Romeo and Juliet has been read by many teenagers and scholars time and time again to understand how the great play writer William Shakespeare wrote. It is one of the most commonly known plays of all times. There have been multiple debated questions on different topics in the play, Romeo and Juliet. A highly controversial question is who was the greatest impacting character in Romeo and Juliet? Romeo’s best friend is Mercutio, who is of Noble family, can be seen as an impactful character in the story. In the Shakespeare play, one of the themes is fate, which the greatest impacting character on that theme is Mercutio.
Specialists on Romeo and Juliet can say that Mercutio is somewhat of an ”agent of God” because he is of Noble family. At the time noble families were shown to be chosen directly by God. Most scholars believe that fate is to blame for Romeo and Juliet’s relationship and death. So when Mercutio persistently talked Romeo into attending the Capulet party, it can be seen that Mercutio is playing the role of fate. Mercutio says, "Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance" (I.IV.13). Mercutio is convincing Romeo to dance, even when Romeo obviously does not want to take part in any dancing. This could perhaps be because he is an “agent of
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Mercutio played big roles in pushing Romeo to attend the party, dying to affect Romeo’s further actions, and being of noble blood which puts him as a bigger character than Friar Lawrence. Mercutio’s insistency for Romeo to attend the party was the start of Romeo’s future fate. Without this event occurring Romeo would still probably be moping about for the tragedy of Rosaline lack of love towards him. Mercutio death is quite demoralizing, he was such a joyful character which brought humor into the play. The role of playing fate was his task. He accomplished what it seemed he was set out to
He is often up and happy, which immediately turns to serious brooding. The best example of this comes at his death. He has been stabbed through by Tybalt’s cruel blade and the killer has flown. All his fellows gather around laughing when Mercutio yells that he is injured. After sending for a surgeon he stumbles about saying, “No, ‘tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door; but ‘tis enough, twill serve: ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man. I am peppered I warrant for this world. A plague o’ both your houses! Zounds, a dog, a rat, a mouse, a cat to scratch a man to death” (III.i.94-99). In this quote Mercutio seems to go from cracking jokes and making puns to all seriousness, screaming plague upon the quarrel between the two houses. This was very serious considering the plague was running rampant at that time, killing thousands of people. To wish plague on someone is to wish the most feared thing of their age on them and their family. This is not the only example of such emotional instability as he often ranges from very high to very low, creating quite the dramatic and loud character. Mercutio’s characteristics are wide and varied, making him into an extremely complex, extremely prominent character. Shakespeare places this persona of varying emotions who may not be thinking exactly what he seems to be into the story of Romeo and Juliet, a stage full of such
In many ways Mercutio can be blamed for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. If he had not persuaded Romeo to come to the Capulet?s Ball Romeo would most likely have never fallen in love with Juliet. If Romeo hadn?t gone to the Capulets Ball, Tybalt would not have sought his life and in time forcing Romeo to be banished and Mercutio and himself dead. Or was it those few words that left Mercutios mouth when he knew he was dying? ?A plague on both your houses! I am sped. Is he gone, and hath nothing?? - Act 3, Scene 1, line 90. Could he have really put a curse on the Capulet and Montague households? That both families will come together at the result of death.
Mercutio can be blamed for Romeo and Juliet’s peril because he initiated the fight with Tybalt and forced Romeo to go to the Capulet’s party. At the beginning of the play, Romeo gets invited to the Capulet’s party by a servant, unless he was a Montague. At first, Romeo did not want to go, but Mercutio eventually convinced him under the pretext that Rosaline, Romeo’s love, was going to be there. The next day, Tybalt, a Capulet, went looking for Romeo because he knew that Romeo was at the Capulet party. Instead, he stumbled upon Mercutio and Benvolio and asked them where he could find Romeo. However, Mercutio did not want to tell him and insisted on having a duel. Tybalt killed Mercutio during the fight, and Romeo kills Tybalt because he has the need to avenge his friend. Unfortunately, Prince Escalus punished Romeo by banishing him from Verona. This made Romeo and Juliet’s love
(CLOSING STATEMENTS) With his audacious nature, Romeo kills Tybalt in a challenge and later kills himself, which causes significant problems in the plot. Unfortunately, as a result of Romeo’s actions, Juliet stabs herself with his dagger because she no longer wants to live in a world without him. Along with Romeo, Mercutio is another character who makes poor decisions based on his overdramatic personality and tendency to disagree with Benvolio's way of thinking. These two choices cause characters around Mercutio to not take him seriously, and for this reason, he later dies in the play. Although Mercutio’s actions impact the storyline, Friar Laurence’s choices primarily cause the play to become such a tragedy. For instance, his poor decisions to marry Romeo and Juliet and flee Juliet’s tomb eventually cause the couple’s love for one another to become inseparable, and they take their lives at the end of the plot. (CLINCHER) As the readers delve deeper into Romeo and Juliet and unravel what went wrong, they will begin to realize that the decisions made by the characters created catastrophic
Romeo and Juliet presents an ongoing feud between the Montague and Capulet families whose children meet and fall in love. Markedly, the meeting scene depicting love at first sight continues to be praised by today’s critics. Romeo and Juliet then receive the label of star-crossed lovers whose tragic demise is written in the stars. In fact, Shakespeare 's work is well received and its numerous adaptations have made it one of his most enduring and notorious stories. The cinematic world brings to the screens a disastrous approach by Baz Luhrmann to do the play justice. A glance at Baz Luhrmann’s productions allows audiences to assume he delivers movies which are unlike those of any other filmmaker today, or perhaps ever. Therefore, blending a delicate
In a story of unorthodox love, family feuding, and violence, many are at blame for the deaths. One of the people I think is responsible for Romeo and Juliet’s death is Mercutio. Mercutio had evoked a fight with his enemy Tybalt. In Act 1 Scene 1 lines 228-229 Benvolio tells Romeo “By giving liberty unto thine eyes.
