Mercutio is Romeo’s best friend and kinsman to the Prince he is also a joker and he makes things worse for everyone including himself. He also likes to turn everything into a joke. Although we hardly see him accept for in act 3 he is a big part of the play because if he hadn’t of died then Romeo wouldn’t have killed Tybalt because Romeo only killed Tybalt because he felt guilty for Mercutios death so he couldn’t just keep the peace because that was against the rules and honour of the time. This meant Romeo would not have to of fled Verona. Therefore Juliet wouldn’t have been upset because of Romeo leaving. The Capulets wouldn’t have moved the marriage to Paris forward and Juliet would not have taken the poison and Romeo wouldn’t have thought she was dead and killed himself. Juliet wouldn’t have killed herself when she knew Romeo had killed himself. This shows that Mercutio’s death sets in motion a chain of events.
Romeo is the son of lord and lady Montague. We see two sides to Romeo we first see Romeo as a sad youth and the reason for his sadness is that he is in love with Rosaline (who we never meet) but when Mercutio and Benvolio suggest that they gatecrash the Capulets ball to help Romeo get over Rosaline and find someone prettier he agrees to go just to prove that there isn’t anybody as pretty as Rosaline. But then he see’s Juliet and automatically falls in love with her (it is the East and Juliet is the sun).we then see Romeo’s other side which is dark and evil and the reason he turns like this is because his best friend got killed by Tybalt so he felt like he had to respect his friend and kill his enemy which got him banished from Verona. When he finds out that Juliet has supposedly died he then goes to where she lays and drinks poison which kills him rather than live without Juliet. By this we can tell that the feud affects Romeo in a big way because he falls in love with the daughter of his biggest enemy and although he does love Juliet and tries to avoid fighting with Tybalt he still does have a lot of hate for the Capulets and when Tybalt kills Mercutio it is too much for Romeo and he takes revenge on Tybalt.
Juliet is the daughter of lord and lady Capulet we first see her as a young fourteen year old who is a shy polite child who comes when she is called and answers to her mother “Madam I am here What is your will?” and when her mother discusses the topic of Paris’s interest in her she consents to go to the party and meet Paris. She also she will only let her looks go as far as her mother gives her permission. This shows us that Juliet used to be a sensible girl and obeyed orders. But then when she meets Romeo all changes all she cares about is Romeo she even gets married to him behind her parents back. She put all her trust and future into Romeo and even turns against her closest friend the nurse when she turns against Romeo. When her parents want her to marry Paris she says no but then they stop talking to her so she says yes but goes to the Friar for help. He gives her a potion that will make her look dead but she will just be in a deep sleep so she doesn’t have to marry Paris.
To understand the themes I will discuss how Shakespeare puts juxtaposition next to each other.
At the beginning of the play we have a fight scene in a public place and we see Sampson and Gregory who are servants to the Capulets and Abraham and Balthashar who are the servants to the Montague’s. A spirited exchange of vulgar jokes between servants opens the play and immediately links sex with conflict. In their bawdy quarrel, the servants’ references to “tool” and “naked weapon,” together with repeated images of striking and thrusting, shows how images of love and sex are mixed with violence and death and will continue to be throughout the play. The sudden switch from the comedic interplay between the servants to a potentially life-threatening situation shows the rapidly changing pace that drives the action of the rest of the play. For instance, Benvolio, whose name means “goodwill,” tries to act as a peacemaker by dividing the servants, but the quick-tempered “fiery Tybalt” forces him to draw his sword, and the atmosphere changes from harmony to hatred within a few lines. Then it goes onto where Romeo and Juliet first meet and kiss and when Romeo goes back to the Capulets house to see Juliet and they are on the balcony and Romeo asks Juliet to marry him. We then go on to the fight scene where Tybalt wants to fight Romeo but Romeo says “no” Mercutio fights in order to save Romeos honour. Romeo then steps in and grabs hold of murcutio to stop them from fighting and tybalt sneakily stabs murcutio under Romeo’s arm and kills him but just before he dies he curses both their houses ( a plague o’ both your houses) . Romeo then feels like he has a duty to take revenge on Tybalt and kills him which gets him banished from Verona. We then see Romeo and Juliet again still in love and talking about when they are going to meet up again. And Lord and lady Capulet want Paris and Juliet to marry as soon as possible but Juliet doesn’t want to get married because she is already married to Romeo.
I will now look at the use of language and how it is presented.
In the play we learn that Tybalt is a very aggressive person and a trouble make this is implied by the things that he says and does like in act 1 scene 1 (turn thee Benvolio! Look upon thy death) and when benvoilio mentioned peace he said (I hate the word as I hate hell and all Montague’s and thee). Tybalt is also a very sly person and Shakespeare suggests this when he says that Tybalt stabbed Mercutio under Tybalt’s arm. Where as Benvoilio comes across as a peace maker this is implied by the way he tries to break up the fights and from the things that he says. Mercutio we can tell is assertive and taunting and makes a situation worse (make it a word and a blow), (could you not take some occasion without giving). Romeo first comes across as lovesick and romantic because first he is in love with a girl called Rosaline and then when he meets Juliet he falls in love with her even when he finds out she’s a Capulet he still loves her and they end up marrying. But that all changes when Tybalt kills mercutio. Romeo then turns aggressive (my very friend) he then kills mercutio (for mercutio’s soul). Juliet first comes across as a young child but soon grows up when she meets Romeo and falls in love with him she even shut the nurse out of her life when she turns against Romeo.
I will now look at how the conflict is presented on stage.
The first performance of Romeo and Juliet took place in the autumn/winter of 1594, when the playhouses reopened for the first time after a sustained outbreak of the plague had forced the authorities to close all the playhouses in London in January 1593. During this period, over 10,000 people in London alone died from the disease, and Shakespeare emphasizes the relevance of the plague for his audience by using it in Romeo and Juliet to prevent Friar Laurence’s message from reaching Romeo in Mantua.The first performance of the play was at the playhouse called the Theatre where Shakespeare and his company the Lord Chamberlain’s Men were based until 1597. In the first performance of Romeo and Juliet, Richard Burbage, the company’s leading actor, who was in his mid-twenties, played Romeo. Juliet was played by Master Robert Goffe; young boy actors often played female roles because women did not legally appear on the stage until the late 17th century.
The fights and arguments that were played on stage would have had to be made to look real. When the play first came out in 1594 they didn’t have much scenery that just had simple things like a chair and table on stage. Also the characters would have had to practice a lot because they would have had to use a lot of facial expressions to show that they were angry or being serious. Also all of the conflict that goes on during the play is to do with the “ancient grudge” that goes on between the two families and if there was no feud then there would be no conflict in the play. The conflict is always presented as a fight or an argument and they use props such as swords and pretend poison bottles.
Conclusion
The play includes an important message about social violence because as the poem states “Civil blood makes civil hands unclean” the conflict that encountered between the two families was pointless because as we found out with Romeo and Juliet life is too short to hold a grudge because it just brings tragedy and death. The feud could have been solved a long time ago because nobody could remember what it was about or why it started and for it to be resolved. It took the two families losing loved ones and for the Prince and the other citizens of Verona to suffer because of the feud before the families realized that there was no point in the feud in the first place.
Romeo and Juliet is still a very much loved play because it still relates to most people that are forbidden to marry certain people maybe because of their race or maybe because there is a feud between families like Romeo and Juliet. It still relates to people all over the world because there are a lot of fighting and arguments going on in the world which could probably be resolved with a quick talk but people like to prove them selves to be the better person so things never get solved. The play also shows there is more to life than violence and that values of love and hate can be very strong.