Romeo And Juliet Foil Essay

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The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is about Romeo, a Montague, who falls in love with Juliet, a Capulet, and they cannot be together because their families have a long-lasting family feud. Before everyone reads Romeo and Juliet, they think that Romeo and Juliet are in love from the beginning of the story. However, Romeo is sad and heartbroken because his lady Rosaline did not want to progress their relationship. While Romeo is sad, his friend Mercutio grows in strength and happiness. As in other literary works, a foil compares and contrasts two characters. One foil in this story is the more Romeo is seen sad, the more Mercutio is seen joyful. In the beginning of the story, Mercutio tries to cheer Romeo up from being heartbroken over Rosaline. …show more content…

Romeo finds out Rosaline is invited and wants to go to the party to see her. Although Romeo is still depressed he takes this opportunity to try to see Rosaline. Mercutio is seen as a positive person that is happy and excited to go to the party. While Mercutio, Romeo, and Benvolio, Romeo’s cousin, ponder outside the party, Mercutio again tries to cheer Romeo up. Mercutio has his famous Queen Mab monologue to show Romeo he can again be happy in a new love. (A1siv) Mercutio says his Queen Mab monologue hoping to illicit a positive outlook from Romeo. During this monologue, Mercutio starts with a pep-talk, but towards the end he starts saying crazy things. The way he talks is powerful until he gets so deep into what he is saying that he starts talking about nonsense. For example, at one point he talks about lovers dreaming of love then completely shifts to soldiers …show more content…

Romeo is saying how he is very upset and should not go in to the party and he is not happy enough to dance. Mercutio’s character is seen as happier the more Romeo is upset about not getting to have a full relationship with Rosaline. It is very easy to tell Romeo is upset when he is compared with Mercutio, and it is also easy to see all of Mercutio’s positivity when Romeo is aligned with him. Mercutio is a close friend to Romeo and knows him the best. One example is he is the first to recognize that Romeo has found a new love. The foil starts to ebb when Romeo finds his new love, Juliet. The foil ends with Mercutio death and the hand of Juliet’s cousin, Tybalt. Tybalt started the fight because he is still upset that Romeo came to the Capulet party even though he came with Mercutio, the Prince’s cousin. Mercutio knew that the two families did not get along and tried to stay neutral, but because he let his feelings about Tybalt get in the way, he unfortunately paid for it with his life. With Mercutio’s death no comparisons can continue between the characters. After the killing of Mercutio Romeo’s character gains more depth with his love for Juliet and his hatred and want for revenge against Tybalt. This realization that Tybalt must pay for the murder of his friend comes in the form of a duel. The death of Tybalt in the duel escalates

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