Do you feel that Mercutio is seen at his best in Act 3 Scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet?

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Gillian Wareing

Do you feel that Mercutio is seen at his best in Act 3 Scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet?

To try and find out if Mercutio is seen at his best in Act 3 Scene 1 we must first explore all the scenes that Mercutio appears in. Once we have examined his personality and qualities we must then try and consider which scene he is seen at his best in.

When we first meet Mercutio we see him as being calm and relaxed. He is trying to cheer up his friend Romeo as he is love struck. He shows he cares by saying ‘Nay gentle Romeo we must have you dance’. The qualities that Mercutio portray are being kind and considerate. The tone of language that Mercutio uses is one of a very friendly and relaxed nature. He is not acting in a way that should attract attention towards him. He is very restrained and is acting in a ‘normal’ manner. Then Mercutio starts to mock Romeo by referring to classical references of love, because at this point Romeo is deeply in love with Roseline. ‘You are a lover; borrow cupid’s wings’. When Mercutio says this we admire him for his wit and cleverness but we don’t like the way he is mocking his friend. By referring to words like cupid we automatically think of love which we admire. Also to mock his friend Mercutio also refers to physical views of love. By saying ‘If love be rough with you be rough with love’, he shows us that he has a vulgar mind and that he sees love more physical than spiritual (Romeo sees love spiritually).

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In this scene Mercutio shows his spontaneity and creativity very vividly. The Queen Mab speech goes from being a speech with a fairytale quality to a speech with very violent images. ‘Her wagon-spokes made of long spiders’ legs’, shows this magical quality, while ‘And then dreams of cutting foreign throats,’ has the opposite affect and is very violent. The Queen Mab speech flows with each subject going step by step, we think this is very witty and clever and shows us the spontaneous nature of Mercutio.

When Mercutio calls to Romeo in this scene we see he has a very ...

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