In Act 3 Scene 1, Tybalt comes to talk to Romeo about gate crashing the Capulet’s party the previous night. However, Mercutio soon gets annoyed with the way Romeo refuses to fight Tybalt, so he fights him himself. But Tybalt kills Mercutio, and then Romeo seeks revenge upon Tybalt and kills him too.
Benvolio:
Act 3 Scene 1 opens with the character of Benvolio. Benvolio acts as the narrator for this scene. His opening line:
“I pray thee, good Mercutio lets retire.
The day is hot, the Capulets are abroad.
And if we meet we shall not scape a brawl.
For not, these hot days, is mad blood stirring.”
From these opening lines you can tell that Benvolio is trying to prevent a fight from occurring by getting Mercutio to go home before the Capulets arrive and things start to get nasty. At this point in the scene Benvolio’s relationship with Mercutio seems to be a fairly laid back relationship. They joke between each other about how quarrelsome Benvolio really is, even if he does say he doesn’t want to fight.
Through out the scene, Benvolio’s role and attitude does not change. He is still acting as the peace keeper when he says to Tybalt and Mercutio:
“We talk here in the public haunt of men;
Either with draw unto some private place,
Or reason coldly of your grievances,
Or else depart; here all eyes gaze on us.”
This shows that Benvolio is still trying to prevent a fight from breaking out, and people seeing it. This is because earlier on in Romeo and Juliet, the Prince had specifically warned both the Montague’s and the Capulet’s that if they were caught fighting in public again, there would be severe consequences.
A further indication that Benvolio is acting as the peace keepers is towards the end of the scene when he is talking to the Prince about what happened. Benvolio tells the Prince about how Tybalt had came looking for Romeo to have a fight with him, but Mercutio had stepped in and been killed, so seeking revenge Romeo had killed Tybalt. His final words were: “This is the truth, or let Benvolio die.” This shows the audience how even the Prince trusts Benvolio to tell the truth about what had happened.
Mercutio:
However, Mercutio has a very different role to Benvolio within this scene. Mercutio comes across as being argumentative, quarrelsome as well as liking to wind people up by using his words. When Benvolio is asking him to go home because the Capulets are out and he doesn’t want a fight to start, Mercutio replies by saying that Benvolio is just as quarrelsome as Mercutio is, perhaps even worse.
From watching the play, you can see that Mercutio is always joking about and has to have the last word, for example when Benvolio says: “By my heel, here come the Capulets.” Mercutio replies “By my heel, I care not.” However, this is how Mercutio behaves normally, so he is just being especially argumentative and difficult just because Tybalt and the rest of the Capulets are there.
But when Tybalt does start to talk to Mercutio, he is polite. It is Mercutio, who is rude and aggressive. Therefore I believe that Mercutio is the aggressor in this scene, and he makes the situation worse than it would have been had he not been there. For this reason I think all of the blame should be placed upon Mercutio for his death.
Tybalt:
When Tybalt first enters Act 3 scene 1, he is polite towards the Montague’s asking to speak to one of them about Romeo gate crashing the Capulet’s party.
However, when Romeo enters Tybalt becomes very aggressive towards him. Tybalt insults Romeo by calling him a villain:
“Romeo, the hate I bear thee can afford
No better term than this – thou art a villain.”
Tybalt also refers to Romeo as a as a boy.
“Boy, this shall not excuse the injuries
That thou hast done me; therefore turn and draw.”
By doing this Tybalt is putting Romeo down and trying to get a reaction from him. By using these words it shows the audience the hatred Tybalt has for Romeo.
Tybalt actions and attitude towards Romeo are typical of the way he acts. Through out the play Tybalt has been aggressive
