Captain Jack Absolute and Mr. Faulkland are foils for one another. Throughout the play, both men deceive the women they love, but with very different aims in mind. Where Absolute is deceptive in order to get Lydia to love him, Faulkland deceives Julia to test her love for him. Faulkland’s lovesick worrying is contrasted to Absolute’s cool and clever scheming so that Sheridan can explore the ins and outs of romantic courtship practices of high society and comment upon the standards of supposed gentlemanly behavior.
Sheridan’s foiling of the two characters is particularly apparent in the pair’s parallel plot lines related to duels, in which Faulkland is inspired by Absolute’s real duel with Sir Lucius to tell Julia the lie that he has participated in one as well. Julia responds with steadfast love, loyalty, and devotion, claiming that her “heart has long known no other guardian” but Faulkland and determining to elope with him at once. Her feelings thus ensured, Faulkland reveals his falsehood:
Faulkland: Julia, I have proved you to the quick! and with this useless device I throw away all my doubts. How shall I plead to be forgiven this last unworthy effect of my restless, unsatisfied disposition?
Julia: Has no such disaster happened as you related?
Faulkland: I am ashamed to own that it was all pretended; yet, in pity, Julia, do not kill me with resenting a fault which never can be repeated.
However, this ploy backfires on Faulkland when Julia, hurt, ends their engagement:
Hold, Faulkland! That you are free from a crime, which I before feared to name, heaven knows how sincerely I rejoice! These are tears of thankfulness for that! But that your cruel doubts should have urged you to an imposition that has wrung my heart, gives me now a pang, more keen than I can express!
Thus, over the course of a single scene, Faulkland enters into an act of deception (the lie), that deception is then revealed (by himself), and his punishment is delivered (via the loss of his fiancé)—all in rapid succession. Faulkland’s selfish and cruel motivations for this act of deception, and the swift penalty that results from his actions, are therefore contrasted with Absolute’s own, longer deceptions, which result in similar (if ultimately temporary) consequences. By foiling his characters in this way, Sheridan demonstrates the importance of trust in building strong and healthy romantic partnerships.
