Why is Act 3 Scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet So important to the play

Act 3 scene 1 is probably the most crucial one in the whole play, it is when the fued between the montagues and the capulets finally results in the murder of mercucio and tybalt. In the scene Tybalt comes seeking to pick a fight with Romeo but comes across Mercutio and Benvolio instead. After some heated comments between Tybalt and Mercutio Romeo turns up and, of course does not wish to fight Tybalt because unbeknown to Tybalt is now related to him (through marriage of Juliet). So Tybalt starts a fight with Mercutio who is mortally wounded under Romeo's arm as he tries to stop the fight. Mercutio promptly dies and Tybalt leaves, Romeo swears revenge and chases after Tybalt and kills him. After this news Prince Escalus banishes Romeo from Verona.

Mercutio`s death had dramatically changed the play. The play pivots on the line” O Romeo, Romeo brave Mercutio is dead.” The play changes from comedy to tragedy because Mercutio is the joker of the play so when he dies all the jokes also die. Characters change at this point; Romeo the Romantic becomes Romeo the violent and dangerous. Romeo’s revenge on Tybalt shows change and shows that that tragedy will follow. We must consider the prince’s warning, “Your lives shall pay the forfeit of peace.” as Mercutio was the kinsman to the prince he banished Romeo instead of having him killed, because Tybalt owed his life having killed mercutio. Mercutio curses both the families “A plague in both your houses”. Elizabethan audience would have believed in curses, they believed they had potency, particularly the curse of a dying man.

The tragedy shown in this scene can be seen through the speech used. After Romeo has killed Tybalt he realises what he has done “O, I am a fortunes fool”, he blames his fate. Juliet is also very confused when she finds out what Romeo has done. “And death not Romeo take my maidenhead”. Romeo realises he is banished. Juliet is very confused and scared because she has to drink poison to pretend that she is dead because she so does not want to marry Paris. “What if be poison to have me dead”. She is scared that what if Friar Lawrence gave her the poison to kill her, because she doesn’t quite trust him.

So we can see that Act 3 Scene1 is an important scene because it shows where the play changes from comedy to tragedy and its important because characters change. It’s also important because Shakespeare changes the language to show the difference in comedy and tragedy.