In Act one Scene one Mercutio teases Romeo about the dance in the Capulet Mansion. He persuades Romeo to go through his teasing. Mercutio livens up the scenes that he is part of, and he influences them to make them seem less serious. He is a very important dramatic element of the play because he provides most of the humour in the play.
When Mercutio is around the nurse he makes sexual puns at her, he is disrespectful to her, this is dramatic because it adds some humour to this area of the play, and also the audience can feel the light-heartedness of Mercutio at this time in the play. Mercutio’s behaviour in this scene is similar to how he usually behaves, especially around women like the Nurse.
Mercutio’s most dramatic scene is the scene in which he dies. The effect of him shouting “a scratch” is theatrical because it is tense and the audience can see that he is unwilling to admit defeat to Tybalt, because he has killed him just because he was fighting for someone from the opposite family. Mercutio’s death seen is also unexpected, like his name suggests, because all they were doing was walking one minute, and the next he was dying.
Also in this scene he shouts “a plague o both your houses” this is dramatic because the audience know he is referring to the ongoing dispute between the two houses. What I think that he means is that they should stop fighting before anymore people who aren’t part of the families, like him, get killed. Also I think he is trying to say that the argument isn’t worth lives, and that the Prince is right, they should stop fighting one another.
Mercutio is not featured in the majority of the play, mainly because he dies, but he does contribute a fair bit to the more comedy ‘funny’ side of the play. Also his death scene when he yells “a plague o both you houses” is a very memorable part of the play, and the way it had been written is vivid which makes it stand out and makes the fact that he then hates the feud between the two houses really impressive to the audience.
