‘If love be rough with you be rough with love’. This reveals how cynical he is towards love. The notion of love amuses Mercutio. He has a down to earth view of love which revolves around physical passion. His profane view of love emphasizes the strength and purity of Romeo. We are attracted to his character because he is so captivating and lively.
He has a very vivid imagination. His brilliant imaginative language contrasts sharply with hat of his melancholy friend Romeo. He loves the sound of his voices. His words are uncontrollable. Romeos says ’will speak more in a minute then he would stand in a day. This conveys how talkative Mercutio is. His imagination is shown in the Queen Mab speech which he perform actively. Mercutio says dreams are inhabited by the fairy Queen Mab and Romeo is enchanted by her. The dreams he talks about are full of bizarre examples of wishful thinking and vain fantasies. Mercutio is trying to tell Romeo that dreams are just a fantasy. That dreams are just a figment of our imagination. He makes a mockery of dreams making dreams seem so surreal. Mercutio performance of dreams is quite emotional.
‘ I talk of dreams which are the children of an idle brain’. It is clear that he sees dreams as dysfunctional part of children’s brain. Mercutio states that ladies dream of kisses, lawyers wish for more fees and the courtiers wish for someone to courtesy. All the fantasies they are all grasping and self centered. Then dreams he of another benefice’. This implies that people dream to benefit themselves.
Mercutio is a contrast to Romeo. His language contrasts with maturing Romeo. Romeo is more focused and serious but on the other hand Mercutio is wild and unserious . Mercutio is more intelligent and unromantic as it seems he hasn’t really had good luck with love. Romeo seems to be fooled by love and falls in love very quickly. Mercutio is very aware of the effects of love.
‘If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark’. Thus demonstrates that Mercutio has no faith in love and he believes it is not accurate. Romeo is heavy with sadness and has a soul of lead; he has been pierced with Cupid’s arrow. He over shadows Romeo.
When Mercutio marks his final appearance of Mercutio. After this all the attention that has been diverted towards Mercutio was now concentrated only on Romeo and Juliet.
When Mercutio was neutral to the feud he didn’t get himself involve with anything that happens. But once he included himself in the feud and got himself entangled. When Mercutio fights with Tybalt he becomes fatally wounded. Even when he is dying he doesn’t seem to take it seriously . He refers to Tybalt as a cat with nine lives. As he lay dying his language was still full of humor .He describes his wound as a scratch. He talks about his own funeral and burial. He tells Romeo that if he asks for him he will find him a ‘grave man’ meaning he will be in his grave. Mercutio leaves the scene cursing both the Montagues and the Capulets.
Now that Mercutio was eradicated from the scene so we can concentrate on the main characters. Mercutio was so diverting and full of life. He brought the humor out of every sad situation. Shakespeare only eliminated Mercutio so early in the play way because he wanted to get serious and straight to the main point. Mercutio was aware of the misguided attitude and false perception of life that is what made him such an extravagant character.