When Tybalt returns, Romeo discards his softness, calls Tybalt a villain, and challenges him to fight to the death. When they fight he forgets his new bride and takes his sword to attack her cousin in an act of vengeance. Romeo kills Tybalt. Once again the citizens of Verona rush to the scene of the fighting. As the citizens attempt to arrest Romeo, Benvolio bids him to flee and he rushes off.
The Prince arrives with his attendants followed by Montagues and Capulets. Benvolio informs him that Tybalt killed Mercutio and, in turn, Romeo has slain the murderer. Lady Capulet breaks out in loud lamentations over the death of her beloved nephew and demands that Romeo be put to death. The Prince, paying no attention to her, asks for details of the affair from Benvolio. Benvolio states that Romeo was unwilling to fight and frames Tybalt as the aggressor. Lady Capulet again demands the death of Romeo. Montague takes Romeo's side saying that Romeo is justified in avenging the death of Mercutio, his friend. The Prince then announces his decision. Romeo is now an exile from Verona, and each of the families is heavily fined. He also states that if Romeo is found in the city, he will be immediately put to death. “let Romeo hence in haste else when he’s found that hour is his last.”
The scene occurs immediately after Romeo has married Juliet and the general contrast of love and hate is clear in this scene. This is the turning point of the play because before this scene it has been love, laughter and romance and also until this time in the play there has been no death. If you regard the play has been a wheel of fortune everything until this scene has been the upward motion and from this point on everything goes downhill as there are six deaths till the end of the play (Mercutio, Tybalt, Paris, Lady Montague, Romeo and Juliet). Also Romeo is exiled from Verona on his wedding day.
In a historical context, the prince in control of Verona at the time would have had the power to sentence people to death and also to banish them from the city furthermore despite all the laws against it, everyone was intimately familiar with the rules of dueling: to decline a challenge is to declare one's loss of manhood and nobility. To call someone a villain was a very strong form of challenge. Romeo is here making a tremendous sacrifice for his love, but it looks to the bystanders like he is a coward.
There is also another aspect to Mercutio’s death as all Tybalt wanted was Romeo, (as he had previously challenged him for a duel at Capulet’s party) as when Mercutio tries to start a fight Tybalt refuses “well peace be with you sir here comes my man,” but Mercutio provokes him “you rat-catcher will you walk.”
Mercutio's character is vital to the plot is it is Mercutio's death that sets off the chain of events that leads to Romeo's banishment. First, Tybalt murders Mercutio. Romeo is so enraged by this that he kills Tybalt. As a consequence, Romeo is banished from Verona and therefore from seeing Juliet. Mercutio is being his regular, quick-witted self. He is very sharp in his language, but perhaps too sharp.
He deliberately annoys Tybalt, by doing things like purposely mistaking meanings of words, Mercutio takes Tybalt's final blow, while Romeo is standing between them actually trying to stop the fight. This symbolizes how Romeo may try as he will to end the fighting between the Montagues and the Capulets, but he cannot.
Mercutio's death is a major event in this play. When Tybalt kills Mercutio, the attributes of a comedy die with him. From now on, this play becomes a Tragedy. This demonstrates how Mercutio is a strong representation of all that is youthful and carefree in this play. Mercutio does not change dramatically in this play. The only slight change a reader may see is when he is about to die, he yells: "A plague on both your houses!"
This may be regarded as a change because Mercutio has never been so serious before. He has never expressed any disagreement of the relationship between the Montagues and the Capulets. Now, he seems to realize the damage the fighting is capable of doing, unfortunately, it was too late for him.
In conclusion, Mercutio's character is obviously very complex and vital to the plot of this play. He represents independence, youth, and freedom, and makes the story line a lot more interesting. He is apparently a vital role to this play and its success.
This scene is characterized by rapidity of action and varied moods. It marks the crisis of the play with the deaths of Mercutio and Tybalt and the banishment of Romeo. This is also important because of the irony, as Romeo’s flaws are that he is impulsive and immature, but when he does act mature as well as refusing to fight it ends up in disaster so, although Romeo has married Juliet, he is now unable to stay with her in Verona. The fate of the lovers has taken a terrible turn.
Benvolio's advice to Mercutio that they go home was sound advice since the Capulets are out and about; unfortunately the advice falls on deaf ears. Soon Tybalt arrives on the scene looking for Romeo, and the two hotheaded characters, Mercutio and Tybalt, are eager for a fight. Romeo arrives on the scene, fresh from his marriage to Juliet and aglow with love. Tybalt calls him a villain, but Romeo refuses to fight him. Instead, he tells Tybalt that he loves all Capulets (who are now his relatives by marriage). Mercutio, ashamed of Romeo's submission, challenges Tybalt to fight with him. The duel begins with Romeo trying to make peace. His pleas are to no avail, and Mercutio is mortally wounded in the fight. Romeo, bound by honor, has no alternative but to avenge his dead friend and fight with Tybalt, but it is over befor Romeo realizes what he is doing In the fight that follows, Tybalt is killed at the hands of Romeo. The Prince arrives on the scene and demands explanation about the incidents. He then punishes Romeo by exiling him from Verona and heavily fines both families.
