In this play Mercutio is seen as quite a complex and humorous character. He is seen as elaborate when he is trying to cheer Romeo up in Act 1, Sc.4 and Romeo mentions a dream so Mercutio proceeds to tell a whimsical account of the Queen Mab speech. Mercutio is humorous to the audience throughout Act 3, Sc1, at the start of this scene Mercutio is teasing Benvolio and telling him that he is willing to start a fight over nothing. Mercutio exaggerates the reasons why a man might want to fight another; “thou wilt quarrel with a man that hath a hair more, or a hair less, in his beard than thou hast,” which is comical, but he also is being ironic because he is really describing what he is like and not Benvolio. Mercutio is also a very provocative character and shows this when Benvolio is telling Mercutio that the Capulets are coming, “By my head, here comes the Capulets.” Mercutio’s reply to this is “By my heel, I care not.” This shows that he wants to stay and see what happens with the Capulets. His provocations could be one of the main reasons why he ends up being killed by Tybalt, however, Mercutio believes that he has done nothing wrong and that it was the Capulet’s and the Montague’s fault; “A plague on both your houses.” Mercutio appeals to the audience through his humour but also because he is very unpredictable. An example of this is when he tells Romeo the account of the Queen Mab speech, which was not necessary. His name comes from the Latin “mercurial” which means he would be quite volatile.
Romeo is more of a serious character than Mercutio; in this short play he falls in love twice, first with Rosaline who does not feel the same way for Romeo and then to Juliet who he marries. The audience think he is fickle because he falls in and out of love so quickly, “Is Rosaline, whom thou didst love so dear, so soon forsaken?” Romeo also acts quite impetuously because he arranges to marry Juliet after knowing her for just a few hours. During Act 3, Sc. 1 Romeo plays more of a mature role in that he does not fight Tybalt for not reason; Romeo had to fight back to protect himself and his friends, and even tries to stop Mercutio from fighting him, “The Prince expressly hath forbid this bandying in Verona’s streets.” After Mercutio is killed and blamed his death on Romeo, Romeo tries to say that it was Juliet’s beauty that was to blame, “Thy beauty has made me effeminate.” After Act 3, Sc.1 Romeo becomes more irrational with his behaviour and tries to kill himself after hearing that Juliet is as grief stricken as he is. Romeo is interesting to the audience because he changes his mind a lot about who he is in love with and love is one of the main themes of the play.
Before Act 3, Sc.1 Tybalt is a loyal member of the Capulet family, “Now by the stock and honour of my kin,” and enjoys fighting with the Montagues although at the Capulet feast he was not allowed by his Uncle, “…his voice should be a Montague, fetch me my rapier.” Right from the start of the play we get the impression that Tybalt is more of a dark and evil character than the others, this is because throughout the play he never plays another role other than to fight and argue with people and this evil interests the audience because it means the scenes which Tybalt is in are more likely to have more action. During Act 3, Sc. 1 Tybalt tries to appear more dominant than Romeo by calling him “boy” and “villain” however Romeo just ignores these insults. Also during this scene he is quick-tempered and does not really think about the consequences a fight could have and so turns to Romeo and says, “Therefore, turn and draw.” The audience think that he bought his death upon himself because he killed Mercutio first, which enraged Romeo, “Either you, or I, or both, must go with him.”
Prince Escalus of Verona is an authoritative character and proves this by telling the Montagues and the Capulets that if there is any more public fighting between the families then they will be executed, “If you ever disturb our streets again, your lives shall pay the forfeit of the price.” He is also an impartial character because he does not belong to either the Capulets or the Montagues, “I will be deaf to pleading and excuses,” and his only relation in the play is Mercutio, however, he does not let this stand in the way of him making a just decision on what should happen to Romeo; “Immediately we do exile him hence.” The Prince only comes into the scene at the very end after most of the drama has already happened. Lady Capulet and Lord Montague may have been brought in at the end of this scene to show how the characters would react to such a fatal tragedy. Lady Capulet is a very emotional character and so exaggerates what she has been told by Benvolio, “Some twenty of them fought in this black strife,” to make it appear as though Tybalt was a victim. Lord Montague is less emotional than Lady Capulet in Act 3, Sc. 1.
Shakespeare uses interesting language and literary techniques in the play to captivate the audience. In the start of this scene Shakespeare uses repetition to remind the reader of the point Mercutio is trying to make to Benvolio, “thou wilt quarrel.” This is interesting to the audience because the speech Mercutio is making is humorous and is ironic because Mercutio is describing himself not Benvolio. Shakespeare uses a pattern of imagery to make this scene more interesting. “Here’s my fiddlestick, here’s that shall make you dance.” Here Shakespeare is comparing Mercutio’s sword to a violin stick and is saying that the music he plays will be the swordsmanship of Tybalt and Mercutio fighting. Shakespeare also uses puns in this scene to make it more light-hearted and more interesting to the audience through humour. “Consort? What, dost thou make us minstrels?” Mercutio is deliberately twisting Tybalt’s words to make it more humorous and to provoke Tybalt into fighting with him. Shakespeare uses repetition again to make the point that Romeo does not want to fight, “But love thee better than thou canst devise. Till thou shalt know the reason of my love.” Shakespeare uses the repetition of the word “love” to make Romeo’s speech more emotive towards Tybalt in hope that it would deter him from wanting to fight despite the fact Romeo can not tell him the real reason he cannot fight; his marriage to Juliet.
