Mercutio plays a vital role of a person who thinks he is higher in respect than others. This may be because he is a kinsman.
Some of Mercutio’s words have double meaning, “Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man” this can mean you would find me a serious man or he would be dead. This is also a good example of him using humour even when he is fatally wounded. Another good example would be, “Ay, Ay ay a scratch, a scratch” this could mean he is saying the cut is only a scratch or he could be talking about Tybalt who is referred as a cat. However I think that Mercutio is only joking even when he is seriously injured.
Mercutio gives the two families a plague by ordering, “A plague on both your houses!” he declares this three times which was meant to be bad luck in Shakespeare’s time. Mercutio is getting his revenge back on Romeo (Montague) and Juliet’s (Capulet) fate, which makes Romeo a tragic hero.
As Mercutio awaits his death he is still making up jokes about his cut, “tis not so deep as a well nor so wide as a church door; but tis enough”. Mercutio has no fear as he approaches Tybalt he expressers, “by my heel I care not”.
Tybalt is a character who is totally addicted to fighting we know this because Romeo says, “doth must excuse the appertaining rage” and Tybalt replies, “turn and draw” .We also know he likes to fight because of him being involved in every single fight in “Romeo and Juliet”.
Tybalt is mentioned as a cat though out the scene here are two examples, “Tybalt you rat-catcher” and “good king of cats”. Tybalt is known as “rat-catcher” because that was the name given to the cat in the book called Reynard the Fox or the modern one called Tibby.
Romeo is a character who is perfect but has to suffer many downfalls because of Juliet. I would like to emphasise that Juliet is the character who changes Romeos fate. After Romeo falls in love with her he losers a friend, kills Tybalt and dies at the end. However he had to fall in love with her and die at the end due to it being written in his destiny as this sentence of the sonnet indicates, “a pair of star cross’d lovers take their life’s”.
Romeo is convinced that Juliet has made weak as a woman for example Romeo states, “O sweet Juliet, thy beauty hath me effeminate, and in my temper soften valour’s steel”.
Romeo realizes that this entire killing is going to in tragedy for him so he defines, “This days black fate on moes day doth depend”.
As Romeo begins to notice he has been cursed he yells, “O I am fortune’s fool!”.
Fate has a key role within act3 scene1.Fate is important to give the play a tragic ending. Mercutio also mentions fate with a touch of revenge when he says, “a curse on both your houses”.
Fate has an impact on love by making children of enemy houses love each other. Fate is to blame for the death of Mercutio and the death of Tybalt so that Romeo can be exiled. Fate is to be blamed because Romeo is cursed with revenge to make him in to a tragic hero.
In Shakespeare’s days revenge was also very famous in play such as “changeling” in which Tomazo gets revenge for the death of his brother. There was also “Hamlet” which was also written by Shakespeare as well as “Romeo and Juliet” in which Hamlet seeks revenge over the death of his father. “Romeo and Juliet” can be compared to these for revenge and tragedy in some cases.
In “Romeo and Juliet” the main person who wants revenge is Romeo whose language is often full of doom.
A modern director may include the new weapons such as guns as this is very demanded by the audience of today. The director could make the play intensively dramatic by using red lighting whenever someone dies. The director may involve a police commissioner instead of the prince because the police make the peace today like the kinsman’s did in Shakespeare’s time. He may decide to set the scene in a modern well-known city. He also like to use modern clothes as this will be good to use in a modern city.
The language in this scene is extremely good put in an example would be when Tybalt say, “No better term than this-thou art a villain” and Romeo replies, “Tybalt the reason I have to love thee”. Here Romeo reflects Tybalt’s words to keep peace. Romeo users “love” when Tybalt users “villain”. Another example would be when Tybalt says, “this shall not excuse thy injuries” and Romeo replies, “ I do protest I never injured thee”. Here Romeo users “injured” when Tybalt users “injuries” .
Lady Capulets speech emphasises on the importance of family she says, “O cousin, O my Brothers child!, O prince, O husband!” .The “O” in her speech show real emotional feelings and reactions.
In my opinion I think that this scene is when fate, revenge and tragedy come into play. However this is the main scene, which involves revenge from Mercutio because of his death and revenge from Romeo because of Tybalt murdering Mercutio.
By Fiaz Mohammed.
