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Decisions mercutio made in romeo and juliet
Decisions mercutio made in romeo and juliet
Dreams play an important role in a midsummer nights dream.discuss with reference to the play
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Introduction: How and why do dreams occur whilst we sleep? Well, according to Mercutio, a character in Shakespeare's most known play: Romeo & Juliet, dreams are spread by the "fairies' midwife" known as Queen Mab. The significance of Mercutio's speech to Romeo was simply to distract dear Romeo from his time of depression from fair Rosaline; the Queen Mab character implies that Mercutio is a realist. Section I: Mercutio first starts off with saying that dreams come from a fairy, which were known to be mischievous, mythical creatures once popular amongst the 1600's. Beginning a story with a mythical creature to attempt to convince someone that dreams are worthless and following up by describing every bit of detail is should be obvious that the …show more content…
story is untrue. Throughout the speech, unreliable things are said, such as the quote on Act I: Scene 4: Lines 66-67, "Her wagoner a small grey-coated gnat, Not half so big as a round little worm, Pricked from the lazy finger of a maid." In fact, worms were believed to spring from the fingernails of lazy women. Mercutio's story is a tactic to make Romeo become unaware of his current situation and to be free from the shackles of agony. Act I: Scene 4: Line 70 says, "Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub," the quote explains of Queen Mab's chariot being made from a carpenter squirrel or old grub worm which in reality is physically impossible; Mercutio's intricate story of mythical and fairytale-like creatures creates the sense of impossibility.
Act I: Scene 4: Lines 72-73 quotes, "And in this state she …show more content…
gallops night by night, Through lovers' brains, and then they dream of love," and the quote explains of Romeo's "love filled dreams," Mercutio practically insults Romeo's view on dreams of love. Another possible viewpoint readers could interpret the 'Queen Mab speech' is that Mercutio's view on dreams were once ruined by someone else, and now he is simply breaking down what dreams truly are to Romeo. Section II: From the Queen Mab speech, we can tell Mercutio is quite the friend of Romeo by trying to help him with his problem, and his view on dreams is that they are practically useless.
During the conversation between Romeo and Mercutio on Line 51, Romeo says, “I dreamt a dream tonight,” and Mercutio follows up saying that he also had a dream and on Line 52 he says, “That dreamers often lie,” the quote points out that Mercutio is implying that dreams are simply false hopes of one’s subconscious. On Line 97, Romeo says, “Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace! Thou talkst of nothing,” and on Lines 98-100, Mercutio says, “True, I talk of dreams, Which are the children of an idle brain, Begot of nothing but vain fantasy,” these quote poke fun that dreams are again simply false hopes that are nonsense, according to Mercutio. He agrees with Romeo about dreams being nonsense. Also on Lines 100-102, Mercutio says, “Begot of nothing but vain fantasy, Which is as thin of substance as the air, And more inconstant than the wind, who woos,” which again implies Mercutio’s view on dreams is that they are random and have no meaning due to the word choice being “more inconstant than the wind”. Despite everything, Mercutio could be telling Romeo this because he himself went through the same heartbreak as dear Romeo and does not wish for him to be depressed. Without a background story of a possible heartbreak, there is not enough evidence to support that the claim is true. In conclusion, the idea
of dreams to Mercutio is that they are worthless subconscious thoughts produced by the idea of a false and desirable reality in order to pleasure one’s desire to become true. Conclusion: Although Mercutio goes into depth of a fairy bringing granting dreams to those asleep, he is quite the realist. Mercutio is a character full of crude humor; therefore, he constantly throughout the play is always uplifting the mood to the readers, and character(s) in the book. Mercutio’s actions were purposely done in order to make fun of Romeo’s view of dreams, and also distract him from his heartbreak of fair Rosaline.
