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…
Mercutio is invited to go to the Capulet’s party and feels this will be a great place for Romeo to meet another love.
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…
killing. In act 1 scene 4, the foil is first introduced when Mercutio and Romeo try to make a decision whether or not they are going into the party.
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
the feud between the Capulets and the Montagues. While Romeo realizes the need for revenge he is sad his friend died because of his family’s rivalry. One major difference between Mercutio and Romeo is their attitudes toward life; Romeo is depressed and pessimistic, while Mercutio is up-beat and positive. Mercutio’s optimism falters with Romeo’s new found love and is quick to advise him that getting married will cause more problems between their families.(Padgett Mercutio) Mercutio foreshadows the fate and tragic end to the story while he is dying he says “ A plague o’ both your houses!” (A3si) he states this to Romeo, Tybalt, the Montagues and the Capulets. This statement informs them their family feud will not end until “a plague” has destroyed each house. Knowing the end of the story, readers know that he is referring to the death of the child from each house. In conclusion, while there are obvious differences between the characters of Romeo and Mercutio it is a similarity of a close friendship that is stable. This bond of friendship is important to their foil because Mercutio knows how to tell what is happening to Romeo throughout the story. Their friendship is tested when Tybalt fights with Mercutio and because Romeo tries to stop the fight, Tybalt kills Mercutio. Mercutio thinks it is Romeo’s fault for his being stabbed. Romeo didn’t mean to get Mercutio slayed but, his theory is either Tybalt will have to die with Mercutio or he will. (A3si) The foil helps to show the changes in Romeo’s character in the story.
Thought the play, these lovers go through many obstacles that range from arranging a wedding and finding a time to meet to Juliet trying to get out of marrying Paris. The entire time fate is tossing them around. Romeo realizes this after he kills Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin, in a brawl. At first, Romeo does not want to fight because Romeo and Juliet are already married at this time and he knows that they are cousins. Tybalt asks for a brawl from Romeo but Mercutio fights instead. Mercutio gets killed by Tybalt and that is what makes Romeo mad and fight Tybalt.
In “The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare, two very young people fall in love but cannot be with each other because of the feud in between their families. The feud ends when Romeo and Juliet both kill themselves because of heartbreak over the other. The minor characters Mercutio, Tybalt, and Friar Lawrence serve as foils to Romeo, to help support the theme of patience.
Mercutio can be blamed for Romeo and Juliet’s peril because he initiated the fight with Tybalt and forced Romeo to go to the Capulet’s party. At the beginning of the play, Romeo gets invited to the Capulet’s party by a servant, unless he was a Montague. At first, Romeo did not want to go, but Mercutio eventually convinced him under the pretext that Rosaline, Romeo’s love, was going to be there. The next day, Tybalt, a Capulet, went looking for Romeo because he knew that Romeo was at the Capulet party. Instead, he stumbled upon Mercutio and Benvolio and asked them where he could find Romeo. However, Mercutio did not want to tell him and insisted on having a duel. Tybalt killed Mercutio during the fight, and Romeo kills Tybalt because he has the need to avenge his friend. Unfortunately, Prince Escalus punished Romeo by banishing him from Verona. This made Romeo and Juliet’s love
(CLOSING STATEMENTS) With his audacious nature, Romeo kills Tybalt in a challenge and later kills himself, which causes significant problems in the plot. Unfortunately, as a result of Romeo’s actions, Juliet stabs herself with his dagger because she no longer wants to live in a world without him. Along with Romeo, Mercutio is another character who makes poor decisions based on his overdramatic personality and tendency to disagree with Benvolio's way of thinking. These two choices cause characters around Mercutio to not take him seriously, and for this reason, he later dies in the play. Although Mercutio’s actions impact the storyline, Friar Laurence’s choices primarily cause the play to become such a tragedy. For instance, his poor decisions to marry Romeo and Juliet and flee Juliet’s tomb eventually cause the couple’s love for one another to become inseparable, and they take their lives at the end of the plot. (CLINCHER) As the readers delve deeper into Romeo and Juliet and unravel what went wrong, they will begin to realize that the decisions made by the characters created catastrophic
If you have the Harry Potter series, or almost any other story you have been introduced to this literary device that instantly makes your story attention-grabbing, and page-turning. This writing tool is known as a character foil. A character foil is a character that displays contrary, or opposite character traits. An example of a character foil is Draco Malfoy, and Harry Potter. Their rival relationship and other conflicts are the perfect example to showcase foils at work. To continue, in the iconic “Romeo and Juliet” written by William Shakespeare, there are two known character foils in the first Act: Benvolio and Tybalt, and the Nurse and Lady Capulet.
The most famous foil character in ''Romeo and Juliet'' is Mercutio. He is known for his sharp wit and quick, often ribald, humor and is considered a foil to Romeo. He lacks Romeo's effusive romance, his adoration and almost courtly approach to the idea of love. He often urges Romeo to just find a woman to sleep with and stop worrying about the ephemeral, yet all consuming, love Romeo is desperate to achieve. Mercutio warns Romeo to be skeptical of love and not to rush ahead, but Romeo is all rush, no
A foil is a character who serves as a contrast to another character. Writers often use foils to emphasize differences and traits of characters. Such an author would be William Shakespeare, author to many plays, including “The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet”. William Shakespeare uses foiling to emphasize one of the main character’s traits and differences. This “ foiling” relationship is between the main character Romeo and Paris.
