Examples Of Foil In Romeo And Juliet

"Love is poison. A sweet poison, yes, but it will kill you all the same." - George R. Martin. This quote reflects the idea that when love consumes a person's personality, it can be their downfall. Although love can sometimes improve a person's life, it can also lead to their destruction. Whether it's love for family, company (loyalty), or for someone, too much love can have negative consequences. In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare uses the foil pairing of Tybalt and Benvolio to develop this theme of love's effect on a person's mind.
In Romeo and Juliet, Tybalt is a complex villain who is aggressive, evil, and over-loyal. He serves as a foil to Benvolio in many ways, mainly in terms of action and personality. In Act 1 Scene 5, the party scene,

Benvolio is shown to be a peaceful, rational, and empathetic character. He only fights when it is necessary to save himself and the people he loves. In contrast to Tybalt, Benvolio's main traits are peaceful, rational, and empathetic. He has very different ideas than other characters, especially Tybalt. The first time we see this trait is in Act 3 Scene 1, the duel scene, where he says, "Let's retire. The day is hot, the Capulets are abroad, and if we meet, we shall not scrape and brawl." This shows his rational ability to think and give himself the best chance for survival. He even finds a way to avoid conflict even when they do end up meeting.He also says in the same scene “Reason your coldly of your grievances” He says this still trying to keep it peaceful and get them not to fight in the street beacuse it will lead in the banishment of the families. He shows his most empathy in Scene 5 of Act 5, where in the 2013 movie, at the funeral of Romeo and Juliet, he is shown to put their hands together to make their wish of everlasting love come true. He was not happy with them after they died, and he had to watch multiple people he loved die, but he still made sure to put others' feelings first. Given these two examples, it shows how vastly different Benvolio and Tybalt are as characters and how Benvolio used his love to change his mind for good and stay true to