The three main characters of Act 3 Scene 1 are without a doubt Mercutio, Tybalt and Romeo. They are the three main characters because it is them that drive the play forwards. I will first talk about Mercutio, who happens to be my favourite character in the play.
One of the most important clues about Mercutio’s characteristics is his name. Mercutio is based on mercury, the substance used in thermometers, because they are reactive to temperature and change like Mercutio’s mood changes. We are first introduced to him before the party in Act 1 Scene 4. At first he seems very lively and extrovert. This is shown in his speech on Queen Mab (Queen of the Fairies). However, in Act 3 Scene 1, Mercutio says to Benvolio that he is a moody person and that he changes quickly (‘Thou art as hot a jack in thy mood as any in Italy, and as soon moved to be moody’), but he has no idea that he is really describing himself.
Tybalt plays a similar part to Mercutio. With the exception that he actually belongs to one of the feuding families whilst Mercutio is only a friend of Romeo, they have the similar characteristics. Tybalt, like Mercutio, easily loses his temper, fights often, and in violent. You know that if the two of them happened to be in the same place at the same time, something very nasty could break out. Tybalt was also one of the main instigators of the fight in the marketplaces in Act 1 Scene 1. Shakespeare has set up Tybalt well, from when we first see him and up to his death at the hands of Romeo. Before his death, Tybalt had sent a letter to Romeo demanding that they duelled, because Tybalt had seen Romeo at the Capulet Party.
Prior to Act 3 Scene 1, Romeo has just married Juliet, so the last thing he wants to do is fight, especially with a Capulet. In Act 3 Scene 1, Mercutio’s death brings a moment of rage and insanity over Romeo, who because of this, kills Tybalt without thinking of the consequences of his actions. Furthermore, we start to see a more serious Romeo. In the earlier scenes we saw Romeo as a dreamy kind of person, but as the play becomes more serious, so does he.
Act 3 Scene 1 has been very well crafted by Shakespeare for maximum effect. It also has the quickest pace because in total there were eleven entrances and exits in the scene. There is no time to reflect on actions because it is so frantic. The plot starts to move on and Romeo and Juliet’s fate becomes sealed. The scene is also placed physically in the middle of the play. It comes straight after the marriage scene. Because the marriage scene was happy and Act 3 Scene 1 is quite sad, it is called juxtaposition, which is a device Shakespeare copied from Greek tragedy. Shakespeare also uses another device called pathetic fallacy. This is when the weather induces the mood of people. The main example of this in Act 3 Scene 1 is where Benvolio says to Mercutio, ‘The day is hot…these hot days, is the mad blood stirring’. Because the day is hot, the people in the scene will have hot tempers. ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is not the only Shakespeare play where weather describes the mood. In ‘Macbeth’, everytime we saw the witches, they were introduced by thunder and lightening, to represent how evil they were. ‘King Lear’ and ‘Hamlet’ both used inclement weather to represent anger and death. Pathetic fallacy is also used by other authors, such as Stephen King, and also in films, especially the horror and western genres. Horror films have storms to represent evil like ‘Macbeth’, and westerns have hot desert settings to represent ever increasing tension.
Shakespeare’s plays were first performed in Elizabethan theatres and it is thought ‘Romeo and Juliet’ was first seen in 1593. The theatres of Shakespeare’s time were open or the plays were just performed in market square productions. Very little scenery, if any, was used. There obviously was no technological equipment in 1593, so specific moods had to be described well so that people could imagine them at ease. We see this when Mercutio says to Benvolio, ‘...Thou art as hot a jack in thy mood as any in Italy, and as soon moved to be moody...’ Another major part of the scene and play is humour. The providers for the humour in the play are Mercutio and the nurse. However, the humour ends at the end of the scene with Mercutio and Tybalt’s death. After these events humour is no longer used as the play takes a more serious approach. The words of insult between Mercutio and Tybalt during their fight tell us the fight may not have been serious. However, during Romeo and Tybalt’s fight no words of humour are used, indicating that their fight is much more serious. Mercutio, on his deathbed, still cannot help joking. He says to Romeo, ‘…a scratch…tis enough…ask for me to-morrow, and you shall find me a grave man…’ This makes his death more dramatic, and it also triggers a dramatic response from Romeo.
The idea of fate plays an extremely important part in ‘Romeo and Juliet’. In Act 3 Scene 1, the main mention of fate is when Romeo has just slain Tybalt and he realises what he has done. He quotes; ‘O, I am fortunes fool’ as if to say that fate had already decided that Romeo would kill Tybalt. Fate is also mention in other scenes. In Act 3 Scene 5, Juliet says ‘I have an ill divining soul…’ I have also noticed that the majority of quotes involving fate are in Act 2. There are, from what I see, four quotes involving fate in Act 2 and I think there is so many fate quotes here because this is the scene where Romeo and Juliet really begin to fall in love. They start to fantasize and so they talk about how fate brought them together and how it will never keep them apart. Romeo says ‘I defy you stars’ which again shows his impulsive nature as this tempting of fate would disturb an Elizabethan audience brought up in superstition and religion.
Shakespeare has used Act 3 Scene 1 to balance the play. Before the scene, all the characters are in place and afterwards he deals with the consequences of the scene. The whole tone of the play changes. The humour dies with Mercutio, and Romeo and Juliet take a greater part in the play. From Act 1 Scene 1 their fate is sealed. There was some hope for them, but that died in Act 3 Scene 1 with two major characters.
