As Mercutio and Benvolio are exchanging clever remarks about quarrelling, Tybalt appears, looking for a quarrel with Romeo. Benvolio exclaims, “By my head, here come the Capulets” and Mercutio responds, “By my heel, I care not”. Benvolio is alarmed, but Mercutio is tough; his “by my heel” implies that if it comes to a fight he's the one who’s going to put his opponent under his heel. Then, look at Tybalt’s attitude – “Gentlemen, good den: a word with one of you.” He says there words politely towards the Montagues. In no mood for politeness, Mercutio answers, “And but one word with one of us? couple it with something; make it a word and a blow.” Mercutio is trying to pick a fight, but he doesn't quite succeed because Tybalt is intent on catching up with Romeo. You can see the different attitudes between the Montagues and the Capulets. Tybalt then says, “Mercutio, thou consort'st with Romeo”, only to be interrupted by Mercutio's exclamation, “Consort! what, dost thou make us minstrels?” “Consort'st with” means “associate with,” but it could also mean “sing in concert with”; Mercutio deliberately takes it in the second sense and acts highly insulted. Still trying to pick a fight, Mercutio draws his sword and says it's the fiddlestick to whose music Tybalt will dance. All of this builds tension as we know that they will end up fighting each other but we just don’t know when.
When Romeo enters, Tybalt ignores Mercutio to confront Romeo with the ultimate in sarcastic disrespect: “Romeo, the love I bear thee can afford / No better term than this: thou art a villain.” However, Romeo doesn't react at all as expected. He answers, “Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee / Doth much excuse the appertaining rage / To such a greeting.” “The appertaining rage” is the anger anyone would be expected to feel at being insulted. Romeo is saying that he has a reason to love Tybalt and therefore he’s going to ignore the insult. He then says he’s not a villain, and starts to leave. Nothing could infuriate Tybalt more. He didn't come looking for words of love; he came for a fight. He tries again: “Boy, this shall not excuse the injuries / That thou hast done me; therefore turn and draw.” Romeo does turn, but he does not draw. Instead he gives Tybalt more loving words: “I do protest I never injured thee, / But love thee better than thou canst devise, / Till thou shalt know the reason of my love.” Romeo adds that he loves the name “Capulet” as dearly as his own, and asks Tybalt to be satisfied with that. Of course we know that Romeo loves the name “Capulet” because he's just married one, but to the other young men it looks like Romeo has just turned into a wimp. Mercutio is outraged and exclaims, “O calm, dishonourable, vile submission! / Alla stoccata carries it away.” “Alla stoccata” is a fencing term meaning “at the thrust”; Mercutio thinks that Tybalt’s tough guy act has intimidated Romeo. Mercutio's volley of insults, just as he intended, starts a fight. As soon as it starts, Romeo tries to stop it. He asks Mercutio to put up his sword, and he asks Benvolio to draw his sword in order to beat down the swords of Mercutio and Tybalt. He tells both of them that they're doing a shameful thing and reminds them that this is the very thing the Prince has forbidden. None of this does any good. What happens next is normally staged like this: After several exchanges of thrusts and dodges, both Mercutio and Tybalt are in the ‘en garde’ position, sizing each other up. At this moment Romeo rushes forward from Mercutio's right, putting his left hand on Mercutio’s right hand, which holds his sword, and his right hand on Mercutio's shoulder. As Romeo tries to push Mercutio away from the action, Tybalt thrusts under Romeo's right arm into the unprotected left of Mercutio's chest, straight into the heart. Then, having stabbed Mercutio in this cowardly manner, Tybalt panics and runs. Mercutio can still pun about himself and his fate. He says, “Ask for me to-morrow, and you shall find me a grave man.” Mercutio, who is always joking and never grave, will be grave tomorrow. Then the senselessness of it all comes rushing into upon him. He curses the houses of Capulet and Montague; he curses Tybalt, and asks Romeo, “Why the devil came you between us? I was hurt under your arm.” Romeo answers that he was only trying to do what he thought best, but Mercutio isn’t listening. He asks Benvolio to help him into a house before he collapses, and as Benvolio does so, Mercutio continues to curse “Your houses!” In my opinion this curse shows how the conflict between these two houses has not only affected the members of the families, but others around them as well. It shows that even though Mercutio was friends with the Montagues, he still blames both sides for the devastation they’d caused.
When Romeo realises Mercutio is dead, his attitude turns. Romeo gives himself over to his anger, saying to himself, “Away to heaven, respective lenity, / And fire-eyed fury be my conduct now!” “Respective lenity” is the leniency with which Romeo treated Tybalt before, because Romeo was newly married to a Capulet. Now Romeo is sending all of that “respective” feeling to heaven and promising to be guided only by his fury. He challenges Tybalt, telling him that Mercutio's soul is only a little way above their heads, waiting for Tybalt's soul to join it. He says, “Either thou, or I, or both, must go with him.” Romeo is determined to fight to the death. These actions aren’t wise as he shouldn’t take the law into his own hands. He should wait and see Tybalt get the punishment he deserves. That’s how he should get his revenge. But in the fight between them, Romeo’s passion quickly overcomes Tybalt’s technique. As soon as this happens and Tybalt falls, Romeo stands in a daze. Benvolio tries to snap him out of it, saying “Stand not amazed: the prince will doom thee death, / If thou art taken: hence, be gone, away!” “Hence,” “be gone,” and “away” all mean the same thing; in modern phrasing, Benvolio is saying “come on,” “COME ON,” “COME ON!” But Romeo cries out “O, I am fortune's fool!” before Benvolio gets him to leave. Romeo is just thinking “Oh no.” “What have I done?”
Shortly after Romeo leaves, Prince Escalus and the remaining Montagues and Capulets arrive. Seeing the body of her nephew, Lady Capulet flies into an outburst of grief and rage, crying out, “Tybalt, my cousin! O my brother's child!” and demanding revenge: “Prince, as thou art true, / For blood of ours, shed blood of Montague.” Benvolio calmly tells of what happened between Romeo and Tybalt. This sets the audience up for the rest of the play. Shakespeare makes this part of the scene tense because it makes us wonder how Romeo and Juliet will overcome this obstacle and ever meet each other again.
The audience would have found this scene interesting as this scene is a turning point in the play as it involves the deaths of two main characters and the first deaths in the play. This prepares the audience for the eventual tragedy in the play and starts a downward spiral where heated emotions lead to violence and then to death. In the directing of the scene in both the Zeffereli and the Baz Luhrmann versions of the film, I thought their portrayals of the scene were good. Firstly because in Baz Luhrmann’s version, he attempts to link the language of the original play with modern day themes such as violence in society, love in dangerous situations and the cult of personality. Franco Zeffereli’s version sticks to the script more and looks more like a stage production which would make people of that time like it more.
Act three scene one is very important, as it forms the bases for the rest of the play. It's when things start to transform for Romeo and Juliet and things start to get worse, putting a strain on their relationship and their families. The scene is very dramatic in terms of what happens in the scene but also the effect that the event has on the remainder of the play.
