Tybalt's Behavior In The Duel Scene Analysis

From Jerzy Limon on Tybalt’s Behavior in the Duel, the author criticizes the scene where Tybalt, an amazing swordsman, purposefully slashes the sword into Mercutio. In this scene, Mercutio and Tybalt are in their own little brawl until Romeo decides to step in and try to break it up. Remember, in this play, they would fight with swords so trying to jump into this fight would be very dangerous. As Romeo steps into the fight, Tybalt “mistakenly” hits Mercutio and he is able to feel his sword sink into Mercutio’s flesh. The author of Tybalt’s Behavior in the Duel, believes that Tybalt purposefully hits Mercutio. He explains his statement like so, “although it is Romeo who was to have been his victim, it was forbidden to even so much as a scratch a third person, so at the last moment, he changes the direction of his thrust and buries the blade into the open space between the trunk and the arm of Romeo.” The author believes that Tybalt purposefully moved his blade to a certain spot in order to hit Mercutio.

Yes, Tybalt is a very skilled swordsman, but could he have really of wanted to hit Mercutio?

That was never his intended plan. In the first scene of act three of Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio and Tybalt have their own little conversation until Romeo appears after he was just married. Right as Romeo enters the room, Tybalt says to Mercutio, “Well peace with you, sir. Here comes my man.” (3.1.51) Tybalt and Mercutio were never intended to have a fight. They were simply having a somewhat heated conversation and was never supposed to get to the point of fighting. Tybalt even says peace with you

sir. His real target is Romeo, not Mercutio. As Romeo arrives, Tybalt explains how this is “his man”. The only person Tybalt would really want to fight is Romeo; although, in the play, Tybalt and Mercutio fight. Once again, as they fight, Romeo enters between them and breaks up the fight while Tybalt slashes Mercutio.Even though he is written to be a very skilled swordsman, he isn’t determined to hit Mercutio. Even after he hits Mercutio, he realizes he did something wrong but he leaves the scene, leaving Mercutio with his friends. After a couple lines later, Tybalt reenters the scene because of guilt and regret. After looking at both Jerzy Limon on Tybalt’s Behavior in the Duel and Romeo and Juliet, the intended part of writing this scene was for the reader to understand that Tybalt accidently hit Mercutio, leaving the readers to understand that in the end, Tybalt does have a softer side of him and was only targeting Romeo at this time.