The imagery of this plat is: the day is hot. The heat suggests that passions and annoyance, people become restless and agitated when they become too hot. The streets are deserted; which could create a frightening feeling as it is creating tension. This scene is more or less half way through the play. The ‘lightness’ of the love story is delight and innocence this is suggested by lightness or white and is related to the positive side of the story. //The atmosphere of the play changes to one of the darkness and negativity, things have gone from bad to worse. //
After the part where it is says that it is hot and the streets are deserted, Benvolio tells Mercutio that they should go home, as ‘there are Capulets around’. This is rather good advice because it shows that Benvolio is looking out for Mercutio, but the problem is thought Mercutio is one of those persons, that does not listen, to others when there is danger around. Mercutio is impatient, immature, and full of his own meaning and likes to be centre of attention. He makes some very clever remarks as he is dying, which I think can be described as ‘black humour’. Mercutio is a loyal friend though to Romeo, but he cannot understand why Romeo declines to fight Tybalt (which is a Capulet and Romeo’s relative by law since his secret marriage to Juliet which no-one knows about that is including Mercutio and Tybalt).
The two characters of Benvolio and Mercutio are put jointly to show the difference between the two characters. Benvolio has a grown-up attitude, whereas Mercutio has an undeveloped attitude. He has also to be seen to be a ‘hero’ in the eyes of his friends by outdoing a Capulet. Although Mercutio is not a Montague, he is caught up in the fraud of the two families. Traditionally the racket of the two great families divides the presentation of the city condition. It is a vivid representation of Renaissance Italy.
Tybalt is a Capulet who is always looking for a fight with a Montague, especially in the company of Romeo. He is not a satisfying character and is also immature. He is full of unpleasantness, anger and bitterness. I would suggest he is jealous of Romeo. He is horror-struck that Romeo will not fight and thinks of him as a coward.
In this play both Mercutio and Tybalt dismiss love, as they don’t fancy or have a girlfriend in the play, whereas Romeo finds to, Rosaline and Juliet. Mercutio is too immature with his language to go out with a girl, and Tybalt is horrible with his actions, as he likes to fight a lot. This again I think can be seen as a sharp gap to the theme of the play, which is unfortunate love.
Romeo in Act 3 scene 1 has developed to some extent from the start of the play. Obviously, if he had walked away from the circumstances, things would have probably turned out extremely different without a doubt, for the reason that at the beginning of the scene, you see Romeo behaving in an immature way, which if he had preserved in this way he would have ensured his own safety and a upcoming for himself as well as Juliet. Romeo could not of prevented the murder of Mercutio by Tybalt, but he could of also refrained form becoming drawn in to the situation. On the other hand Romeo’s instant reaction to the death of his friend, Mercutio and the following killing of Tybalt in an act of utter anger, sealed his fortune. More or less straight away when he realised what he has done and cries ‘oh, I am fortune’s fool in anguish and regret’, he realised that the killing of Tybalt from his own thoughtless action has taken away any expectation of a happy future with Juliet and Romeo. He is lucky in that Prince Escalus is compassionate and does not sentence him to death, but he does deports him from Verona. Still Romeo sees this as an outcome worse than death, because if he leaves Verona that means that it’s the end of his relationship with adored wife Juliet. The context here is, the certainty of the tragedy and the use of a chorus is relevant here, as is using the verse as an expression of love. This can be also being seen as a shared and educational comment in Elizabethan Society. He realises that the outcome of his own life and that of others can be determined by a single action: and that each of us has been done and cannot be undone.
Finally, Act 3 scene 1 shows the point of no return for Romeo and Juliet and the final tragedy rests upon this.