When the Capulet’s enter Mercutio and Benvolio respond differently because Benvolio fearful and worried, quote: ‘By my head here come the Capulet’s’, this shows that Benvolio is really scared. Where as Mercutio is ready and waiting, quote: `by my heel, I care not’, this shows that Mercutio isn’t at all worried of having a fight. Tybalt is looking for trouble because he is expecting a fight. Tybalt is expecting to have a fight because he wants to teach Romeo a lesson for Gate crashing the Capulet’s ball, which meant that Romeo did not show respect for the Capulet’s, Tybalt doesn’t expect to kill anyone. We can tell that Tybalt was looking for fight because he says, quote: (to his followers) ‘follow me close, for I will speak to them’, this quote tells us that Tybalt wants his followers to stay close behind, so they can help fight, if a fight is started. Mercutio is quick to get angry because Tybalt called him a consortest, quote: ‘Mercutio, thou consortest with Romeo’ Mercutio pretends to be offended and gets angry. Mercutio tries to commence a fight by drawing his sword, quote: ‘here’s my fiddlestick’, Mercutio soon draws his sword, which tells us that he would like to fight Tybalt.
Romeo entered the scene after he had been to the church and got married to Juliet. Romeo has come to tell Mercutio that he has secretly married Juliet, fate influences the events here because Romeo arrives just before the fight is about to fire up. Romeo’s first word in the film version of the play is ‘Mercutio’, the director added this to the script because the fact that Romeo didn’t get the chance to tell Mercutio where he had just been, made the scene more tragic, if Romeo had told Mercutio then there wouldn’t be any deaths. Romeo not being able to talk to his friends, becomes more disastrously important later in the scene because if Romeo told Mercutio that he had secretly married Juliet, then Mercutio wouldn’t think Romeo was a coward and he wouldn’t die and Romeo wouldn’t of gone after Tybalt and killed him. So this caused the two deaths.
Tybalt now intends to fight Romeo and teach him a lesson, quote: ‘here comes my man’, Tybalt wants to fight Romeo he doesn’t intend to kill. Tybalt tries to insult Romeo by saying, quote: ‘Thou art a villain’ this shows that Tybalt is trying to pick a fight by insulting Romeo.
Romeo will not fight Tybalt because Romeo is now related to Tybalt and he says, quote; ‘I do protest I never injured thee’, Romeo does not want to hurt him. Romeo tries to defuse the situation by hinting to Tybalt why he can’t fight him, quote: ‘ I have to love thee’, but this just makes Tybalt more irritated because he thinks that Romeo is contemptuous, so Tybalt gets back at him by saying, quote: ‘ Boy, this shall not excuse injuries’, Tybalt insults Romeo by calling him a boy.
Mercutio challenges Tybalt to fight because he thinks Romeo is too much of a coward, quote; ‘o calm, dishonourable vile submission’, Mercutio thinks Romeo doesn’t honour their friendship. Romeo still tries to persuade Mercutio and Tybalt to stop fighting by reminding them of what the prince had said, quote: ‘Tybalt! Mercutio the prince expressly hath forbid this bandying in Verona streets. Hold Tybalt good Mercutio’ this shows that Romeo is doing and saying all he can to persuade them to stop fighting. To stop the fight Romeo comes between Mercutio and Tybalt. Providence influences this event because Mercutio is caught off guard and it is Romeo’s fault because he stood between them so they didn’t fight but Tybalt gets the chance to wound him, in the stomach from behind.
Mercutio repeats a dying mans curse on both families when he is wounded, Quote: ‘ a plague o’ both your houses’ this shows Mercutio now sees how stupid the dispute between the two families is. Mercutio talks about his injury to be a small scratch, he pretends it’s not serious. His friends do not realise that he is seriously hurt, quote: ‘what, art thou hurt?’ Benvolio believes that it is not serious injury.
Romeo feels guilty and angry, after Mercutio’s death, quote: ‘Fired eyed fury be my conduct now!’ Romeo forgets all the reasons not to fight Tybalt, He is now determined to fight him, quote: ‘either thou or I, or both, must go with him’, this shows that Romeo means to kill Tybalt even if he loses his life himself. Romeo’s mood changes again after Tybalt’s death because he says, quote: ‘ o, I am fortunes fool’, this shows us that Romeo has now come to his senses and feels that fate has been playing with his life and made him do things he shouldn’t do, he feels that he has been played like a puppet on a string is played by its play master.
The punishment Romeo now is expecting is banishment. The punishment the prince decides on is banishment, quote: ‘Let Romeo hence in haste, else when he is found, that hour is his last’, the prince decides on banishment. The prince comes to this conclusion because both sides have lost someone, quote: ‘my blood for your rude brawls doth lie a-bleeding. But I’ll amerce you with so strong a fine that shall repent the loss of mine’, this is literally saying take a life give a life. These events mean that Romeo and Juliet will never be able to live happily together because Romeo will be banished from Verona, which means he can never come back to Verona, the Capulet’s will never let Romeo and Juliet be together because Romeo killed Tybalt who was a close relative of the Capulet’s and Romeo has to live life blaming himself for the death of his good friend Mercutio.
