeo and Juliet’s death. Flowers as this play is can be quite beautiful, however if you dig a little deeper you can find that the roots are destructive.

In doing this, Mercutio is killed by Tybalt all because Mercutio tried to honor Romeo. In this quote Tybalt shames Romeo for not accepting his challenge for a duel. “Romeo, the love I bear thee can afford No better term than this:

Mercutios relationship with Romeo is a foil because their beliefs are extremely controversial with each other's. Fates, dreams and love are few of the thoughts where they disagree, and there opinions on each matter were shown a myriad throughout the play , this is shown to be true when Romeo states, "In bed asleep, while they do dreams come true" (1.4, lns 52). This quote supports my answer because Romeo is stating that your dream are prophecies where Mercutio, "...nothing but fantasy" (1.4, lns 98) believes that they mean nothing and are just childish thought. Another quote from the text that supports my answer is between Romeo and Mercutio, "And, to sink in it, should you burden love- too great oppression for a tender thing" (1.4, lns 23-24)

Romeo is to blame for Mercutio’s death in Act III of Romeo and Juliet. First of all, Romeo did not fight back when Tybalt insulted him. Tybalt calls Romeo a villain and other various names, but Romeo responds by saying (paraphrase), “I love you more than you believe for we are family, even if you are oblivious to this fact. I love the name Capulet as much as I love my own name”(3.1.72-75). When Romeo says this, Tybalt becomes confused and enraged.

In the text it states “Staying for thine to keep him company; Either thou or I, or both, must go with him.” In these lines, Romeo is saying that Mercutio is above their heads waiting for either Tybalt, Romeo, or both of them to be there with him. I do not think that Romeo thought this out thoroughly. Romeo had just married the cousin of Tybalt which is a Capulet about an hour before this scene takes place, Romeo should have thought about his wife than of revenge. In this scene, Romeo goes to find Tybalt so they can fight about Mercutio’s death.

Romeo and Juliet have fate against each other. Its said hat their love is “death marked.” Romeo and Juliet can’t control what going to happen as they go alone with this. For starters they’re in different groups, so they don’t know how their groups is going to react. It is their misfortune that leads to a terrible at the end.

William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a perfect example of how poor choices don’t only affect one’s own futures but also those of their communities. Romeo and Juliet fall in love despite their families, the Montagues and the Capulets, being enemies. The two marry in secret and plan to live a happy life together before a deadly fight breaks out between the Montagues and the Capulets and the lovers are separated. The heartbreaking story consists of risky decisions and bad timing. Romeo’s own impulsive nature, demonstrated when he kills Juliet’s kinsman, breaks Verona’s law of banishment, and suicidal act, all contribute to the tragic end of Romeo and Juliet.

Tybalt challenges Romeo to a duel and he declines the challenge and insists that he won’t fight Tybalt. Mercutio is angered by Romeo’s “cowardice” and takes on Tybalt himself. Romeo wants Mercutio to stop fighting Tybalt so he decides that it’d be a good idea to block his arm in mid combat and Tybalt stabs Mercutio from under Romeo’s arm and Mercutio falls dead after rambling about plagues and a pun or two. Romeo doesn’t realize that it is his own fault that Mercutio died after Mercutio even blamed his wound on him. Romeo lets his emotions decide his actions and becomes enraged and ignores that Tybalt is now his family and fails to see that he was the reason Mercutio was killed.

Once Tybalt punctures Mercutio with his sword right under Romeo’s arm Mercutio expires and is no longer alive. Romeo is soon angered by the death of Mercutio because he does not want Mercutio to die alone, so he speaks this “Now, Tybalt takes the “villain” back again that late thou gavest me, for Mercutio’s soul but is a little way above our heads, staying for thine to keep him company. Either thou or I, or both, must go with him” (act 3, scene 1, lines 87-91). Romeo is saying the Tybalt should not be alive because he is the one the stabbed Mercutio during the fight so he should get it done back to him because you can’t do anything to others that you don’t want done to you. Romeo thinks Mercutio should not go to heaven, that Romeo should fight until one or the other is dead because it is not fair that he has to go by himself.