After the fight Shakespeare uses repetition to remind us of the conflict, “A plague on both your houses.” This not only reminds us of the conflict between the Capulets and the Montagues but also it reminds us that Mercutio is from neither house and is in fact a relative of the Prince. This is also showing how Mercutio is blaming the Capulets and the Montagues for his injury and not himself. Shakespeare uses another pun to indicate to the other characters in the scene how serious Mercutio’s injury is, “Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man.” It tells the characters that this injury will kill Mercutio. Shakespeare also uses a macabre metaphor to indicate the seriousness of Mercutio’s injury, “They have made worms meat of me,” which shows that Mercutio will die and therefore eaten by worms when he is buried. This is showing Mercutio’s self pity and how he believes it was not his fault. Shakespeare also uses the repetition of emotive language to continue the theme of death throughout, “…slain…slew thy kinsman,” Benvolio uses the emotive language to ensure that the Prince will believe his account of what happened. This keeps the main theme fresh in the audiences mind. Shakespeare uses exaggeration to make the fight and consequence seem more dramatic and when Lady Capulet says, “Some twenty of them fought in this black strife,” it makes Tybalt appear to be more of a victim and balances out the blame.
The main two themes that Shakespeare explores in this play are conflict and fate. Shakespeare is telling us that conflict has consequences such as Romeo being banished, “immediately we do exile him hence,” and people being killed, “…brave Mercutio is dead.” Conflict happens because its part of human nature and characters such as Mercutio and Tybalt enjoy it, “Drawn, and talk of peace? I hate the word.” Mercutio likes to provoke other characters into fighting because he finds it exciting but also enjoys provoking people when he is bored. Whereas Romeo acts upon revenge after his friend Mercutio had been murdered, “But by and by comes back to Romeo who had but newly entertained revenge.” In Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare shows the conflict through the two feuding powerful families; the Capulets and the Montagues. Conflict is also brought about by peer pressure and young men fighting for honour and family tradition. When Tybalt sees Romeo at the Capulet’s feast he says that he would kill Romeo for the honour of his family, “Now by the stock and honour of my kin, to strike him dead I hold it not a sin.” In the first scene when the Capulets are brawling with the Montagues one of the servants says, “Draw if you be men.” This is an example of the peer pressure that Shakespeare explores.
Shakespeare tells us in the play that there is no escaping from fate, right from the beginning of the play the audience are told this. In the Prologue of the play it says, “But their children but nought could remove.” This means that the Romeo and Juliet would both die and from reading the rest of the play we know that this becomes true. Shakespeare also conveys the idea that fate is determined by the stars, “A pair of star crossed lovers.” When Mercutio says “A plague on both your houses” he is implying there is no free will and this become true at the end of the play when Romeo and Juliet both die and their houses our left to mourn their loss. The fate in this play is also entertainment for the audience because they are not sure what is going to happen and so keeps them interested. In all of Shakespeare's thirty-seven plays there are more than a hundred implications to astrology, and many of his characters' actions are hindered by the stars. The signs of the zodiac are mentioned in six of Shakespeare's plays, and the planets may even be blamed for disasters. All of this shows that Shakespeare at least at an interest in astrology however it could have been simply to appeal to an Elizabethan audience. This was because most Elizabethans believed in astrology and that the planets and the stars had some kinds of power over man and they were used as tools of God. However they did not believe that stars had the power over the immortal side of man. Therefore they believed that man had free will and could over come fate by choosing good over evil.
Shakespeare uses lots of dramatic irony in this play so that the audience feel emotion for the characters and once the audience feels emotion then they are involved and engaged in the play. Dramatic irony is a situation when the audience knows something the characters do not. Shakespeare’s main use of dramatic irony in this scene is over Romeo’s secret marriage to Juliet. When Tybalt wants to fight Romeo for turning up at the Capulet’s feast he does not understand why it is that Romeo is expressing love for Tybalt, “Tybalt, the reason I have to love thee,” and not wanting to fight. Mercutio also does not know about the wedding and makes it clear to the audience when he says, “But I’ll be hanged sir, if he wear your livery.” This is because Romeo and Tybalt now actually belong to the same family; it also reminds the audience of Romeo’s marriage to Juliet. The audience feels frustration for Romeo because he is not able to tell Tybalt the truth. They also are antagonized by Mercutio’s persistence for Romeo to fight because he also does not know why Romeo will not and gets exasperated at this, “O calm, dishonorable, vile submission!”
Shakespeare also uses irony in the lead up to Mercutio’s death, the first example of this is when Benvolio prophetically jokes about Mercutio dying due to his constant quarrelling, “I were so apt to quarrel as thou art, any man should buy the fee-simple of my life for an hour and a quarter,” which then becomes true. The audience feels pity towards Mercutio because he did not really want to die but also annoyance because Mercutio did not have to fight Tybalt in the first place but chose to get involved.
This play is still relevant to modern day audiences because there still is a popular belief in fate as there was in the Elizabethan times. Many people today still believe in astrology, which is the study of the relative position of the planet and the stars in the belief that they influence events on Earth. Some people believe in astrology because it offers information and assurance about the future and a way to be absolved of their current situation and future decisions. People also can relate to conflict easily because it is still part of human nature and is an issue in everyday life.
