Is Mercutio ‘comedy personified?’ We learn a lot about Mercutio in his first scene. He begins the scene jokingly and although he does not use puns or innuendoes at first, he talks in a familiar style, in prose. The prose is important as it makes him sound more natural, it is a more conversational tone, and while he jokes, ‘If love be rough with you, be rough with love,’ the audience will find him a very attractive character because he speaks like they do, while amusing them. Relating to Mercutio like this is very significant as it therefore lulls the audience into a false state of reality, they temporarily forget the doom of the play and it makes the shock even more horrific when he dies, as they feel they have ‘got to know’ him. Mercutio uses many puns and sexual innuendoes in his later scenes, ‘If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark,’ and, ‘…O that she were and open-arse, thou a pop’rin pear!’ and these comical and very vulgar puns show us how Mercutio is a very lively and humorous character. The language he uses, puns and innuendoes along with his familiar style show Mercutio as definitely ‘comedy personified’.
On the other hand, we can learn a lot more about Mercutio from Act one, Scene four, where we see another side of him. Mercutio comes across as being unpredictable and violent, as he changes from being joyful to being angry about dreams. We can see this from the way he speaks, ‘… I talk of dreams, which are the children of an idle brain…’ The way that Mercutio changes personality suddenly, and how his words seem to become more and more irate and horrible, ‘This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs, that presses them and makes them first to bear,’ all make him seem erratic and perhaps even frightening. This other side to Mercutio that talks with the powerful, strong metaphorical images in verse is not how we imagine comedy. However, although Mercutio is unpredictable in this scene, he is mainly a witty character, who appeals to the audience greatly with his language used. I therefore believe that he is ‘comedy personified’ as he is very clever and comical overall. I think that his death and actions are very important to the play, as he has a fascinating character so that the audience can relate to him, the tension builds up and they become especially upset and shocked when he is murdered.
The play is not all comical before the death of Mercutio, as there is another powerful character called Tybalt. Tybalt has the same unpredictable character as Mercutio in scene four as he uses violent words like, ‘heartless,’ and about the word peace, ‘I hate the word,’ showing his aggressive nature. Tybalt speaks in verse and uses alliteration, and blunt consonants to talk with his proud words, ‘…by the stock and honour of my kin, to strike him dead, I hold it not a sin,’ proving him to be very vicious and vitriolic. The language he uses, contrasts with the natural, prose style of the comical Mercutio and the way Mercutio uses puns and innuendoes. However, Mercutio’s passionate words like, ‘misfortune’ and ‘sluttish,’ when he professed his strong feelings about dreams are not unlike the proud words of Tybalt, showing a stark similarity. Mercutio is shown as being hot-tempered in the way that his mood changed abruptly, in the same way that Tybalt quickly gets violent when he sees Romeo at his party, ‘Fetch me my rapier, boy,’ he says almost instantaneously. A comedy, including, ‘light and amusing characters,’ with, ‘laughable characters and incidents,’ could not possibly include two very strong, erratic characters without becoming tragic. Their huge personalities overwhelm the storyline so that the audience would concentrate on them more instead of the plot. Such hate, and great emotions are very miserable and tragic in themselves, and so it is proven when Tybalt murders Mercutio, that their co-existence would indeed end in tragedy.
The two characters are not the only examples of tragedy before Mercutio’s death though. There are no large tragedies but there are smaller, more effective hints of the tragedy to come. The very beginning of the play begins with the depressing, tragic prologue. The sonnet is very intriguing and sets the play’s tone affectively; it talks of the tragedy of the two lovers, ‘ancient grudge,’ ‘blood,’ and ‘death-marked love,’ which are all powerful words that are not easily forgotten. Another example is the speech by the Prince; he uses a very authoritative language as he speaks in verse to the ‘two households’. His warning, that the next ‘brawl’ will end in death, his strong and memorable imagery, ‘…purple fountains issuing from your veins,’ and his last words, ‘Once more, on pain of death, all men depart,’ are extremely effective and threatening. No matter, how much comedy and light heartedness follows the violent words of Tybalt, the Prince and the prologue, the audience cannot forget the viciousness of the language. Such words and clues of tragedies are disturbing and are the only vague hints that Shakespeare has manipulated the audience into thinking about the comedy of the play and not the tragedy.
