The tension is heightened when Tybalt enters the scene; Mercutio adds to this tension by taunting Tybalt and provoking him to fight: “make it a word and a blow”. By saying this, Mercuito is suggesting that instead of just talking, they should fight. Mercutio also insults Tybalt using the words, “Minstrels” and “Zounds” which would have shocked the Elizabethan audience as these words were taken very seriously and were considered offensive to Elizabethans. Mercutio makes a clever play on words when he says, “Consort? What, dost thou make us minstrels?” which could be taken in two completely different ways: it could mean to accompany and associate with someone, but can also mean a group of musicians. Mercutio assumed this to mean a group of musicians and as he believes that musicians cannot fight; he feels insulted and is angered by Tybalt’s gesture which urges him to fight.
When Romeo arrives, Tybalt immediately tries to provoke him into fighting by saying, “Here comes my man” and then, “Romeo, the love I bear thee can afford no better term than this: thou art a villain”. Here Tybalt is saying that he only loves Romeo enough to say that he is a villain but as Romeo is in a good mood due to his secret marriage to Juliet, he does not want to and has no intentions of fighting Tybalt. Romeo replies to this by saying, “Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee doth much excuse the appertaining rage to such a greeting. Villain I am none; therefore farewell, I see thou knowest me not”. Romeo says this because although Tybalt may not know it yet, Romeo has married Juliet and married into the Capulet family. The dramatic irony of this is that Tybalt sent Romeo a letter challenging him to a duel but Romeo did not receive the letter as he was in bed with Juliet at the time. The mood at this point in the play is very intense as the language that Tybalt uses is quite aggressive.
Although Romeo tries his very best to avoid any trouble, Mercutio cannot resist and so draws his sword whilst shouting: “Alla stoccata carries it away. Tybalt, you rat-catcher, will you walk?” Here Mercutio is showing his love for Romeo and his hate for Tybalt as he is offering to fight instead of Romeo. Mercutio makes another clever play on words and provokes Tybalt again when he calls him “Good King of Cats” and a “rat-catcher”, to say someone is the King of Cats could be a compliment meaning that they are agile and swift with a sword but it could also be an insult meaning that they are sly like a cat. This could also be taken as an insult because it could be referring to an old story medieval story about a cat called Tibalt. When Mercutio is stabbed by Tybalt under Romeo’s arm, he shouts, “A plague a’ both your houses!” and shouts this twice more later on in the scene. By saying this, Mercutio is cursing both the Montague’s and the Capulet’s and as he said it three times, the Elizabethan audience would have been very shocked because they were extremely superstitious and believed that if something was said three times, it would come true. Even as Mercutio is wounded and dying, he jokes around and makes a mockery out of it: “Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch”. He also makes yet another clever play on words when he says, “Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man”. This could be interpreted in two different ways; it could mean that Mercutio would be dead in his grave tomorrow but also playing on the word grave meaning that he would be serious. The audience would be very shocked when Mercutio dies because he had been pretending not to be hurt but then falls to the ground. This is ironic for two reasons: the first reason is because Mercutio died whilst he was fighting and he was always the most violent of the Montague’s and the second reason is that tradgedy was foreshadowed from the onset as the Prince warned everyone earlier that if any fighting occurred between the Montague’s and the Capulet’s, the end result would be death.
Romeo’s mood and his thoughts on Tybalt immediately change when he see’s that Mercutio is dead. This is shown when Romeo says: “Away to heaven, respective lenity, and fire-eyed fury be my conduct now! For Mercutio’s soul is but little way above our heads, staying for thine to keep him company. Either thou or I, or both, must go with him.” Romeo warns Tybalt that he won’t be gentle anymore and is threatening him by saying that one of them will die to keep Mercutio company. He also says, “O sweet Juliet, thy beauty hath made me effeminate and in my temper soften’d valour’s steel!” By this Romeo is saying that his marriage to Juliet has not changed his feelings towards Tybalt and up until now he has had no reason to want to fight but now things have changed and Romeo wants Tybalt dead. When Tybalt is stabbed by Romeo, he falls to ground and Romeo says, “O, I am fortune’s fool”. Here Romeo is saying that he is a victim of fate because he feels sorry for himself as everything was going well with Juliet but now the feud between both families has caused the death of Mercutio.
Benvolio acts as a narrator throughout the whole of the scene as he recounts previous events of the scene to people who weren’t there to see it. An example of this is when he says; “O Noble Prince, I can discover all the unlucky manage of this fatal brawl” as he is telling the Prince that he knows exactly what happened. However, the most important example of Benvolio’s narration is from line 154 to 178 where Benvolio explains to the Prince how both Mercutio and Tybalt have been killed tragically. At the end of Act 3 Scene 1, the Prince is telling the people of Verona about Romeo’s punishment and says, “Immediately we do exile him in hence”. Being exiled is worse for Romeo than death and so when the audience hear the word “exile”; they are gain interest and become majorly involved in the scene.
In conclusion, Act 3 Scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet is such a dramatic, exciting and important scene in the play because Shakespeare uses many different and effective methods such as dramatic irony, pathetic fallacy, contrast between different scenes, prose, play on words, and of course death. All of these methods contribute to make the scene more dramatic and exciting along with the variety of language and exhilarating plot which also help to interest and involve the audience more. The consequences of the killings in Act 3 Scene 1 are simply that they lead to more deaths in the play and finally the deaths of the son of the Montague’s and the daughter of the Capulet’s. Act 3 Scene 1 is the key turning point in the play as it contains the event which twists the play from romance to tragedy. Everything in the play builds up to this scene and this is where the plot reaches a climax.
