human frailty is a constant theme in giselle—giselle goes mad and her weak heart gives out and kills her; the wilis’ punishment for albrecht and hilarion is to force them to dance until they die of exhaustion.
moral frailty seems to go hand in hand with human fragility—albrecht misuses giselle knowing he cannot offer her anything, hilarion selfishly exposes him without caring for the impact it will have on giselle and is thus also responsible for her death, giselle herself is meant to be a virtuous character but she disobeys her mother both in dancing despite her weak heart and in pursuing loys.
in act i, giselle is fighting against everything that is destined for her. she rebels against her human fragility by dancing despite her weak heart. she rebels against her place in the village by pursuing loys instead of hilarion. you get the sense that she wants something more than what she has—this weak body, this village where she is harvest queen but expected to marry a man she has always known and never loved. she wants the joy of dance despite her weak heart. she wants the joy of true love despite her status as a peasant girl. when she realizes that she will never have the latter, she loses the former as well when her body is so overcome by betrayal that she dies.
in act ii, giselle is once again fighting against everything that is destined for her. she is meant to be a dead shade of a girl which punishes, which looks on as the men responsible for her death meet their own ends, and then she is meant to wander the earth with the other wilis for the rest of time doing the same to others—never placated, never resting, never at peace. but again giselle turns her back on this existence just as joyless and colorless as the one which was waiting for her in the village, and again she chooses to fight for love against human frailty and moral failing: now she is fighting against albrecht’s human frailty against myrtha’s tireless immortality, and she is fighting against the urge to revenge herself and maintain her anger and her hate, and instead she forgives albrecht.
and this time, by rejecting what she is expected to do and instead choosing love, giselle is able to truly free herself. she doesn’t have to wander the earth angry and vindictive like the wilis forever. her spirit can pass on to the next life, where neither physical frailty nor moral failings will touch her.
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