Mercutio is an extremely cocky jokester who views the subject of love as a very physical matter. When the Montagues are on their way to the Capulet party, Mercutio mocks Romeo saying, "If love be rough with you, be rough with love. Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down" (I, iv, 27-28). Mercutio is trying to comfort his friend by proclaiming that Rosaline is just another love prick in his life, and Romeo will love again after this phase of heartbreak. Several lines past, Mercutio's Queen Mab speech about a fairy creeping on people's dreams stretches on and on (I, iv, 53-94). Romeo tries to calm his friend, and the kinsman of the Prince admits to talking of nothing; he is one "that loves to hear himself talk and will speak more in a minute than he will stand in a month" (II, iv, 137-139). His tangent proves that his witty, light-hearted remarks puncture yet highlight the passionate, love-seeking qualities of Romeo.
Romeo was very loyal to his friends and family, and it is possible that Mercutio thought that Romeo would help him fight off Tybalt (since he was unaware of Romeo and Juliet’s secret marriage that somewhat united Romeo and Tybalt). However, this argument is easily deemed invalid. Romeo was not in the town square when the fight had first begun, so Mercutio expected his help in the fight would be a far-fetched idea. A person who is not present cannot help or hinder the situation at hand. In addition, Romeo tried to break up the fight when he said, “Gentlemen, for shame forbear this outrage!
Many a time this supports Romeo, as Romeo is the passionate one and always in love. Whilst Mercutio is often the one saying love is “idiotic” or “a waste of time” (paraphrased 1.4). He often times uses taunts or common sense to get information out of Romeo, “If love be rough with you, be rough with love;/Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down./Give me a case to put my visage in:/A visor for a visor! what care I/What curious eye doth quote deformities?/Here are the beetle brows shall blush for me.” (1.4). As well as “The ape is dead, and I must conjure him./I conjure thee by Rosaline's bright eyes,/By her high forehead and her scarlet lip,/By her fine foot, straight leg and quivering thigh/And the demesnes that there adjacent lie,/That in thy likeness thou appear to us!” (2.1). In the beginning quote Romeo is down and about about how his want to be lover, Rosalind, and her disdain toward him and her promise of chastity. Naturally, Mercutio uses a classic line of “Get over her with other women!” Which then goes on to reveal Romeo’s stubbornness in listening to advice of others and his inability to stop loving. (Which is revealed to be futile). The second line is referring to his taunting of Romeo that makes the Romeo, as well as the reader, begin to understand the statement “revealed to be
The plot for Romeo and Juliet stems from a love story based on Romeo meeting Juliet at a ball where Tybalt from the Capulet family attends. Friction begins when Tybalt voices his dislike for Romeo of the Montague family. This sets the stage for a confrontation between Tybalt and Romeo. Mercutio's character takes on importance as the confrontation takes form. If there were no Mercutio than Juliet would still be alive. Unfortunately, Romeo would not be alive because Tybalt would have surely killed
Many characters in Shakespeare had dreams. Romeo dreamed of true love, Tybalt dreamed of social power and the Montagues’ demise, and Friar Lawrence dreamed of a peaceful and united Verona. All of those dreams lead to tragedy for the characters. With this, Shakespeare implied that, perhaps, dreams aren’t all as good as fairy tales make them seem to
The excerpt shows how even Mercutio recognizes the feud between the Montagues and Capulets being destructive, and how it is now gotten so out of hand he has been dragged into it. Mercutio tries to open Romeo’s eyes on how if this feud continues there will be a demise for both families; but by Romeo choosing to ignore this advice and killing Tybalt he is setting himself up for his failure/downfall. Thus, Romeo is shown as a tragic hero because his demise is partly his fault and not an accident.
In the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Mercutio, a friend of Romeo plays a deep role within the play. Many characters in Romeo and Juliet can represent the masculine or feminine spaces. The masculine space is chaotic and more towards the sexual and material side of the play, which have more of a tragic potential. While the feminine space is peaceful, more romantic and spiritual in giving a better chance for the comic potential. Mercutio represents the masculine space while Romeo prefers the peacefulness of the feminine space. Mercutio tells Romeo to be rough with love, he tries to keep him within the masculine space after the ball, and he fools with the Juliet’s nurse because of his actions he pushes Romeo towards tragedy.
The references to "fire" and "sea" are signs that these are lines of passion rather than love. Romeo sees himself as subjective to his situation, "Doth add more grief to too much of mine own." and is wallowing in his self-pity as well. Romeo is only forgiven these faults because he is young, naïve, and destined to die. Were he an older character audiences would not so easily forgive him. Mercutio's levelheadedness serves to provide a contrast to which Romeo can be endeared. Were both doting depressives, the play's roster would be off balance.