Throughout this scene, the characters, except for the changed Romeo, behave typically. It is Tybalt's hot temper and aggressiveness that is responsible for increasing the crisis. He is out in the streets looking for a fight, particularly with Romeo. When Romeo refuses to rise to Tybalt's challenge, Tybalt eagerly enters the fight with Mercutio. Mercutio is again pictured as being combative and verbal. Just before his death, Mercutio's sharp and brilliant wit again comes to the forefront; as he dies, he jokes about his wound. His chief regret is that Tybalt, his bitter enemy, has escaped unhurt, and he blames Romeo for interfering. Mercutio dies cursing the two families. "A plague on both your houses!" This curse is quickly to come about in the deaths of Romeo and Juliet.
Lady Capulet also behaves typically. She is all excitement and fury and immediately demands the death of Romeo in revenge for her nephew's murder; ironically Romeo, unknown to her, is now Lady Capulet's son-in-law. In contrast to her rashness, the prince's judgment appears to be sound and free from personal vengeance. He knows that the Capulets are sufficiently punished in the death of their nephew and the Montagues are punished by the loss of Romeo to exile. The Prince desperately wants peace in his city; little does he know that it will take the deaths of two more innocents to bring about the peace.
Fate once again places a significant part in this scene. If Mercutio had heeded the advice of his friend and peacemaker Benvolio, the confrontation (and thus the tragedy) could have been avoided. If Romeo and Juliet had immediately announced their marriage, the outcome would also have been different. Perhaps the two families would have immediately ended their feud, as Friar Lawrence had hoped. Certainly, Tybalt would have felt different about Romeo and not been as aggressive towards him.
In this scene various characters speak in prose, but after Mercutio’s death the more serious mood is shown as characters all speak in blank unrhymed verses. This is kept until the end of the scene, where Benvolio, Lady Capulet, Montague and the Prince all speak in rhyming verse however Benvolio drops the rhyme in the middle of his long narrative. The enemies also use language to win their verbal battles. Like when Mercutio tries to upset Tybalt, first by playing on his name (“ratcatcher…King of cats and Nine lives”). Mercutio redicules Tybalt’s supposed skill in fencing and provoking (“alla atoccata and Come, sir, your passado)
Tybalt refers to Romeo as “my man” Tybalt also calls Romeo “boy”,
this could be to the fact that Tybalt is older than Romeo or that Tybalt thinks that Romeo is just an immature boy also Tybalt calls Romeo a villain and Romeo denies this (A villain in Shakespeare’s time meant a common person, so the name applied to a nobleman like Romeo would be an insult. In calling Romeo “my man” Tybalt speaks of him as if he were a servant. We in the 21st century need to get it spelled out for us however the 16th century audience would understand it as they heard this. The 16th century audience would have also found the word ‘plague’ (one of Mercutio’s last words) very effective for the dramatic effect as the word could be a powerful curse on the people of Verona, as the outbreak could have killed thousands of people, like the Black Death.
One of the most powerful images is in Romeo’s last words in the scene where he says he is “fortune’s fool”, when he said this he could have meant that he was made a fool by his fortune or that fate had made it so he can’t meet his wife. Also that it is too late to do anything now.
Romeo also takes up other peoples words and answers them in a slightly changed version as when Tybalt says “Thou art a villain,” Romeo replies by saying “Villain am I none.” This happens through the whole scene.
Before the death of Mercutio Romeo does not want to duel with Tybalt and so he says “I do protest I never injur’d thee, but love thee better than thou canst devise, till thou shalt know the reason of my love: and so, good Capulet, which name I tender, as dearly as my own, be satisfied,” this shows that Romeo does not want to hurt Tybalt as he is now Romeo’s relation, but after Mercutio died Romeo says “this day’s black fate on mo days doth depend; This but begins the woe others must end,” and to Tybalt he says that either him or Tybalt or both must go with Mercutio’s soul. The language that Romeo uses before and after the death of Mercutio is contradictory to what he said before the death. The imagery before the death of Mercutio is cheerful and witty but after he passed away the imagery is all gloomy and dark.
There are some key issues intwined in this scene and the rest of the play
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Feuding- The feuding of the families was the whole reason for the tragedy. They should have reconciled their differences years ago. They didn't even know what they were fighting about.
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Fate- It was considered fate that they would meet and fall in love and then die for each other. Fate brought them together as well as ended their lives. It was in the stars.
