Romeo And Juliet Foil Essay

There are many characters in Romeo and Juliet that are interesting in personality and actions, but Romeo and Mercutio have a special bond to each other. They are foils in the play, meaning their two personalities and actions offset each other. When Romeo is sad and heartbroken, Mercutio is there to joke and tease Romeo about his terrible love life. When Romeo is complaining about how love is, “Too rough, too rude, too boist’rous,” (Act 1, IV) Mercutio replies with a joking statement of, “If love be rough with you, be rough with love; Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down.” (Act 1, IV)This small retort shows that the characters are nearly opposites, but could not be foils if they were not alike in many ways. This shows that even though Romeo is extremely depressed and grief-stricken, Mercutio still tries to lighten the mood and bring up Romeos spirits. Romeo is a

Romeo is often dragging and sad, then Mercutio comes along. He starts to joke with Romeo and lifts the mood of the play. Mercutio also helps to explain things to Romeo in his own odd, twisted way. He explains love to Romeo and makes sure that he knows he can overcome what has happened to him and that he will find someone new. And for all of the insanity caused by Mercutio, Romeo brings him back into reality. This is one way they are different; they both highlight each others flaws. Romeo shows that Mercutio is a very level headed person, but gets over the top sometimes. Then Mercutio highlights the fact that Romeo is impatient with life and keeps his head in the clouds. Mercutio’s level head is what keeps Romeo alive until he dies and Romeo takes his life out of impatience and not knowing. Even though they are very different they often talk with the same tone and come to many similar conclusions. This is what truly binds them as foils. Without their similarities they would be to different to truly highlight each