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 began, so Mercutio expecting 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! Tybalt! Mercutio! The Prince expressly hath forbid this bandying in Verona streets. Hold, Tybalt! Good Mercutio!” (Shakespeare 121). Romeo tried to stop the fight and therefore gave Mercutio more time before death, albeit minimal. The blame cannot be placed on Romeo since he did all that he could to stop the fight from
Mercutio is one of the most unique characters in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. His language is always powerful and imaginative. The Nurse is a very important character in the play because as her title suggests, she is. a Nurse for the Capulet family. She is also a surrogate mother to Juliet.
clever punning - 'If love be rough with you, be rough with love' and '
His statement means he doesn’t want to cause Tybalt any harm but would rather leave the scene. Mercutio steps in for Romeo, Romeo comes between them, and Tybalt’s sword stabs Mercutio when Romeo was holding Mercutio back. As Mercutio lays wounded and waiting for a surgeon, he blames Romeo for his injury saying,
In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the views of love held by the character Romeo contrast sharply with the views of Mercutio. Romeo's character seems to suffer from a type of manic depression. He is in love with his sadness, quickly enraptured and easily crushed again on a passionate roller coaster of emotion. Mercutio, by contrast is much more practical and level headed. His perceptions are clear and quick, characterized by precise thought and careful evaluation. Romeo, true to his character begins his appearance in the play by wallowing in his depression over Rosaline who does not return his love:
Unaware of what happened at Capulet’s party, Mercutio assumes that Romeo is still heartbroken from Rosalind. Line 15 in Act II, Scene IV provides an alternative perspective that exposes the true nature of young love. “Alas poor Romeo, he is already dead, stabbed with a white wench’s black eye, run through the ear with a love song.” Mercutio assumes that love only results in pain, with Romeo’s troubles with infatuation only supporting his belief. Mercutio’s dissatisfied tone, in addition to his perspective on the matter, reveals how others view Romeo. Moreover, it reveals how much love influences
...e story that soon brought us to the anticipated tragic ending. If not noticed before, it should be brought to attention that everything bad that happened in the story started to come to play right after the wedding that the Friar made possible. Things were going swell for Romeo, he had just gotten married and everything was just fantastic until the death of Mercutio and Tybalt, where things started to get worse. If the wedding would not have happened so fast or at all, the story would not have been about two star-crossed lovers, but maybe two lovers who fought their judging families for love to have a satisfactory ending. This is not how the story of Romeo and Juliet gets its fame though. The tragedy is what makes up the story, all thanks to the Friar. This is why the Friar should be at blame for the ending of Shakespeare's "The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet".
Humor can be found to be a virtue and a vice; however, in the grimmest situations humor may allow the gravity to turn into glee and gayness. Mercutio’s greatest aspect is his sense of humor. Which he doesn’t fail to display even in the most inappropriate moments. An instance of such portrayal is during the scene where Romeo has ditched Benvolio and Mercutio in pursuit of Juliet, in the Capulet’s garden. In which Mercutio comically says, “Nay, I’ll conjure too. / Romeo! Humors! Madman! Passion! Lover!” (II.i.7-8). This moment can be considered much graver than Mercutio depicts it to be which makes this scene much more like comic relief than a serious scene. The fact that there are Montague’s in Capulet’s territory is serious enough and can cause some major consequences for the perpetrators if caught. And now to betray their positio...
Mercutio, though a minor character, had and enormous impact on the outcome of the play. Before the Capulet Ball, Romeo had been debating whether to go or not. Mercutio persuaded him to go by giving a big speech to him about a dream he had. This makes him partially responsible because the Ball is where Romeo first met Juliet. Mercutio also caused Romeo to be banished from Verona. Mercutio got in a fight with Tybalt and ended up dead. His death enraged Romeo enough to make him kill Tybalt in revenge. When the Prince saw what happened, he sent Romeo into exile. Romeo's banishment to Mantua made it near impossible for Romeo and Juliet to see each other. Mercutio was to blame, though only partially for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet.