However, Mercutio begins to get frustrated with Romeo and starts to lose his patience. Romeo refuses to cheer up and go to the ball because of a dream he had. Mercutio mimics Romeo by saying he also had a dream, and begins a speech about Queen Mab, the ‘fairies midwife’ who helps give birth to people’s dreams, and that dreams are simply what people are wishing for, and they are not prophecies like Romeo believes his dream was. Romeo stops Mercutio and says that he ‘talk’st of nothing’ and thus agreeing with Mercutio’s speech that dreams are ‘children of an idle brain’. Mercutio is a strong minded character, witty and entertaining, and you can tell in this scene that he cares a lot for Romeo and is trying hard to get Romeo back his usual self. Mercutio’s sensible and serious speech contrasts with Romeo’s melodramatic mood.
Mercutio’s next entrance is after the Capulet ball, then Romeo has gone back to the Capulet House after the ball in search of Juliet and Mercutio and Benvolio do not know where he is and are looking for him. Mercutio believes that Romeo is still in love with Rosaline, when Romeo has fallen for Juliet. Mercutio continues to mock Romeo, calling him ‘humours! madman! passion! lover!’ like lover’s moods, which Mercutio thinks is quite daft. Mercutio continues to tease Romeo, who is absent, and makes jokes, that Romeo is in lust, not love. When Mercutio and Benvolio finally give up their search and head home, Romeo says the Mercutio ‘jests at scars that never felt a word’ implying that Mercutio has not been in love so cannot know the pain of it. There is a contrast in the attitudes that Mercutio and Romeo show. Mercutio is loud, slightly rude and annoyed that his friend is acting so different because of his love-sickness.
The next morning, Mercutio and Benvolio continue their search for Romeo. They assume that he stayed out all night, brooding over Rosaline. They also talk about a letter that Tybalt has sent Romeo, a challenge for turning up at the Capulet ball the previous night. Mercutio is not too fussed by this, and claims that Tybalt is a ‘Prince of Cats’ and even though he has been trained by professionals, he is not naturally gifted at duelling. At this point, Romeo arrives and is back to his normal cheery self having met his new love Juliet the previous night, and had just been to see Friar Lawrence who agreed to arrange a wedding for the couple. Mercutio is delighted to have his old friend back and they have their old word play game. Mercutio believes he has bought his old friend ‘back’ to their friendship. Then, the nurse enters with her servant Peter. Mercutio teases the Nurse, and sometimes he can take his jokes a bit too far, and he ends up upsetting the Nurse, that she cannot not tell Romeo the message from Juliet. Romeo explains that Mercutio ‘loves to hear himself talk’. This is an astute definition of Mercutio.
Later in the play, on a very hot day, Mercutio and Benvolio are hot and bothered, and are wandering around Verona. Tybalt and his friends enter the scene as Mercutio and Benvolio are joking around. Mercutio attempts to pick a fight even though Tybalt greets Mercutio and Benvolio in a polite manner, but Tybalt brushes aside Mercutio’s challenge as he wants to fight Romeo to defend his family’s honour. Mercutio draws his sword as Benvolio tries to calm him down as Romeo arrives, fresh and happy as he has just been married to Juliet, and so refuses to battle with Tybalt saying that ‘the reason that [Romeo] have to love thee’ but Tybalt does not know that Romeo has married Juliet and is now part of the Capulet family as well. Mercutio becomes agitated and assumes that Romeo is a coward for not fighting, he starts to insult Tybalt, and as Tybalt is angry with Romeo for refusing to fight, he begins to battle Mercutio. Romeo attempts to ‘forbear this outrage’ but Mercutio is wounded instead.
Mercutio continues to joke and word plays even though he knows that he has been fatally wounded and that he will die. He screams a prophetic curse, “a plague o’both your houses’ and all his friends think that he is joking. As well as being a prophecy, this is also an acknowledgement that his death was stemmed from the Montague/Capulet quarrel.
Mercutio is a proud and strong-minded character, and will not give up easily. His offensive and challenging character initiates the fight between him and Tybalt and his deaths leads onto Romeo killing Tybalt out of distraught and despair, Romeo being banished to Mantua, and eventually Romeo and Juliet killing themselves. The relationship between Romeo and Mercutio was deep and meaningful, which is why it triggered the chain of events leading to both lover’s death. If the pair were not so close, then Romeo would have not become so distressed and gone after Tybalt. Mercutio is a very energetic and lively character; the play would seem slightly less interesting without Mercutio’s wit and sense of humour.
