The impression the audience are given of Mercutio and Benvolio is a good one they are happy even though Mercutio is teasing Benvolio but it seems that Mercutio wants a fight to happen, as he doesn’t seem to care about bumping into the Capulets.
The tone of the play changes quite considerably when Tybalt arrives it suddenly seems to turn quite nasty. Because Tybalt arrives asking for a word with them in quite a hostile manner and Mercutio antagonises Tybalt by messing with the words he says for example Tybalt said ‘a word with one of you’ and Mercutio replies ‘and but one word with one of us? Couple it with something; make it a word and a blow’. I do not believe that Tybalt intended his meeting with Mercutio to end in death because when Mercutio implies that he wishes to fight Tybalt, Tybalt backs away and says that he only wishes to fight Romeo. I’m not sure that at this point in the scene is comedic because although Mercuric is antagonising Tibet and he insults Tybalt in a comedic way, there is also this presents of fear and that something really bad is going to happen even though Mercutio is trying to make fun of the situation. I think that the audience could expect calamity as they can see that Tybalt is becoming more and more angry because of what Mercutio is saying to him. However Mercutios use of comedy covers the element of fear and disaster.
Romeo’s entrance changes the atmosphere on stage because when he enters tybalt says ‘here comes my man’ this shows he was looking for Romeo and obviously wanted to cause trouble between them. Suddenly the idea of them actually having a fight becomes more really because tybalt says to him ‘therefore turn and draw’. This shows he’s really up for a fight. Romeo responds to tybalt in the way he does because he has just married Tybalts cousin and doesn’t want to cause problems between them, he feels that now he’s married Juliet they should get on, he shows this by saying ‘Tybalt , the reason that I have to love thee doth much excuse the appertaining rage to such a greeting’. The choice of words which Romeo use enrages tybalt because they are kind words and Romeo is not being horrible in anyway. He also talks about how he loves tybalt and this enrages him even more for example he says ‘but love thee better than thou canst devise’. The way Romeo speaks enrages mercutio because Romeo is his friend as he is meant to be enemy’s with the capulets. Yet he’s telling Tybalt that he loves him, and Mercutio think that Romeo is being a traitor by saying this. Romeos entrance causes conflict because he is nice to Tybalt when he isn’t meant to be because the Montagues hate the Capulets and this annoys Mercutio. Also what Romeo says to Tybalt about him loving him, causes conflict because this enrages Tybalt, because he doesn’t want Romeo to love him he wants him to fight him and what he is saying gives Tybalt no reason to pick a fight with Romeo.
Mercutio draws his sword mainly because he’s showing off he wants to show that he doesn’t love Tybalt like Romeo does. Tybalt draws his sword to defend himself and because Mercutio has antagonised him so much to do so. Shakespeare use of language suggests their reasons for drawing their swords, because he uses many extremely insulting words in their conversation to each other. Such as Mercutio calls Tybalt a ‘rat-catcher’ this was a very insulting thing to call someone in the time the play was written.
Romeos intervention changes the outcome of the fight because he gets in the way by trying to make peace but this just makes things worse and Tybalt wounds Mercutio. Mercutio responds to his wound by blaming Romeo he says to him, ‘Why the devil came you between us?’ he’s just saying the he feels that if Romeo hadn’t of got involved then he wont be wounded. Even though Mercutio has been wounded he is still using puns however they are not as light hearted as they were before. For example he says ‘ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man.’ What he is saying has two meanings because one is that he shall be dead and the other meaning is that he shall be very serious because he will be very angry at Romeo.
Mercutios death is a pivotal moment in the scene because it leads to Romeo killing Tybalt. He does this because the death of his friend has made him mad and he wants revenge for this. I believe the audience would respond in a bad way to Mercutios death because he was a nice character and brought a sense of fun to the play and I believe the audience would be upset by this. In Mercutios last words he is particularly unpleasant to Romeo because he is blaming him for his wound and believes that its all his fault for example he says ‘a plague o’ both your houses!’ he repeats this phrase often after he has been wounded right up until he dies. Romeo responds to this feeling very guilty and I think this makes Romeo want to take revenge on Tybalt which leads to Romeo killing Tybalt. Romeos mood has changed a lot since the start of the scene because he was very happy, because he had just married Juliet yet now in the scene he has become very angry and upset from the death of Mercutio.
I think that the audience maybe would think that Tybalt deserved to die because he killed Mercutio. However they may also think that he doesn’t, because Mercutio did antagonise Tybalt into the fight and Tybalt didn’t really want to fight Mercutio. Romeo murdering Tybalt was a terrible thing to do because this made Romeo just as bad as Tybalt. Also this changes the whole direction of the play, because Romeo killing Tybalt leads to him being banished and overall it leads to the death of Romeo and Juliet.
I think that in a way fate had a large part to play on the events that take place in this scene because for instance at the beginning of the scene Benvolvio says to Mercutio ‘the day is hot, the Capels are aboard, and if we meet, we shall not ‘scape a brawl’. What he is saying is that if the meet with the Capulets there will be a fight. This is ironic because they do meet with the Capulets and a fight does take place. I don’t believe that there is just one person you can blame for what happened, all of the people involved Mercutio, Tybalt and Romeo all have a large part to play in what happened. Although I don’t believe it was just their fault I think that fate had a part to play in this for example if Romeo hadn’t of got involved Mercutio may not have been wounded. I think maybe Romeo should be blamed for this because he killed Tybalt and he didn’t need to do that also. He was the one that Tybalt wanted to fight not Mercutio, so if he had agreed the Mercutio would not have been killed. Prince Escales’ view on what has just happened is that, because Tybalt killed Mercutio and then Romeo killed Tybalt it was a life, for a life and Romeo should not be killed as well however he by no means agrees with what Romeo has done and orders him to be banished.
The plays tone has shifted now to one of a tragedy after the fight because the characters have set off a chain of events that will only be resolved through the death of Romeo and Juliet. It is now impossible for them to be together, because Romeo has killed her cousin and her family, even though they wouldn’t have done in the first place, would never agree to her have a relationship with Romeo after that. Also Romeo has been banished from Verona and therefore shall not be able to see Juliet. I do think though after all of this that the audience may believe that there could still be a happy ending but in reality you can tell that from the events that have just taken place there is much doubt in there being a happy ending. The scene ends with the Prince telling everyone that Romeo will be banished the atmosphere is very tense the two families are blaming each other.
The theme of conflict has been shown in many ways through out the scene for example the conflict between Benvolio and Mercutio at the beginning of the scene even though it was only light hearted it still shows a bit of conflict because Mercutio is antagonising Benvolio. The event showing conflict is between Mercutio and Tybalt they are having a verbal fight and call each of many insulting names then later on the serious conflict begins which is there fight which ends in the tragic death of Mercutio. The next piece of conflict is between Romeo and Tybalt, when Romeo kills Tybalt in revenge for him killing Mercutio, Romeo is very angry and this leads to there fight and him killing Tybalt. The last bit of conflict is at the end between the Capulets and Montagues they each argue for their relatives and about the punishment that should be given to Romeo. There is a lot of conflict at many stages in the scene but each is as important as the other in creating the atmosphere of tragedy in the play. This scene is so important to the play because it changes the whole direction in which the play was going in and eventually leads to the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. If this scene had never have taken place then they may never have died.