Mercutio’s name often reminds people of the word ‘Mercury’, which is a very hot planet. This reflects on Mercutio’s personality during the duel. Before the duel Mercutio is very jokey, he never really knows when to stop and often ends up going too far, this happens when the nurse goes to visit Romeo to find out about the marriage of Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio teases her going on and on. In Baz Luhrmann’s version of the play he exaggerates Mercutio’s personality at the Capulet’s party, as Mercutio dresses up as a drag queen. Mercutio is also very unpredictable and can change quickly, he can be quite dangerous. This is shown at the duel when Tybalt stabs Mercutio and Mercutio quotes ‘A plague o’ both your houses! I am sped’ line 90. This shows Mercutio has a more serious and mercurial temper, which means hot tempered. Mercutio us a lot different to Tybalt, Tybalt (Juliet’s cousin) is aggressive, this is shown at the Capulet’s party when he spots Romeo, he tries to ruin the party for a fight with his enemy. He also has a reputation of being a Prince or the ‘King of Cats’, this can suggest that he is quite a powerful person and certainly is a brilliant swordsman. He can be very harsh with words as he quotes on line 60 ‘thou art a villain’ he says to Romeo. He was calling Romeo a peasant which is a great insult to a man of noble birth like Romeo.
I think the staging of the Mercutio verses Tybalt duel should be intense and exciting, it already sort of is as they’re both quite good Fighters, Tybalt is slightly better though. They make it exciting with their fighting techniques, they fight using fencing terms, and I know this from Mercutio’s quote on line 84 ‘come sir, your passado!’ Passado means fencing thrust. I think they should have put a dancing technique so the characters use the stage well by darting from one area to the next. I think it would be good for their intensions not to be to kill each other, then Tybalt accidentally stabs Mercutio under Romeo’s arm, then the audience can react to Tybalt’s expression on his face as he notices Mercutio’s injury. I think this would give the play some good suspense to it; the audience can/will be just as shocked as the characters.
The Romeo verses Tybalt duel will be a lot different. Before hand, Tybalt and Mercutio weren’t fighting to kill, but now Tybalt had killed Romeo’s best friend things are different. Before Romeo enters the scene, Benvolio, Mercutio and Tybalt were having a quarrel, they weren’t looking to duel as Tybalt was actually looking for Romeo, as Romeo enters Tybalt quotes ‘Well, peace be with you sir, here comes my man’ line 55. This ‘means the man I am looking for’ but Mercutio deliberately misunderstands him, he seems to do this for it to lead to a fight, he once again is taking it too far.
Mercutio’s death is very important in this fight as Romeo now wants revenge where as before he didn’t want to fight because he loves Juliet too much, and he only wanted peace, it suggests this when Romeo says ‘I do protest I never injure the, …’ line 67-71. Here Romeo protests to fight. Romeo did have a calm temper at this time but when Mercutio dies things change, when he says to Tybalt ‘and fire-ey’d fury be my conduct now!’ line 124. This suggests Romeo is very angry at Tybalt; Romeo’s behaviour is different now. He is so angry they fight and Romeo kills Tybalt, this has a major effect on everyone, especially Romeo and Juliet. Juliet cannot believe Romeo, her husband killed Tybalt, her own cousin.
‘I am fortune’s fool’ is said by Romeo and is a crucial line in the play. He is trying to say that he is toy or a play thing, a puppet played by fortune or destiny. When he killed Tybalt it sent a trigger off telling him things are going down hill, he has now realised he is doomed. We know that this tragedy has been mapped out, this is why the line ‘I am a fortunes fool’ is a crucial line in the play.
It is important to set the scene in the middle of the play because it is full of excitement and keeps the audience interested and keeps us thinking. If the scene wasn’t there the play would be quite tedious, the plot would be pointless and I think that it would lose a lot of interest from us as the audience. It is also a very important scene of the play which is why it needs to be exciting, intense and thrilling.
This scene is so important because it is relevant to the play. The dramatic effect is so important, the tension and suspense keeps us, the audience interested and involved within the play. The feud that is caused sort of sums up the relationships the characters have with each other, and shows us exactly what they’re like; their personalities, the way they act around each other. This scene keeps us thinking about what will happen next, how will Romeo and Juliet’s relationship turn out? What will happen to Romeo? What will their families say? All these questions are running through our mind which is what I think Shakespeare wanted.
