Foils In Les Miserables

Without the masterful foils, <Romeo and Juliet> would not be the archetype of love tragedy. Among all the character’s foils, foils between Romeo and Paris is not as obvious as foils between Benvolio and Mercuitio or between the nurse and Lady Capulet, but they are the linchpins of the whole play, reflect why and how does Juliet choose Romeo over Paris. Foils between Romeo and Paris are shown as their attitude toward courtship, which Paris formally asks Capulet for Juliet’s hand but Romeo’s secretive about his forbidden plan; their languages, which Paris is wooden and stilted- laced and Romeo is articulate and good at using cajolery; their responses gotten from Juliet, which Juliet loves Romeo so much but treats Paris with apathy.

Juliet’s mother, Lady Capulet, and the Nurse are foils. Foils are used to highlight the attributes of the main character. The Nurse cared for Juliet as if she were her own. She acted as Juliet’s mother and nursed her as well. The Nurse had a daughter, Susan, who passed away and would have been the same age as Juliet. Lady Capulet, Juliet’s mother was not a mother figure. She didn’t know anything about Juliet. She could not even recall her age. Lady Capulet said “I have rememb’red me; thou’s hear our counsel. Thou knowest my daughter’s of a pretty age.” (Act I Scene III) She relied on the Nurse to nurture and care for Juliet at times she should have been there.

Hamlet is a play by William Shakespeare that follows Hamlet as his father is murdered by his uncle Claudius, who marries Hamlet’s mother and claims the throne. Hamlet takes a very deliberate and pensive approach to gaining revenge. In this slow process, he accidentally murders Polonius, thinking him to be the King eavesdropping. This leads to the wrath of Laertes, who takes a very different approach to revenge. Through Laertes’ foil of Hamlet, the futility of passionate revenge is revealed.

In the play of “Romeo and Juliet” by Shakespeare, there are many characters with various different personalities and traits, but there are two characters that really oppose each other. They are Benvolio and Tybalt. Benvolio is a cousin of the main character, Romeo, and is very caring and gives very useful advice anytime he can. Tybalt is a member of the Capulet family and he is painted as the menacing antagonist of the play. These two characters are foils being that they are quite opposite. They are opposites because Benvolio is kind and a Montague, while Tybalt is aggressive and a Capulet.

William Shakespeare uses a certain technique in his playwriting in order to exaggerate and make character’s certain traits stand out to the audience - foils. A character’s foil is another character that is the complete opposite of them, which accentuates the qualities of both characters. One of these important pairs of antithetical characters in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is the Nurse, who works by caring for the Capulet household, and Lady Capulet, the wife of Lord Capulet and stern mother of one of the play’s star-crossed lovers - Juliet. The characters the Nurse and Lady Capulet are foils for each other in Romeo and Juliet.

The Foils are secondary characters that have differences or mutual things with the main characters, and they also help to give more protagonist to the principal character. Hamlet has different foils, and one of them is Laertes. Laertes is put in the play as the antagonist of the play. Laertes and Hamlet have a mutual feeling, revenge. Both of them want to take revenge for the death of their respective fathers.

In his plays, Shakespeare often uses characters to contrast other characters for the purpose of emphasizing certain qualities between these characters. These characters are called foils. In, “The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet”, Shakespeare uses the character Lady Capulet to contrast the Nurse,who is another character in the play.

William Shakespeare employed juxtapositions between the main and foil character to emphasize the meaning of the literally work, Hamlet. This relationship between Laertes and Hamlet further explains the meaning of the work as the themes of corruption, justice and revenge, and purpose are emphasized by each character’s contrasting actions. Through the differing reactionary elements, which lead to the same consequence, Hamlet and Laertes both were able to engender defiant temperaments that caused the unfortunate downfall of both factions. Hamlet and Laertes varying reflections, rise to actions, and comparable tempers establish the themes of the play.

Throughout William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare includes many examples of dramatic foils. However, one in particular causes much conflict and tension to build throughout the play. Mercutio, a firm realist, and Romeo, a naive idealist, serve as character foils to one another. Their personalities contrast greatly. Romeo and Mercutio’s over reliance on their conflicting ideas on dreams, love, and fighting, leads to the downfall of Romeo as well as the death of Mercutio.

A foil is when a character who is paired with another character to develop the other character’s traits and personality by contrast. Foil’s are most commonly used with protagonist and antagonist, but they do not have to be used this. They can be used with just opposite characters with different goals and beliefs. They use of foil makes it so the characters complete each other and create conflict. It can be used to clarify character’s personalities, and to help readers’ comprehend the role of the characters.

Hamlet's main character foil is Laertes, son of Polonius and brother of Ophelia. At the beginning of the play, we learn that Hamlets father is murdered by his uncle from the ghost of his father. The ghost tells Hamlet “The serpent that did sting thy father’s life now wears his crown” (I.2.41-42). In Act III Scene 4 Hamlet kills Laertes father Polonius in Gertrude's chambers. The death of Hamlet’s dad had a very depressing effect on him. He asks himself many questions before taking revenge for his father. Laertes, on the other hand, takes immediate action. Laertes quickly returns to France as soon as he hears about Polonius’ death. Once

1. The relationship between Gavroche and Marius compared to Pontmercy and Thénardier is ironic. Thénardier had carried Pontmercy alive from the battlefield, “while he brought back the child dead,” (Hugo 310). Marius returned Gavroche’s body back to his family, but Thénardier brought Marius’s father back alive. 2.

All you have to do to see why Paris (the guy who wears down Juliet's dad until he agrees to let him marry Juliet) is such a good foil for Romeo—and why Juliet chose Romeo over him—is to contrast what Paris and Romeo each say outside Juliet's grave:

Deathless is not a historical fiction book, if that was what you were looking for. Following the Russian Revolution, it glimpses upon the country’s adaption to the Soviet Union. But alas, communism is not what Deathless is about. Instead Catherynne M. Valente writes about the deconstruction of the heroine, Marya Morevna, in a magical Russia, where Slavic myth and real life coexist. Marya falls in love with Koschei the Deathless and Ivan Nikolayevich – contradictory foils in Slavic mythology: Koschei as the villain and Ivan as the hero – but the novel never boils to who Marya chooses, rather it is about Marya’s choice itself. Deathless is not just about love, but the power that comes from being loved.

My artifact for this paper is the book Les Misérables by Victor Hugo. This artifact is important because within the book there are stories of numerous characters that tell people how they should love their lives. Les Misérables and the key take away messages Hugo vividly describes through his character’s struggles and triumphs are all equipment for living. Specifically, Les Misérables teaches its readers about the need for equality within a society by exposing what it is like to live in an unjust society (the poor are the target of abuse and manipulation). Hugo attempts to teach the audience of the faults of having a society with an extreme hierarchy in an attempt to create better societies (hierarchy and inequalities lead to the poor being suppressed, famine, unhappy lives,