This initial conversation between Mercutio and Benvolio is used by Shakespeare to raise the tension. Mercutio teases Benvolio for being quick tempered and shows the audience that he has no respect for the way Benvolio acts, kind and gentle. It is clear to the audience that Mercutio would be up for a fight. The way he jokes about a fight in a tavern with swords gives us an impression of how violent the streets of Verona can be. This quite light opening to the scene is dramatically contrasted with the gruesome ending.
The entrance of the Capulets is emphasised by Benvolio’s sudden shout, “By my head, here come the Capulets.” He would have said this in quite a shocked and scared way. This would make the audience worry and makes the scene more dramatic because it suggests that their arrival might be going to lead to some kind of violence.
As Tybalt enters, Shakespeare makes use of the technique of a dramatic aside when he says to his friends “Follow me close for I will speak to them”. The audience hear this but Mercutio and Benvolio don’t so it makes the audience again expect trouble. Tybalt’s change of tone to a friendly “Gentlemen good den” makes the audience wonder about his true motives and what will happen next. They already know from this aside that Tybalt’s friendly approach isn’t really that friendly.
Shakespeare then raises the tension even further because the supposedly friendly banter between Tybalt and Mercutio is delivered with real nastiness. The words are friendly but the tone is hostile. The over the top politeness borders on sarcasm and could be played that way by the actor who plays Tybalt. Even though Mercutio’s tone is quite comical and humorous, his words are layered with malice.
Shakespeare tries to structure their argument so that it resembles a verbal swordfight, with attacks and counter attacks. By doing this he is building up the tension leading to the real swordfight. Their quick talking also helps to speed up the pace of the scene and makes it more exciting. Mercutio deliberately misunderstands Tybalt’s meaning of the word “consort”. Shakespeare uses this to show that there is no sympathy between them. They are edging towards a fight
Tybalt: “Mercutio, thou consort’st with Romeo.”
Mercutio: “Consort! What, dost thou make us minstrels?”
The audience would have been concentrating on the argument at this point to see what will come out of it, so when Benvolio interrupts, it is like he stops the action and makes the audience wonder what is going to happen next. It sets the scene for the arrival of Romeo and the tension rises again when he does. The person that Tybalt was hoping to meet has arrived.
This is where Shakespeare uses a technique called dramatic irony. Dramatic irony is where the audience knows something that the characters on the stage don’t. The audience already know that Romeo has married Juliet in secret so they will be anxious to see what will happen next. They also know that the ending is not a happy one so they know that what does happen next is going to be one of the most important parts of the play.
Romeo’s speech patterns are not as sudden or nearly as violent as Mercutio’s and Tybalt’s. He takes his time to say what he wants to say and in the end doesn’t say it all. Shakeseare makes it a lot longer than it needs to be when all the audience want to see is Romeo telling Tybalt he has married Juliet - his cousin. In the end Mercutio suddenly loses his temper and begins a serious verbal attack on Tybalt, referring back to the previous conversation that him and Tybalt were having about his fighting skills and says,” alla stoccata carries it away”. It shows that after all is said and done the favourite way to settle an argument in Verona is to have a fight.
Shakespeare lightens the atmosphere by using humour in the scene, which makes it more varied and entertaining for the audience. He keeps Mercutio true to his character when he gets him to joke about during the swordfight and when he is dying. He calls Tybalt ,”Good King of cats” making fun of his name. He makes a pun about himself being, “a grave man” tomorrow, meaning that he will be dead as well as serious.
The way that Mercutio dies is very important to the way the play develops. Romeo tries to play the peacemaker and get between Tybalt and Mercutio but all he does is stop his friend from defending himself which allows Tybalt to stab him. The nastiness of the situation is shown when Mercutio blames Romeo and curses both the Montagues and the Capulets. He says,
”A plague o’ both your houses”
It also shows that whatever Romeo tries to do he can’t cheat his fate.
This is a pivotal point in the whole play. From being a peacemaker and a lover Romeo turns into a killer. Romeo totally changes after Mercutio’s death and becomes like the others in Verona and follows the code of revenge. Shakespeare also gets Romeo to speak differently. When he was trying to play the peacemaker he was calm in the way he talked. Now Shakespeare uses the technique of assonance and repetition to show Romeo’s anger and determination and to wind up the tension.
“Alive,in triumph! And Mercutio slain!
Away to heaven, respective levity
And fire-eyed fury be my conduct now!”
After Romeo kills Tybalt he realises what he has done in a fit of temper. He says,
“I am fortune’s fool”. There is more dramatic irony here as the audience already know that Romeo and Juliet are going to die and that they are “star-crossed lovers”.
Shakespeare again keeps the audience on tenterhooks though by getting the Prince to banish him rather than to ask for his execution. It is ironic that it is Benvolio the peacemaker who is arrested after the deaths of Tybalt and Mercutio but Shakespeare needs somebody to report to the Prince what happened and so he carries on in his role as narrator.
The reactions of the Montagues and Capulets show how they still hate each other despite everything and are looking for more blood. Lady Capulet vows for revenge and demands it. “Romeo slew Tybalt. Romeo must not live”. As the scene ends tension is lower but there is an air of foreboding and the audience knows that things can only get worse, they just don’t know exactly how.
I think that Act III, Scene 1 is important and is the most pivotal point of the play. Everything before builds up to it and everything afterwards is a result of it. When Tybalt kills Mercutio, Romeo goes crazy and seeks revenge on him because he killed someone he deeply loved. Romeo can’t control his anger and so contributes to his own unhappiness despite himself. The murder of Tybalt would have come as a shock to the audience as Romeo’s character goes from” lover” to “hater”. It also shocks the audience because before the murder he refused to fight Tybalt when he was insulting him. It shows us that in the end, Romeo has the potential to be just as hot headed as Mercutio. Another apparent change in this scene is the atmosphere which becomes tenser as the characters are behaving differently and out of control. Act III, Scene 1 is definitely the most pivotal point of the play, because this is the twist in the story. After this everything changes. The Prince banishes Romeo which eventually leads to the final tragedy. This scene is a turning point which can be felt in the mood, the way the characters behave and what happens as a result. It is where happiness and comedy turn to tragedy.
