Discuss The Theme Of Hatred And Vengeance in Act 3 Scene 1. How Does Shakespeare's Dramatic Language And Action In This Scene Reveal The Effect Of Hatred On Tybalt, Romeo And Mercutio?

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Discuss The Theme Of Hatred And Vengeance in Act 3 Scene 1.  How Does Shakespeare’s Dramatic Language And Action In This Scene Reveal The Effect Of Hatred On Tybalt, Romeo And Mercutio?

Romeo and Juliet play is based around the hatred of the Montague’s and the Capulet’s.  Hatred is crucial in this play because it is the main theme of the play, hate controls the play and shows the consequences to peoples violent actions.  We are not told why or when this quarrel began but we are told it is an ‘ancient grudge’, a constant conflict between the two names.  They are very alike and well known throughout Verona.  The people of Verona are aware of the grudge between the two families.

Shakespeare might be trying to say that these two families are prejudiced to one another.  He also is saying that even though the families find one another insufferable because their family’s names are different, they prejudge one another even though they are very alike as they are high-classed in society and are alike in business.  

Romeo and Juliet the play gives us an insight on how pointless and destructive hatred and vengeance is, by showing that a loved one will always get hurt, for example; Romeo’s best friend Mercutio gets stabbed.  Act 3 scene 1 is a good scene to pick when talking about hate because it is a scene, which two people get killed, one from each side, because of the dispute between the two families.  This scene is the main scene as it is the burning point from good to bad.  Act 3 scene 1 shows the ancient grudge being carried on through generations.  When Tybalt kills Mercutio, Romeo is so infuriated because Mercutio was his best friend that helped him out and was always there for him and he didn’t deserve to die.  Romeo’s hate and anger builds up inside because he has lost his best friend that he decided to kill Tybalt in the heat of the moment, because he is hurting inside as well.  Romeo killed Tybalt because he thought that is what Tybalt deserved for killing Mercutio, and he felt better knowing the man that killed his best friend is in agony and won’t walk the planet again because he doesn’t deserve to live.

We learn throughout the play that Mercutio and Benvolio like to quarrel.  Mercutio always has plenty to say, criticizing people and playing on words.  At the start of Act 3 scene 1 Mercutio is joking around saying Benvolio is constantly starting a quarrel for the smallest of reasons.  For example: “…thou wilt quarrel with a man that hath a hair more, or less, in his beard, than thou hast”.  This implies that Benvolio would start a fight just for the sake of it, also it makes out he is an argumentative person, when in fact he isn’t as bad as Mercutio makes out.  Benvolio might start a fight however Mercutio seems to carry them on and doesn’t no when to stop.  Mercutio comes across as a very sarcastic cheeky man, he is challenging towards the Capulet’s.  This is because he finds the Capulet family unbearable.

Tybalt wants to fight Romeo in Act 3 scene 1 because they have learnt to hate each other while growing up, because the quarrel is an ‘ancient grudge’.  A family name is very a precious feature, they believed they had to honour their family name and be strong in all situations to come be the best, so everyone looked up to them.  Romeo will not fight Tybalt because he has just married Juliet and her nurse and Friar Laurence are the only other two people that know.  Friar Laurence secretly married the impassioned lovers in hopes that the union might eventually bring peace to Verona. This means that Romeo is part of the Capulet family.  However neither Romeo nor Juliet can tell anyone yet because they would be banded from seeing one another, and the families would have something else to quarrel about.  

In the play Mercutio uses words such as ‘alla stoccata’ and ‘passado’ because they are fencing terms.  Mercutio uses these words because he is mocking Tybalt as Mercutio thinks he ‘fights by the book of arithmetic’, meaning he fights accurately without permission.  Mercutio is very quick at answering people back.  Tybalt tries to provoke him by insulting Mercutio’s best friend, Romeo.  For example “Romeo, the hate I bear thee can afford no better term than this, thou art a villain.”  This suggests the Romeo is a peasant however Tybalt is only saying it to aggravate Mercutio and to make Romeo angry and fight him.

I don’t consider it is a good reason to fight over an ancient grudge, Romeo and Tybalt don’t really know each other and are fighting just to honour their family names and because of family pride.

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We discover in the play that Tybalt hates Romeo because he is of the Montague family.  In Act 3 scene 1 Tybalt is furious at Romeo’s friends but mainly at Romeo because they gate crashed the Capulets’ party.  Tybalt felt as if they were being imprudent towards the Capulets’ and their guests.

        Romeo refuses to fight Tybalt because Romeo is now related to Tybalt by his marriage to Juliet, and so refuses to fight him.  Tybalt is now his cousin by marriage.  Romeo doesn’t want to get into a fight, so he ignores Tybalt’s abrupt remarks, and tries to ...

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