This shows that he was a true peace maker for this is near the start before the Capulets arrived. He tried to stop the fight and split up Mercutio and Tybalt:
“We talk here in the public haunt of men; Either withdraw unto some private place or reason coldly of your grievances, or else depart here all eyes gaze on us.”
So here he was saying there are many people watching us here, let’s go somewhere quieter or else split up. So this evidently shows that Benvolio was a peacemaker and only tried to bring peace that day.
Romeo was a very complex character and was not blameless as he did kill Tybalt. He was very loyal to his friends and was a very emotional person and it was his emotions that caused him to kill Tybalt that day. He was not easily worked up and did not respond or rise to Tybalt’s premeditated insult, Tybalt says:
“thou art a villain.”
And Romeo did not rise to this and responded to this by saying:
“Villain am I none. I do protest I never injur’d thee, But love thee better than thou cans’t devise.”
He went out of his way to bring peace and also completely destroys his reputation in doing so:
“And so good Capulet, which name I tender as dearly as my own, be satisfied.”
He also tried to bring Murcutio and Tybalt to their senses and unknowingly intervened in the fight and consequently Mercutio got killed. Romeo then felt very guilty about this and only wanted peace:
“I thought it for the best.”
So although Romeo did kill Mercutio he was not to blame, for his emotions took him over this day and the only one thing he wanted that day was peace.
Mercutio was a hot-headed prankster with a sharp wit. He was very much to blame for his own death because he was definitely not trying to avoid a fight and even provoked Tybalt at one point:
“Tybalt, you rat catcher, will you walk?”
So this proves that he was not trying to avoid a fight, but looking for one. He used his sharp wit to twist the words of Tybalt:
“Consort! What! Dost thou make us minstrels?”
He was also warned many times by his friend Benvolio:
“I pray thee good Mercutio, let’s retire.”
And Mercutio refused to take the advice and lied with:
“By my heel. I care not.”
So this showed that he was well aware that this could end in a fight but he was not bothered and chose to ignore the advice his friend was giving him. At one point he could not bear Romeo’s humiliation and so offered Tybalt the challenge so in a way he asked for it, then when they were fighting Romeo pleaded for them to stop but he was not going to give up. He used his sharp wit even in death:
“Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man.”
So he very much asked for his death and so he was mainly responsible for his own death even though he was killed under Romeo’s arm.
Tybalt was a very arrogant character that was always looking for a fight he was most to blame for the deaths than anyone else this is because unlike Mercutio he physically came looking for a fight and if he had not come that day then neither of the deaths would have occurred. It is obvious he came looking for a fight because he says:
“Here comes my man.”
Meaning here comes the man I was intending to fight in the first place. Also he bated Romeo he did this by saying:
“Mercutio, thou consot’st with Romeo.”
This was a premeditated insult, which shows that he not only looking for a but went out of his way to get one. Tybalt took the chance to take on Romeo when Romeo says:
“Either thou, or I, or both must go with him.”
And Tybalt basically accepted it by saying:
“Thou wretched boy, that didst consort him here, shalt with him hence.”
This was the fighting he had intended from the start. So Tybalt is proven to be most to blame for the deaths.
Benvolio is quite obviously the lest to blame for the deaths because he had the right intentions from the start and did not give up trying to make peace till the end. Romeo also had the right intentions but got carried away with his emotions, which was what caused him to kill Tybalt, so he was second least to blame. Mercutio ignored his friends advice and so was almost fully responsible for his own death, but Tybalt however killed Mercutio and he was the one that physically came looking for the fight and provoked Romeo in to killing him so he held most responsibility. The crowd though were certainly not innocent for they encouraged them and egged them on if the crowd had not done this, it all may not have happened. But the root cause to it all is the feuding between the two families in the first place.
