Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.”
Act 2 Scene 4 sees the nurse’s task to find Romeo. This is a comic scene, where Benvolio and Mercutio discuss Tybalt’s challenge. At the time when they are having the most fun, Juliet’s nurse appears and delivers Juliet’s message. During both these specific times, the ‘public place’ has been explored in different lights. Act 1 Scene 1 sees the square as a tense and brutal place, whereas in Act 2 Scene 4 you can sense the more humorous side to the ‘public place’. Shakespeare wrote both these scenes well, showing that the same spot in Verona can be adapted into different moods. Beginning Act 3 Scene 1 in the same place is excellent for creating an anxious ambience – no-one knows whether this is going to be a happy or sad scene.
The relationship between Mercutio and Benvolio at the beginning of the scene immediately throws fear over the audience. Benvolio is pleading Mercutio to go inside, as summer afternoons in Verona are extremely hot:
“I pray thee, good Mercutio, let’s retire.”
At this point, Benvolio notices that the Capulets are walking around the streets, and straight away expects the worse:
“And if we meet we shall not escape a brawl.”
The immense heat encourages even worse tempers that Mercutio is notorious for sporting anyway. The atmosphere is now on edge. Today, Mercutio is in the mood for a quarrel, so when Tybalt appears, also determined to fight, Mercutio jumps at the chance. Mercutio’s anger is enough to fill the audience with more anxiety – he will not let Tybalt have the last word. Mercutio is the first to begin the fight: “make it a word and a blow!” He is the first to draw his sword, thus making him the prime trouble maker. It is now inevitable to the audience that the public place is not going to be a place of happiness this time.
Mercutio is instantly irritated when Romeo takes Tybalt’s insult as mild, and therefore draws his sword to attack Tybalt and is quickly injured and dying.
When the Capulets are brought onto the scene, tension and excitement is heightened further. Tybalt, a Capulet himself and a naturally fiery character, leads them on. This is a good opportunity for Tybalt, as he feels he had unfinished business to complete in relation to the Capulet’s party: he never got his revenge. Mercutio refuses to leave the brawl – “I care not”. This proves how little thought and care he gives to consequences. The audience are now anxious: no-one has any idea about what is to follow, however the first exchange of words are surprisingly civil and polite – you would never imagine a death was to follow. When the Prince was brought onto the scene, he tries to impose peace, but it was too late: Romeo, as a punishment, is banished from Verona. This highly develops the excitement and confusion in the public place. The audience are aware that Romeo has recently married Juliet, whereas no-one on stage knows of their plans and arrangements. He is not at all in the mood for fighting – but Mercutio is. Whenever Romeo confesses his love for Tybalt, Mercutio becomes furious, but it is why he accepts his insults such as “villain” and “boy. Two fiery characters are now brawling in the streets of Verona.
“Let Romeo hence in haste,
Else, when he is found, that hour is his last.”
Benvolio calmly tries to reason with the others, and what he says reflects what the audience are most probably thinking. Mercutio and Tybalt would never dream of “reasoning coldly” (earlier, Tybalt had clamed “Peace. I hate the word.”)
By the time they even gathered at the pubic place, everyone knew that a fight was about to happen – but death was not expected in the slightest, it was accidental. The fact that Romeo stood between then, trying to prevent them from injuring one another, shows he cares but when he moves out of the way, they continue as before. Once their fighting is over, we are again reminded of the Prince’s words – and Romeo is banished from Verona.
