romeo and juliet who is responsible for the death of mercutio act 3 scene 1

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Who is responsible for the death of Mercutio in Act 3 Scene 1?

Act 3, Scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet is an important point in the play where Shakespeare creates a dramatic and action filled scene. I will examine this scene to see who is responsible for Mercutio’s death.

Act 3, Scene 1 is set in the streets of Verona and this sets the scene and creates a tense atmosphere as the Montague and the Capulet families are at war and have caused fights and violence on the streets before.  

At the beginning of the scene, Benvolio is trying to persuade Mercutio to go home as he is worried that if they meet the Capulets there will be a fight and they won’t ‘scape a brawl'. This helps to create more tension as we know what will happen if they meet with the Capulets.

You could argue that if Mercutio had listened to Benvolio he wouldn’t have died as he is trying to make Mercutio go home but he doesn’t listen to him.

Although Mercutio is always joking and makes fun of Benvolio and says ‘Thou! why, thou wilt quarrel with a man that hath a hair more, or a hair less, in his beard, than thou hast: thou wilt quarrel with a man for cracking nuts’, he is also up for a fight as his long speech about ‘quarreling’shows.

You could say that Mercutio is asking for trouble as he is so wound up and when Tybalt and the other Capulets enter and Tybalt asks for ‘a word with one of you’ he answers by saying ‘make it a word and a blow’. Benvolio is trying to calm everyone down by saying that people are watching them and that they should both ‘reason coldly of your grievances’ although Mercutio says ‘I will not budge’ and is interrupted when Romeo turns up. Mercutio is being very stubborn here and will not listen to Benvolio who is trying to reason with him.

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Mercutio gets angry when Tybalt says to him  ‘Mercutio, thou consort'st with Romeo’ and interrupts him as he thinks that Tybalt  is trying to insult them both by misunderstanding the word ‘consort’ to mean that Tybalt is saying that they are ‘minstrels’.

Mercutio seems to misunderstand Tybalt on purpose, and when Romeo arrives and Tybalt says ,'Here comes my man,' and thinks that he is trying to insult Romeo by calling him a servant or a friend and answers Tybalt by saying ‘But I'll be hanged, sir, if he wear your livery’. You could say that by deliberately misunderstanding him ...

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