Zounds, consort! – line 42 - 45
As Tybalt and Mercutio are at the point of drawing their swords Benvolio steps in and says:
Benvolio: we talk here in the public haunt of men.
Either withdraw onto some private place,
Or reason cloudy of your grievances
Or else depart. Here all eyes gaze on us. – line 46 - 49
This shows Benvolio to be a peace keeper and some one who does not really want to be involved in the feud and keeps neutral although he is friends with the Montagues’.
Romeo shortly arrives on the scene; Tybalt turns his attention from Mercutio and starts on Romeo. Tybalt insults Romeo to provoke him to fight but Romeo does not retaliate.
Tybalt: Romeo, the love I bare thee can afford
No better term then this: thou art villain.
Romeo: Tybalt, the reason why I have to love thee
Doth much excuse the appertaining rage
To such a greeting: villain am I none,
Therefore farewell. I see thou knowest me not. – line 56 - 61
Romeo at this point has just come from his wedding to Juliet and is now related to Tybalt so he is reluctant to fight as he would prefer to keep peace with the Capulet’s and resolve their feud instead of fighting with them. However Tybalt still wants revenge on Romeo for going to the Capulet party and insults Romeo even more, when Romeo still does not defend his honour Mercutio is infuriated and he himself comes forward to fight on the behalf of Romeo. Mercutio takes Romeos lack of retaliation to Tybalt insults as cowardice and Mercutio is now set on fighting Tybalt to defend his friend. The fight ends tragically when Mercutio is killed by Tybalt as Romeo was between them trying to break up the fight. Tybalt and his followers leave the scene swiftly as Mercutio lies on the street reminiscing in the last few minutes of his life. During this time Mercutio still jokes about his fatal injury but he also takes a serious turn when he curses the two families’ feud.
Mercutio: I am hurt.
A plague o’ both your houses. I am sped. – Line 87 – 87
Then finally he dies on the street. This is a very emotional time for Romeo and he loses his sense of not fighting Tybalt and when Tybalt returns on the scene he draws his sword to revenge his friend’s death. The vicious sword fight ends in Romeo Slaying Tybalt and Benvolio tell Romeo to leave before people arrive to the scene and he is caught.
The Prince arrives on the scene and Benvolio told the truth about what had happened and did not lie to save his friend Romeo from punishment. Lady Capulet was devastated by Tybalts death and wanted Romeo to pay for her nephews’ death. Lady Capulet even lied to see that Romeo got punished.
Lady Capulet: He is a Kinsman to the Montague,
Affection makes him false. He speaks not true.
Some twenty of them fought in this black strife
And all those twenty could kill but one life.
I beg for justice, which thou, Price must give.
Romeo slew Tybalt. Romeo must not live. – line 172 – 177
The Prince decided that a suitable punishment would be for Romeo to be banished from Verona as he had taken the law into his own hands by killing Tybalt.
The characters of Act 3 Scene 1 are developed in the scene are developed or killed off so the story can go-ahead and fall into the love theme that Shakespeare wanted.
Mercutio was a character who was very against the idea of love and teased Romeo for being in love. His presence in the play was not fitting into the love plot of the play so his death added to the tragedy of the scene and made way for Romeo and Juliet’s love without criticism form Mercutio.
Tybalt is a fiery character and is one to hold grudges as shown when he insults Romeo. He is hot headed and takes the feud very seriously as shown at the caplets party when he sees Romeo. Tybalt is a keen fighter this is shown as he is the one who started the fights between Romeo and Mercutio, but Tybalt would not have reason to fight if Romeo had not gone to the Capulet party.
In this scene Romeo is shown to be someone who can keep their cool and is not cantankerous, but when his friend Mercutio is killed when fighting on his behalf he looses his cool and rage runs though him. Romeo does not once again get piece of mind until it is too late and he has killed Tybalt.
Benvolio is a fair, respectful and trustworthy character, this is shown when he tries to calm things between Tybalt and Mercutio. Benvolio also proves his honesty when he tells the prince the truth about the double death and how they occurred; he does not lie save Romeo from getting punished.
The Prince has very high status in the play; the punishment he gives to Romeo has great affect of the play as it is due to his exile that Romeo does not get his message from Juliet in time to have saved both their lives. However the punishment the Prince gave was fair to the crime committed in the situation.
In this scene Lady Capulet is shown to be a strong woman who takes charge in what she thinks will be justice for the death of her nephew. Lady is also biased towards her family and is not fair on Romeo when she demands her punishment for him.
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Lady Capulet: For blood of ours shed blood of a Montague. – line 145
The scene develops the theme of the feuding family’s as the death of Tybalt and Mercutio once again bring the two families together in the street where they are against each other. The deaths could have affected them in two ways, one being that they end the feud and the other to make the feud even worse. The Capulet’s were suffering a loss of their family unlike the Montague’s. The feud was made stronger as the Capulet’s were angry at Romeo for taking the life of Tybalt. All the accounts which happen in this scene are all due to the family feud between the Capulet’s and the Montague’s and due to Romeo going to the Capulet party. If Romeo had not been seen by the hot tempered Tybalt then none of the sequences in this scene would have occurred and the story would have come to a less tragic ending.
The scene builds up curiosity and suspense for the audience as dramatic irony is used. The audience know that Romeo and Juliet are married so this causes suspense when Romeo and Tybalt are fighting as there are related. The audience also want to know what will happen to Romeo and Juliet they are curious to see how Romeo and Juliet will cope now that Romeo is banished from Verona. It is now even harder for them to be together, they want to know how this turn of event will affect how the love story will end.
Act 3 Scene 3 affects the plot to a great extent. It turns the typical love story into a deep love tragedy. Tybalt’s death also brought forward a turn of events to make it even more difficult for Romeo and Juliet to be together. Juliet’s’ father had arranged for her to marry Paris as he thought it would help her to get over her grieving for Tybalt but Juliet was also upset at the time as Romeo had been banished from Verona. This twist of events had major impact in the plot as Juliet went to extreme measures like faking her own death to be with Romeo. Friar Lawrence had given Juliet a poison to make appear dead the night before her wedding, so when she was put into the crypt Romeo could go rescue her and they could live away from Verona in secret. Things did not go to plan as Romeo did not get the message from Juliet in time for him to know she was not really dead. A heartbreaking ending happened when Romeo was in the crypt at Juliet’s side and he thought Juliet was dead, Romeo decided to take his own like just as Juliet woke from her deep sleep. Juliet was shocked to see her lover dead so she also took her life with a knife, thus ending the tragic love story.
This scene is very important part of the play; the double death shows how extreme the feud between the Capulet’s and the Montague’s actually is. It brings the audience a better understanding how strong Romeo and Juliet’s love is. Act 3 scene 1 is the turning point of the play; it changes the typical love story with a predictive happy ending into a dramatic tragedy with lots of emotion, curiosity and suspense. In my opinion Shakespeare has written this scene very well and controlled the emotions of his audience very cleverly and successfully used dramatic irony to create a bold outstanding scene which manipulated the plot of the play very well.
