Benvolio says ‘By my head, here comes the Capulet’s’
Mercutio replies ‘By my heel, I care not’
Benvolio’s warning about the ‘Capulet’s’ arriving doesn’t get through to Mercutio as he replies ‘I care not’ as if he’s looking to start trouble. Mercutio doesn’t pay attention to Benvolio’s warning as if he doesn’t care about what happens when the Capulet’s come over to them. Tensions will rise enormously if Mercutio doesn’t calm down quickly.
The characters in Act 3 Scene 1 have a lack of knowledge. Romeo suggests Tybalt has a lack of knowledge about him as he says ‘I see thou knowest me not’. In Romeo’s mind he knows Tybalt doesn’t have a clue about him and Juliet being married. Is this a good thing or a bad thing though because Tybalt won’t be pleased when he finds out? Only time will tell.
‘Here all eyes gaze on us’
Benvolio mentions to Tybalt and Mercutio people are being ‘gaze’ (d) upon. They should go and have their argument somewhere more private because if anything serious happens, witnesses are there to see it and they will have breached Prince’s warning. There will be punishments if Prince finds out about the 2 of them fighting. This adds to the tension as Romeo doesn’t yet know about them arguing and could be angry when he finds out.
Mercutio is angry at the fact nobody is helping him with his injuries because they don’t believe he’s actually hurt. During this Mercutio bellows ‘A plague on both your houses’. This is implying that both Tybalt and Romeo’s fighting is the cause of his own death and that if they didn’t start arguing in the first place then nothing would have come of it so putting a curse above both Tybalt and Romeo.
‘I thought all for the best’
The use of ‘thought’ means Romeo doesn’t actually know how injured Mercutio was. He’s not sure or definite so knowledge lacks him. ‘The best’ never will happen in the play as something will always go wrong as Mercutio’s death has just illustrated. Romeo should think before he acts, also when he says something he should take care with his choice of words.
Conflict arises in Act 3 Scene 1. Tybalt says ‘Mercutio, thou consort with Romeo’. This gets under Mercutio’s skin as Tybalt is seemingly winding him up and annoying him. Mercutio doesn’t want anything bad to happen to Romeo as he’s his best friend so he sticks up for him which inadvertently leads to his death.
Later on in the scene friction and tension arises as both Lady Capulet and Lord Montague both voicing their opinions about the deaths of Tybalt and Mercutio. Lady Capulet says ‘O the blood is spilled of my dear kinsman!’, this is showing that she is very upset of the loss of Tybalt and wants to find out who did this to him. ‘Not Romeo, Prince, he was Mercutio’s friend’ is the reply from Lord Montague. He’s convinced it wasn’t Romeo who started all the fighting and wants justice done for the murder of Mercutio.
‘Benvolio, who began this bloody fray?’
Prince is asking Benvolio for an explanation of all the events that have gone on including the murders of both Tybalt and Mercutio. It was Romeo who went after Tybalt looking for vengeance because of the death of his best friend. Benvolio tells Prince all of who killed who as well as all of the quarrelling that went on during the incident.
Act 3 Scene 1 is crucial to the play as a whole in various ways. The deaths of 2 main characters occur in the scene which ultimately leads to the play going in the opposite direction. Tybalt’s death angers the Capulet family and if they weren’t already angry enough at the Montague’s to begin with they’re rage increased dramatically after Tybalt’s death. Romeo made a rash decision going after Tybalt. He wouldn’t of done so if his best friend Mercutio hadn’t of been killed earlier on in the scene by Tybalt. Romeo needs to control his emotions better than shown in the scene because it could, and most probably will lead to trouble.
The 2 deaths established lead to Romeo and Juliet both committing suicide at the end of the play. This is all because of the goings on in Act 3 Scene 1 in which a lot of events occur. There is no going back after the deaths of Tybalt and Mercutio as not one good thing happens after that event.
There are 3 main components to make a play a tragedy. All of these can be seen in Romeo and Juliet. There’s always a hero, in this case it’s Romeo, but he’s not perfect. He’s not perfect as the brutal and vicious murder of Tybalt has shown. There’s also a tragic flaw or a weakness and Romeo’s weakness is that he doesn’t think before he acts. He makes rash decisions and it ends up that the consequences are fatal. There is also a catastrophe which in this play is that both Romeo and Juliet end up dead. This is because of the actions taken place in Act 3 Scene 1.
Act 3 Scene 1 is very important to the play as it’s where most of the action starts. As these actions take place it eventually leads to Romeo and Juliet killing their selves. From the start of Act 3 Scene 1 anticipation builds rapidly until it reached its peak and everything gets let out.
The audience already know the main story line from the prologue which helps them be able to judge the characters and the events. The feud between the Capulet’s and Montague’s finally ended after the lovers deaths. This is because the parents thought it was their fault their children are now dead all because of the long running feud.