In the 1997 film ‘Romeo and Juliet’, Baz Luhrmann the director uses various techniques to build up the tension in this scene. Many sound, music, settings/weather and camera techniques are used to build up the tension such the siren sounds with the music, the fast background music with heavy beating drum roles is used when Mercutio is angry after Tybalt offends Romeo by calling him a consort, sound effects were amplified when Mercutio drops the gun barrel first into the sand, slow music is played when Romeo arrives and Tybalt gets ready to fight, he empties his gun at this point a hand held camera moves around allot this shows how panicky the two guys are. There is big long drum role when Mercutio pushes Tybalt over into the glass. When Mercutio is wounded there is a storm starting up and when he dies there is a lightening strike and strong wind this makes the scene extremely effectual. The music gets louder and louder when Romeo sets off after Tybalt, Romeo drives the car recklessly and crashes it, he pumps Tybalt with lots of bullets this shows us that Romeo is totally out of control.
In the first fight the director wants to emphasise the fact that in the fight between Mercutio and Tybalt no one was intending on killing anyone, but Tybalt wounded Mercutio and ended up killing him accidentally, when all he was intending on doing was teaching the Montague’s a lesson for gate crashing the Capulet’s ball. The second fight between Tybalt and Romeo was going to end with either both or one of them dying, and Romeo was intending on killing Tybalt, at the end of the second fight Romeo was unsure of what he had done and felt that fate was playing with him.
The Elizabethan representation of fortune was more or less similar to our idea of luck simply a great deal stronger. They often spoke of fortune as a wheel, one moment you were on top then suddenly the wheel would turn around and you would find yourself at the bottom. It was tied up with the idea that the future is written in the stars and that there is not a great pact you can do about it, if fortune has planned for you to die or lose all your money or some similar misfortune. The words of the prologue support the picture because the prologue talks about how Romeo and Juliet are ‘star-crossed lovers’ and ‘death-marked love’. The prologue seems to be saying that the characters do not have control over what happens to them.
But Shakespeare shows that some characters are more to blame than others for the deaths in act 3 scene 1. By the end of act 3 scene 1 two characters had died, Mercutio and Tybalt. Benvolio is a peacekeeper as his name well wishing suggests. He tried to get Mercutio to avoid Tybalt and leave at the start of the scene, so there would be no fighting, but Mercutio was up for the fight and didn’t care what Benvolio said to him. Benvolio tries to stop the fight but he can’t so Benvolio is not guilty of the two deaths although he could’ve stopped the fight as Romeo actually did.
Mercutio was defending Romeo’s honour by fighting Tybalt because it was Romeo that Tybalt wanted to fight. Mercutio was looking for a fight and it was him who started the fight, he drew his sword first and was defending Romeo, Mercutio is guilty of his own death.
Tybalt wanted to fight Romeo because he gate crashed the Capulet’s ball, he insults Mercutio as well as Romeo. Tybalt's intention is to fight Romeo, he starts a fight with Mercutio because Mercutio is up for a fight. Tybalt seriously wounds Mercutio and that caused his death, he wasn’t expecting to kill anyone he just wanted to teach them a lesson to never gate crash the Capulet’s again.
If Romeo had told Mercutio that he had married Juliet then Mercutio wouldn’t think of fighting Tybalt When Mercutio and Tybalt were fighting Romeo got in the way and Mercutio got caught off guard and Tybalt got a chance to wound him in the stomach. Therefore Mercutio had to fight Tybalt to defend Romeo’s honour and Romeo couldn’t fight his own battles and left Mercutio to do it all. Romeo is guilty of killing Tybalt, Romeo didn’t want to fight Tybalt but when he found out that Tybalt had killed Mercutio, Romeo forget all the reasons not to fight Tybalt and goes after him and kills him. He fighted Tybalt through the friendship of Mercutio so Romeo is as guiltier as he is not guilty.
So overall I think Tybalt is to blame for the two deaths because he was the one that wanted to take matters further, for Romeo gate crashing the Capulet’s ball. If Tybalt hadn’t come to where Mercutio and Benvolio hang out, then there would be no fight and Mercutio and Tybalt himself would be alive. So I think Tybalt is to blame for his own death and partly Mercutio’s. Romeo is partly to blame for Mercutio’s death because he got in the way of the fight and he didn’t tell Mercutio that he had secretly married Juliet, which would change how Mercutio felt about fighting. Romeo gave Tybalt a chance to wound Mercutio not purposely but Mercutio got caught off guard. Romeo is also guilty of killing Tybalt because Romeo killed Tybalt through the friendship of Mercutio. So both Romeo and Tybalt are to blame for the two deaths.