Romeo and Juliet, the tale abhorred by all high school students. The archaic language, the sappy love story – it’s no wonder that a chorus of groans occur whenever the name Shakespeare is uttered. The main characters in Romeo in Juliet are unsurprisingly Romeo and Juliet – the star-crossed lovers. Romeo and Juliet are lovers whose families are engaged in a feud for many tears. Despite this, their love flourishes. However, the pay still concludes in a tragedy, because of the character’s flaws. In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo’s desperation and impulsiveness, Juliet’s maturity and rebellion, and Tybalt’s cockiness and aggression.
He was angry with the order from old Capulet to prevent him acting against his enemy, so sent a letter to challenge Romeo to a duel. Romeo hasn’t yet read this letter; for he was secretly marrying Juliet, the daughter of Capulet and the cousin of Tybalt. To demonstrate how this scene is exciting and dramatic, I will look at the three main characters, Mercutio, Tybalt and Romeo. One of the first characters the audience sees is Mercutio, Romeo’s best friend.
Mercutio’s role in Romeo and Juliet cause an ill-fated chain of events and their effects, which lead to the early decease of Romeo and Juliet. Mercutio is foxlike; a cunning, taunting, manipulative man; his own actions lead to this own demise. He taunted Tybalt, leading to their fight which led to Mercutio’s own
Mercutio is the comic character in the play and when he dies, the humour is replaced by seriousness. He is a relative of The Prince who is serious and formal whereas Mercutio is informal . Because he is neither a Montague nor a Capulet he can chose not to be involved in there feud yet the death of Mercutio increases the tension between the two families. He is a close friend of Romeo and Benvolio although he is very different to both. Mercutio likes to ho...
At the time Mercutio makes his famous "Queen Mab" speech in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, he and Romeo, together with a group of their friends and kinsmen, are on the way to a party given by their family's arch-enemy, Lord Capulet. Their plan is to crash the party so that Romeo may have the opportunity to see his current love, Rosaline, whom they know has been invited to the Capulet's masque that evening.
Mercutio, though a minor character, had and enormous impact on the outcome of the play. Before the Capulet Ball, Romeo had been debating whether to go or not. Mercutio persuaded him to go by giving a big speech to him about a dream he had. This makes him partially responsible because the Ball is where Romeo first met Juliet. Mercutio also caused Romeo to be banished from Verona. Mercutio got in a fight with Tybalt and ended up dead. His death enraged Romeo enough to make him kill Tybalt in revenge. When the Prince saw what happened, he sent Romeo into exile. Romeo's banishment to Mantua made it near impossible for Romeo and Juliet to see each other. Mercutio was to blame, though only partially for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet.
“We met, we woo'd and made exchange of vow, I'll tell thee as we pass; but this I pray, That thou consent to marry us to-day.” (Shakespeare II.III. 60). Romeo’s impulsiveness is clearly shown through this quote that he states. The reason for Romeo’s impulsiveness is because he just recently met Juliet and he decides to marry her very quickly. Also this quote reveals to the audience Romeo’s hamartia. Since he is too quick and rash it will inevitably lead him to his fatal death; and through this quote you could see where Romeo went wrong and how it will greatly affect him. Furthermore Romeo leads the audience to believe that he is just infatuated by Juliet’s looks; due to the fact he was strongly in love with Rosaline and then all of sudden falls in love with Juliet and forgets about Rosaline which he claimed to be his one and only love. “Young men’s love then lies Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.”(II.III.65). This quote that Friar Lawrence states planted into the readers mind that Romeo might not be truly in love but rather infatuated. This tragic play takes place in fair Verona where a quarrel between two families takes place due to an ancient grudge. Both families, Montague and Capulet hate each other with a great passion. Two lovers named Romeo and Juliet are both from the two opposing families and they love and marry each other in secret without their families knowing. Because of their impulsiveness and rash decisions it causes them to lead themselves to die a tragic death. Foil characters aid to heighten or highlight an attribute in another character which furthers the plot. Romeo is heightened and influenced by secondary characters that eventually brings out his hamartia, peripeteia, and anagnorisis. These chara...
Romeo and Juliet is a romantic love story about a young lad named Romeo who has fallen in love with Lady Juliet, but is unable to marry her because of a long-lasting family feud. The play ends in the death of both these characters and the reunion of the friendship between the families. Romeo is in love with Juliet, and this is a true, passionate love (unlike the love Paris has for her or the love Romeo had for Rosaline) that nothing can overcome, not even the hatred between their two families that is the reason for the death of their two children. Throughout the play, Shakespeare thoroughly explores the themes of both true love and false love and hatred. Without either of these themes, the play would loose its romantic touch and probably would not be as famous as it is today.