Literary Foils In Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde

In literature, a “foil” is a character that shows qualities that are in contrast with the qualities of another character, may also be used for any comparison that is drawn to portray a difference between two things. “Throughout the stories of Beowulf, The Tragedy of Macbeth, and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are Beowulf Vs. Grendel, Macbeth vs. Duncan, and Dr. Jekyll vs. Mr. Hyde the protagonist encounters literary foils.

One example of a literary foil is the story of Beowulf. Although the fights between the protagonist Beowulf and two antagonists construct the main plot of Beowulf, they merely serve as static background for the narrative. As the only human hero in the story, Beowulf the character fits into a conventional,

however the several monsterous qualities Beowulf posses outweigh his heroic features (“Yang, Chih”). Throughout the story Beowulf fights three major battles, one being against the dragon. Differences in the nature of the monsters are more salient than those in human characters (“Yang, Chih”). Beowulf fights battles to help save him and his country and he plants to society the way it was before Grendel showed up. There are many differences between Beowulf and Grendel but they are still somewhat the same. Beowulf is considered as an epic hero in British Literature. A good reputation is the key to solidifying and augmenting one’s identity, and Beowulf does a great job of displaying these characteristics (“Yang, Chih”). Even though Grendel is yet to be the bad one throughout Beowulf, Grendel was doing what is took to protect him and his mom even if that meant killing the men around him. These two are a great example of a literary foil, they are completely different but yet the same. As he sings of the great fight with Grendel or the dragon of the tressure giving of the king, and of the well known swords, of the sea ravings and the sea hunts and the brave death of men, to sailors who knew the storms to the fierce rovers who fought and died with glee, to great chiefs who led warriors, and to warriors who never left how passionate with national feeling, how full of noble pleasure (“Brooke, Stopford”). These men were furious warriors who fought for their society and did what it took to protect their people.
Another literary foils in British Literature is the story of The Tragedy of Macbeth.

The Elizabethans viewed the universe, in its ideal state, as both orderly and interconnected. They believed that a great chain linked all beginnings, from God on the lowest beasts and plants. They also believed that universal order was based on parallels between different realms (“Shakespeare, William”). These beliefs of the people in Macbeth cause conturversoury and hatred toward one another. Shakespeare takes many liberties with history, for King Duncan was not a particularly evil one. Shown from Act one, Macbeth is at the moment of decision, the interim between desire and action, debating within himself weather to go ahead with the plot he devised with his wife to murder the king, their guest. He is weighing the benefits that act would bring him against the powerful reasons for not doing it (“Shakespeare, William”). Macbeth thinks on it long and hard, but even know Macbeth is not really a bad person, the fame and fortune gets to his head and makes him do bad and crazy things. His wife, Lady Macbeth is in reality not a good person and she talks Macbeth into doing all these bad things and little does anyone knows, it is too late and he is killing his way to the throne. Throughout the story it is hard to tell between fact and legend, especially with the witches. They proclaim that he will soon be king and that corrupts his mind and soul into doing bad things to get what he wants. Macbeth

was considered a tragic hero-whose tragic flaw is a mistake or unwise decision which leads to ruin (“Shakespeare, William”). The audience felt sorrow and pity for the hero’s plight, but everything happens for a reason.
One last major literary foil in British Literature is Dr.

Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Some attention has been given to Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He claims that the brain was composed of several faculties, and that the brain and mind were connected in mysterious ways of madness. A trestle on insanity becoming a source of systematic perversion of the natural feelings, affections, inclinations, temper, habits, moral disputations, and natural impulses. Dr. Jekyll knew what he was doing when he made Mr. Hyde but he did not think about the consequences of making a duplicate of his insane side. As the story goes on, Dr. Jekyll becomes anti-social in some way for example, morbidly depressed or angry with everyone. Utterson soon knew that Dr. Jekyll was not telling him something when he read his will left up to a man name Mr. Hyde. Throughout the story Dr. Jekyll’s friends try and find out little by little who this man is and why are these crimes occurring and no names lead back to anyone. Even though Jekyll and Utterson are two totally different people, they are still somewhat the same because Jekyll is driving himself insane trying to keep Hyde alive but yet a secret to everyone. Mr. Utterson is also driving himself insane by trying to find out who Hyde is. These two men were obsessed with something made up and their obsession just grew stronger until neither of them could take it anymore. At the end of the story both Jekyll and Hyde become reckless as he locked up in the

laboratory. This soon leads Hyde to committing suicide which not only kills himself but also kills Jekyll too. They say obsessions can make you do evil and dangerous things and they were right.
Throughout all three of threes stories, Beowulf, Tragedy of Macbeth, and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde they all show literary foils in British Literature. They all show qualities of characters being compared and contrasted to one another. Throughout the all three of these stories, the literary foils are with Beowulf vs. Grendel, Macbeth vs. Duncan, and Dr. Jekyll vs. Mr. Hyde, the protagonist encounter many literary foils in these stories.