The characters that originally lead and drove the play all of a sudden became driven by the ongoing key events that take place.
Up until this scene, the play is all about love. Old Capulet, Juliet's father, throws a party in his household to which he invites all his friends and family. The Montague’s are of course not invited but Romeo devises a plan to get a look at Rosaline; a young girl he has been pursuing. He disguises himself and slips into the party. Once inside, his attention is stolen; not by Rosaline, but by Juliet. Romeo falls instantly in love, but is disappointed when he finds out that Juliet is a Capulet. Juliet notices Romeo too, but she is unaware that he is a member of the hated Montague family.
Later, after discovering that the young man who caught her eye is a member of the enemy family, Juliet goes out onto her balcony to tell the stars about her strong but forbidden love for Romeo. However at the same time lurking in the bushes below is Romeo. He overhears Juliet’s confession for her love for him to the heavens. No longer able to control his powerful feelings, Romeo reveals himself to her and admits that he feels the same about her. The very next day, with the help of Romeo's friend Friar Lawrence, Romeo and Juliet are secretly married and at this point there is some hope of the two families uniting.
The scene starts on a hot and humid day in Verona, Italy. Benvolio and Mercutio both enter together and these two characters are associated with the Montague family as Mercutio who is a relative of Prince Escalus is a very close Friend to Romeo and Benvolio is cousin to Romeo. It is obvious that the heat is getting to them both as they are both very irritable and easily aggravated. Benvolio is tired and does not wish to become involved in another brawl, particularly as he forbidden to do so by the Prince.
“I pray thee good Mercutio, let’s retire. The day is hot, the Capels are abroad, and if we meet, we shall not ‘scape a brawl, for now these hot days, is the mad blood stirring.”
Benvolio is basically saying here, let’s go hone because the Capulet’s are around and if we happen to meet them, we will not escape a fight as they are looking for trouble.
The language used in this short quote is quite dramatic and enthralling. Where Benvolio says, “these hot days, is the mad bloody stirring”, he gives an image or clues to the audience of things that could happen in the foreseeable future.
Mercutio being the trickster that he is shrugs off Benvolio’s words and replies with a longer quote which opposes Benvolio’s comment and accuses Benvolio of being the one that always starts the fights.
“…Thou wilt quarrel with a man for cracking nuts, having no other reason but because thou has hazel eyes…”
Mercutio is very clever with his language and he frequently shows the audience this as the scene develops. With this line, Mercutio is talking in response to Benvolio’s comment about going home. Mercutio is quite blunt here and directly tells Benvolio that it is him who starts the fights and often they are for no need, as explained when he mentions fighting with someone for looking slightly different.
As the scene draws on, the atmosphere progressively becomes a lot darker and sinister. Even Mercutio who usually uses humour when he speaks takes on a new darker tone and this helps to show the audience that something bad is in the air and may happen very soon. This is ironic as Mercutio gets stabbed and it happens very soon.
In Shakespearean times, there was a different revenge code to what is used today. If something bad happens and you want to take revenge in the 21st Century, you must leave the punishment to the courts to sort out otherwise you could be punished as well as the offender.
In the 17th Century, the revenge code was that if you were the victim of a crime, then you were legally allowed to take revenge yourself on the offender. This was because there were no courts to take your case to four hundred years ago.
The best way to take revenge on a criminal was to challenge them to a duel.
Throughout Europe from the Renaissance through to the 1800's, the Duel was considered a reasonable, appropriate and acceptable (although often technically illegal and harshly punished if discovered) way for people of import to settle their differences.
Duels, to the modern eye, are somewhat impractical and silly. After all, if someone has offended you to the point where, despite the law, you wish to kill them, it isn't exactly sensible to deliberately put yourself in a position where your opponent may have a fair chance of killing you instead. The key difference is honour. In the periods where sword duels were common, they were based around a belief that it was how you behaved in the face of challenge, slander and possible death that demonstrated your strength and courage (something the Italians called Virtú.) It didn't matter if you were injured or killed; if you faced the challenge bravely, you were a Real Man.
Duels were fought over anything and everything, from revenge for violent crime in this case to friend, family member or lover, to philosophical, religious or scientific disagreement.
Duels, in the main, were reserved for the upper classes. After all, you wouldn't risk your life to satisfy honour against a peasant who you could simply exert your noble status on to have whipped, jailed or killed, with little consequence. You only duel your peers, people with whom you have no other easy recourse for justice.
If you disagree with someone, it is your responsibility to your own word, and your opponent's to theirs, to bring it to a duel, because only when facing death against live steel is your commitment truly tested (God, of course, will grant victory to the one who is right, and what self respecting and angry nobleman would believe God wasn't with them?) Even those who fought duels and lost were more honourable and worthy than a man who cowers from confrontation. By the same token, it shouldn't matter if you were a fresh young apprentice of sword-fighting and the one who had done you wrong was a recognised master. If you are in the right, and they in the wrong, divine justice will guide your blade to victory.
Duels were also sometimes used to settle blood feuds that had ravaged families for years; in one instance, a duel of twelve people was arranged, six from each of the disputing families, and they negotiated terms for over a year as to who would fight whom first. After that, it was open season. All but one of the twelve was slain.
In the play Romeo and Juliet, Tybalt challenges Romeo to a duel to settle an ongoing dispute between the Montague and Capulet families.