The scene before Act 3 Scene 1 is the scene in which Romeo and Juliet are married and so Romeo is overjoyed, this explains why he is so friendly towards Tybalt as he no longer sees him as an enemy but as his brother in law. In Romeo and Juliet the contrast of love and hate is very clear especially in this scene in which straight after one of the happiest moments in the play there are two deaths of people very close to him due to the friction between the two families.
Every character in this Shakespearean tragedy who comes to a fatal end is always due to the characters fatal flaw. In Romeo’s case it is the way that he quickly recklessly falls In and out of love which brought him to an end. He was doomed since the point he was married to Juliet.
Romeo then enters into the scene and Tybalt turns his attention from Mercutio to Romeo and throws verbal abuse at him, however with Romeo being secretly married to Juliet he tries his best not to be angered by these remarks. When Tybalt sees Romeo is not angered he commands him to draw his sword but Romeo refuses to do so.
Tybalt insults Romeo by calling him a villain, which, in Shakespearian times could also mean commoner. This would have been taken very offensively by Romeo as he is a noble-man. As well as calling Romeo a villain he also refers to him as “my man” which means a servant and so to be called a servant to Tybalt is extremely offensive.
Mercutio then hastily draws his sword and announces that if Romeo will not fight Tybalt then he will.
Language is also used in this scene to intimidate the enemy. Mercutio tries to anger Tybalt in various different ways. First he uses his own name against him.
“Ratcatcher…king of cats..nine lives.”
He also mocks Tybalts fencing skills again like he did earlier in the play.
“Alla stoccata…Come, sir, your passado.”
Throughout the scene the atmosphere changes to being far darker and dangerous. You can see this in Mercutio who displays a much more serious tone rather than his usual humorous self and helps let the audience know that things could take a turn for the worst during this scene.
When the tone changes the audience can see that the hero, Romeo, is doomed and knows that his death will come soon.
When Mercutio and Tybalt begin to fight Romeo attempts to restore the peace by throwing himself between them, however Tybalt stabs Mercutio under Romeo’s arm and as Mercutio falls to the ground and Tybalt and his men run away. As Mercutio dies he curses the dispute between the two houses.
Another theme is that innocent lives are harmed by the feud between the two families. It is shown here when Mercutio curses the two families.
“A plague on both your houses!”
This is shown to be true as later in the play Paris dies because of the feud. Romeo and Juliet also die in the end due to the fact that they can’t be allowed to have happy lives due to the constant disputes between the two families.
Often in Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio speaks in prose to show informality, in this scene the fight is seen somewhat as a joke or banter. However when Mercutio is killed to show that they are now more serious they speak in blank unrhymed verse until the end of the scene.
Many citizens entered along with the Prince. Benvolio then tells the Prince what had happened, emphasizing Romeo’s attempt to keep the peace, however Tybalt’s aunt, Lady Capulet, tells the prince that Benvolio is lying to protect the Montagues and demands Romeos life however the Prince decides to banish Romeo from Verona and that if he is found in the city he is to be killed.
In rage at what Tybalt has done to Mercutio, Romeo begins to think he should have fought in place of Mercutio. Upon seeing Tybalt again he goes from loving him to hating him and hastily draws his sword and kills Tybalt before quickly fleeing from the scene.
A theme throughout the play is the idea of destiny or fate. This idea is strongly shown in this scene where after Romeo kills Tybalt he screams out:
“I am fortunes fool!”
This implies that he wasn’t in control of what he had done and that he was at the mercy of fate. Or it could be seen that Romeo sees what he has done and tries to find an excuse or someone to blame his actions on which is why he exclaims that he is fortunes fool.
This scene very much impacts on Romeo in a psychological way. He begins to think that his love for Juliet turned him to a woman and so was not able to fight for himself. He here decides that Tybalt was to blame for Mercutio’s death and in rage of what has happened is not able to make sensible, intellectual decisions but instead make rash stupid ones in order to take out his anger on those who had harmed him.
After this scene everything goes very downhill. It turns from a relatively happy story to a violent tragedy. I think that in this scene the most pivotal point in the play is the moment which Romeo kills Mercutio because all the rest of the events in the play revolve around this action.
Once Romeo is banished he realises that there is not much chance of having a happy and peaceful life with Juliet. This eventually leads to Romeo’s attempted rescue of Juliet and both of their deaths. The ending to the play leaves the watcher a feeling that human life was unnecessarily wasted, just like in all tragedies Shakespeare wrote.