So far one has seen that there is lots of comedy before the death and a bit of tragedy too, but what about after the death?
Mercutio is murdered in Act three, Scene one by Tybalt and there are many reasons why Shakespeare might have killed him off. Firstly, it was needed for the plot, as to avenge his friend Romeo kills Tybalt and is therefore banished and the story continues thereafter. The death also makes the audience’s attention go back to Romeo and away from the powerful Mercutio, while also making the audience see him in a different light. Romeo’s language changes as he becomes less romantic, away from his passionate oxymorons, ‘… O brawling love, O loving hate,’ to a more masculine character, using violent words, ‘fire-eyed fury,’ and ‘black fate’ for example. Finally, the death is extremely shocking as it increases the tension and suddenly reminds everyone of the awful feud.
After the death of Mercutio, there are hardly any cases of comedy. In Act three, Scene five Juliet tries to convince Romeo that it is still the night and this could be portrayed as comical as it is romantic, childish talk. Later on in the play, Peter jokes to the musicians by insulting them, ‘What say you Simon Catling?’ and afterwards, ‘What say you Hugh Rebeck?’ calling them by the names of their instruments. This also enables it to be portrayed as a comical moment as it is quite witty. On the other hand, the fact that the musicians do not retaliate and their negative reaction could be used in another way, to emphasise the fact that the play is now very tragic and that the comical aspects are spent. Previously humorous characters become serious, for example, Sampson and Gregory are not seen again and there are no repeated cases of using amusing language, like puns and innuendoes as in the first two acts. The hilarious character of the Nurse with her boisterous mouth, looses her amusement and becomes normal, neither funny nor tragic.
Unlike the lack of comedy in the second half of the play after Mercutio’s death, there is lots of contrasting tragedy. The play continues with large, captivating tragic events as the entire tone of the play has changed. Romeo’s love and trust for his beloved friend makes him feel the need to avenge him, therefore setting off a long chain of devastating events. Romeo and Juliet, both separately threaten to commit suicide as they cannot bear to live without the other, ‘…I long to die.’ Sudden announcements and actions like that, affect the audience greatly, keeping them intrigued and hoping against hope that the two lovers may survive. After Mercutio’s death, it seems as though nothing can go well any longer, Romeo is banished, Lady Capulet says she will poison him in Mantua and Juliet is to be forced to marry Paris. Catastrophic event occurs after catastrophic event and it all piles up and the audience become enclosed in doom and tragedy. Shakespeare had built up a fake hope with his comedy and after Mercutio’s death it was shattered, leaving them hopeless. However, when the Friar comes up with the ‘remedy’ the audience would again become optimistic, desperate for the young lovers to get away together, wrapped up in the captivating plot. Unfortunately, but skilfully, Shakespeare finishes the play by the predestined tragedy as Romeo and Juliet both die. It is one of the most tragic endings to a story in history and is a huge change from the beginning of the play.
Shakespeare was, I think, a very skilled dramatist. As we can see from ‘Romeo and Juliet’ he knew exactly how to incorporate comedy, tragedy and history into his plays. In the beginning acts of the play, Shakespeare cleverly builds up tension by masking small indications of the future tragedy in many comical scenes, therefore when the death occurs it is a huge shock and very upsetting. The way that Shakespeare emphasizes the upcoming death of the two lovers in his prologue too, is perhaps bizarre structuring, however the sonnet is in fact full of violent words, for example ‘fatal’ and ‘rage’ so it sets the tone of the play while lingering in the minds of the audience and building up suspense. Finally, the most amazing dramatic devices I think Shakespeare used are the way he played with the audience’s emotions, giving them hope and then dashing it, keeping the audience constantly intrigued to the very end.
I believe that Mercutio is ‘comedy personified’ as he is a character who uses language, puns and innuendoes, for example, to form a comical script very affectively. Mercutio’s death most certainly changes a lot of things in the play, from different languages used to different character personalities. Before Mercutio’s death there are many cases of comedy and a few bits of comedy, but in stark contrast, after Mercutio’s death there is much more tragedy and hardly any comedy at all. Therefore, I definitely believe that his death creates many language changes, personality changes and occurrences change from being, ‘laughable incidents’ to ‘terrible or sorrowful events.’ Consequently, Mercutio’s ‘death marks a shift from the comic to the tragic.’
