Foils In Romeo And Juliet

The definition of foils, or cross purposes, is when a certain character uses words or actions to show traits about themselves. This is term takes any type of literature to a new depth, meaning that you can one character act a certain way, but when he’s put in a situation, we’ll see the gruesome change that we don’t want. This also enriches the flavor of the texts, because you create breaking points for the characters and how they react to certain situations. One person who excelled in this usage of foils was none other than William Shakespeare; and one of Shakespeare’s best uses of this type of writing was the Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. He constantly had the characters interacting with each, which not only showed us, the audience, what the characters were like, but it also forces the characters to adapt to their current situation adjust how …show more content…
This foil mainly focuses on Romeo and Tybalt. These two are from opposite families, but Romeo is quite passive, whereas Tybalt is very aggressive and was roaming for Romeo to begin with. The previous night at the party, Romeo came wearing a mask to find his previous love, Rosaline; but in the process of looking, Tybalt recognizes him and on his way down to challenge him, his uncle stops him. So the next day, when he finds Romeo with Mercutio, he starts to taunt and insult Romeo. Romeo, just marrying Juliet and becoming part Capulet, doesn’t want to create more bad blood. Mercutio can’t comprehend that he’s allowing Tybalt to insult him and he breaks and challenges Tybalt. Tybalt then draws his sword, but if we remember, Romeo is now related to Tybalt, so he interferes with the duel and holds Mercutio back, allowing Tybalt to land a killing blow. This is a foil, because it shows the Romeo is also a peace maker and tried to stop the fight. “Hold, Tybalt! Good Mercutio!” Romeo made this remark as he tried to stop the