In this essay, I will examine and describe the relationships of Juliet, Nurse, Mercutio and Tybalt. These characters are all from the play 'Romeo and Juliet' written by William Shakespeare.

Deepak Tailor

08/05/2007

Romeo and Juliet

Introduction

In this essay, I will examine and describe the relationships of Juliet, Nurse, Mercutio and Tybalt. These characters are all from the play ‘Romeo and Juliet’ written by William Shakespeare.

Juliet is a young, beautiful teenager who is aged 14. Juliet is set to marry Paris because of her mother and father who think that Paris should be a good husband. However, Juliet does not want to marry Paris. When Juliet first meets Paris, they fall instantly in love and they decide to get married, but Juliet discovers that Romeo is a Montague.

Tybalt is a fiery character who loves a good fight. Tybalt is Juliet’s cousin and a Capulet. Tybalt has no sense of fun and is often too serious. Tybalt is also a family man who honours family members and tradition.

The nurse is a middle-aged carer. She is a carer for Juliet and looks after her. Mr and Mrs Capulet pay her to look after Juliet. The nurse is a

Loving character, who acts like a mother to Juliet.

Mercutio is Romeo’s friend he is a true friend to Romeo. Mercutio is very humorous and loves to joke. He is very loyal to his true friend Romeo.

All four characters do know each other but some characters like the Nurse and Tybalt do not know each other well. These two characters also do not meet in the play. On the other hand, Juliet and the nurse have a good relationship and talk regularly in the play. Juliet and Tybalt have a good and close relationship as they are cousins and have known each other throughout childhood. Juliet and Mercutio have a good relationship because Romeo is in love with Juliet. Tybalt and Mercutio have a big rivalry and are always fighting, as a result of this Mercutio dies fighting with Tybalt. Finally, Mercutio and the Nurse hardly speak to each other but do know of each other because their friends have spoken of them.

Shakespeare portrays each character differently, in the way they speak in the play. He uses different types of languages for each character. Shakespeare describes Juliet as a helpless young love struck girl. In the play, Juliet speaks in prose as someone who is lost in a big world. Juliet talks a lot about Romance. “Oh, Romeo, Romeo wherefore art thou Romeo”. This quote tells us she is a little girl madly in love Romeo.

The nurse talks as if she is the mother in the play and as a substitute to Lady Capulet. As we know already, she ...

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The nurse talks as if she is the mother in the play and as a substitute to Lady Capulet. As we know already, she acts as a mother towards Juliet. “Thou wast the prettiest baby that e’er I nursed”. This quote tells us that the nurse is a dedicated mother.

Tybalt is always talking about fighting or getting into a brawl, which is why Shakespeare portrays Tybalt as someone who talks his mind and very directly. We see this fiery character in act 1 scene 1, where Tybalt and Benvolio are fighting. “Talks of peace, I hate the word, as I hate hell, and hate thee”. These quotes show how Shakespeare portrays Tybalt in the play.

Shakespeare describes Mercutio as a fun and humorous character but who is willing to fight for his pride. “nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance”. “If love be rough with you, be rough with love”. These quotes show us how Mercutio makes everything into a joke but still gives good advice.

Romeo and Juliet contain tragedy as the main genre. The book Romeo and Juliet was written in 1567 and performed first at 1595. When the play was written, the play related to the social ideals of the time. The social ideals where performed in the play when young Juliet had a fixed marriage to Paris. This was very common at the time in 1595.

The importance of the relationships in the play are evident. Romeo and Juliet’s relationship is the most important because the whole play is based around these characters. The purpose of these two characters is to guide the audience through love, drama and of course tragedy. Shakespeare has put these characters in the play because it keeps the audience entertained. These characters die in the play to reflect the mood of the play. Romeo dies in the play after swallowing some poison. Juliet dies in the play after she stabs herself with a dagger after finding out that Romeo has killed himself. Mercutio dies when he is killed after protecting Romeo. Romeo then gets his own back when he kills Tybalt. The whole plot is over exaggerated with all the rivalries, deaths and love stories in the play. The nurse does not die in the play because she is a main character. If Shakespeare does kill her off the play would not survive because she is the mother of the play and a cheerful character who knows almost everyone in the play.

The experience of the characters is very telling. The more experienced characters are less hasty in their decisions. An example of this is when Juliet drinks the poison, after finding Romeo dead. If Juliet was older at this time, she may not have made the same decisions. “O happy dagger, this is thy sheath they rust, and let me die”.

Some of the characters talk a lot to each other including Juliet and the nurse. These two characters talk in prose. When Romeo and Juliet talk, they talk very romantically and in verse. If the did not know each other there would be no love or hate between the families. This feud is because of an ancient grudge.

The four characters relationships have a huge effect on the audience. The plot of Romeo and Juliet would not be the same without these characters because each of these characters plays a big part in the play. Juliet plays the biggest part and without her, the plot would fall apart because no one would be in love Romeo.

At the end of the play, the four characters have had a big effect on the play. I think Juliet played the most important role because she is the lover of Romeo. Secondly, I think the nurse had a big impact on the audience because she is stuck in the middle of Romeo and Juliet and is also a huge gossip. Finally, Tybalt and Mercutio have a minimum effect apart from being cousin and friend to the main character. I do not think they had much effect on the play because they did not have to much to say apart from getting killed. This leads to the death of Paris.

Shakespeare is trying to send out the message of peace and harmony to the Elizabethan audience. Shakespeare does this by showing Love, rivalry and Death. There is love in the play because of Romeo and Juliet. There is rivalry because of the Capulet and Montague feud that has raged on for many years. The final message is death of Romeo and Juliet. All these factors are important because the theatre shows where the only source of entertainment in those times and for most the only education.

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