In William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” Mercutio gives an imaginative speech of Queen Mab to jest Romeo for not having fun with others but dwell on his passion towards dreams. In act 1.4, Romeo explains to Mercutio that he is not going to the Capulet’s party as “dreamt a dream tonight” (1.4.50) that tell him not to. Romeo believes that dreams are reflecting reality and telling the truth and he is not joining his friends to the party. Mercutio exasperated by Romeo’s passion about dreams and scold him by giving the famous Queen Mab speech to illustrate the nature of dream to Romeo. Mercutio’s description of Queen Mab depicts that dreams are not reflecting reality but fantasy. Dreams are small yet powerful in their own way, they are hard to
Romeo, whom his friends seem to consider generally very witty and fun, originally thought the party-crashing would be a wonderful idea, but suddenly is overcome by a sense of great foreboding; although they "mean well in going to this mask . . . 'tis no wit to go" (I, iv, 48-49). This annoys Mercutio, who does not recognize Romeo's reluctance as a genuine premonition, but feels it is simply another example of Romeo's lovesick whims. Romeo tries to explain to Mercutio that it is based upon a very disturbing dream, and Mercutio passes that off as silly, telling him that "Dreamers often lie." Here he is not saying that Romeo himself is a liar, but that people should put no faith in dreams. But Romeo is insistent; dreamers lie "in bed asleep, they do dream things true" (I, iv, 52).
Oprah Winfrey once said, “The best thing about dreams is that fleeting moment, when you are between asleep and awake, when you don't know the difference between reality and fantasy, when for just that one moment you feel with your entire soul that the dream is reality, and it really happened.” But, what actually is a dream and what do dreams really have to do with one’s everyday life? In essence, a dream is a series of mental images and emotions occurring during slumber. Dreams can also deal with one’s personal aspirations, goals, ambitions, and even one’s emotions, such as love and hardship. However, dreams can also give rise to uneasy and terrible emotions; these dreams are essentially known as nightmares. In today’s society, the concept of dreaming and dreams, in general, has been featured in a variety of different mediums, such as literature, film and even music. While the mediums of film and music are both prime examples of this concept, the medium of literature, on the other hand, contains a much more diverse set of examples pertaining to dreams and dreaming. One key example is William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. While the portrayal of dreams, in general, plays a prominent role in Shakespeare’s play, the exploration of many aspects of nature, allows readers to believe that dreams are merely connected to somewhat unconventional occurrences.
Burke, Kenneth. “Why A Midsummer Night's Dream?”. Shakespeare Quarterly 57. 3 (2006): 297-308. Web. 25 Apr 2014.
Fairies, mortals, magic, love, and hate all intertwine to make A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare a very enchanting tale, that takes the reader on a truly dream-like adventure. The action takes place in Athens, Greece in ancient times, but has the atmosphere of a land of fantasy and illusion which could be anywhere. The mischievousness and the emotions exhibited by characters in the play, along with their attempts to double-cross destiny, not only make the tale entertaining, but also help solidify one of the play’s major themes; that true love and it’s cleverly disguised counterparts can drive beings to do seemingly irrational things.
In this paper I hope to open a window to the vast and mysterious world of dreaming. To most people, information about dreams isn’t common knowledge. In researching this subject though, I found that everybody has and reacts to dreams, which are vital to your mental health. You will also find how you can affect your dreams and how they affect you.
From larger-than-life heroes that miraculously rescue the damsel in distress from the nefarious monsters plaguing the cities, to the dainty, but powerful, fairies that reside in the forest and emerge in the shadows to work their magic, mythological tales like these fill the works of many famous authors. These authors, like William Shakespeare, can be credited for playing a huge role in the passing on of these stories by filling their work with allusions to these ancient characters. Some of the plays that accomplish this, like, Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet, , have even become just as well known as the myths they allude to. Much of Shakespeare’s work, especially A Midsummer Night’s Dream, contain many allusions to