As life proceeds its slow waltz, and humans live their lives, meeting countless other people in the same predicament of nearing an unavoidable end. In this cycle of monotony and conversation there can be people found that are different. Those who are never bothered by the burdens of death and monotony, and hurry through life to greet death as a lost friend they had encountered many times on their sprees of invincibility. From the handful of people who resemble these characteristics, one can be found in the William Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet. In which the zany character to be found is Mercutio, who is of neither Montague nor Capulet but falls to the hands of Capulet in the defense of Romeo of Montague in a fight of a childish altercation. In which even at his fall in Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare still displays his distinct characteristics that greatly define him such as: humor and impulsiveness.
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...
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...s both traits in cases of somber situations such as the moments leading up to his death, such as his decision to stay and fight Tybalt, and once defeated ending with a joke. As a character Mercutio resembled a man of foolish courage. This is a major issue for many of the characters in this play for many of the plans created follow the gist of being brash and quickly, but not thoroughly, prepared. Yet in life preparation is sometimes not always granted and having this swift impulsiveness may benefit some in certain situations. Although life may seem to always take some calculated thinking before proceeding to the next step, but sometimes it just requires a little instinct and gut feeling for the most important and hardest decisions.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. “Romeo and Juliet.” Introduction to Shakespeare. Evanston:
McDougal Littell, 2003. 16-151. Print
Throughout the speech, he frequently adds a sort of flare to the way he speaks; for example, he uses over ten lines(in the text)to simply describe the size of Queen Mab. The manner in which he speaks is loud, confident, and stylish; therefore, he attracts attention. He also manages to subtly mock Romeo when speaking about how those who are in love dream of love; this is to add a comedic flare, even though that is what he is. Mercutio’s entertainer like personality is due to the fact that he is amusing. In this tragic and serious play, he is the obnoxious character that breaks the seriousness for a while with a witty remark.It also explains why he is the dramatic foil to Romeo. This goes along with his flamboyant attitude. Nevertheless, he is also vulgar at times, which adds to his loud personality. Now, brown represents Earth and reliability, and Mercutio, in his own way, represents
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
Mercutio is a confusing character. He rarely seems to hate anybody yet he is almost always “Hot-headed;” getting into fights and losing his patience towards others.
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
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.
& nbsp;   ; Romeo's friend Mercutio was a very witty energetic man. If he held his tongue and thought about what he said before acting on them he would not have gotten into so many fights. His jokes were probably taken lightly. friends Romeo and Benvolio because they were accustomed to hearing Mercutio's voice constantly. Mercutio should not have tried to tease Tybalt because of the rivalry between Tybalt's family and Romeo's family. & nbsp; While avenging Mercutio, Romeo should have thought about the consequences of slaying Tybalt. On one hand he filled the urge to kill the man. who had killed his friend.
== = == With these words Mercutio is attempting to entice Romeo into a playful and social mood and this gives us an insight into Mercutio's personality- good humoured, witty and charismatic. I think that Mercutio's main role in the play emphasises these traits
Mercutio is the Prince’s kinsman and Romeo’s close friend, he’s not a Capulet nor a Montague and is one of the few characters that can mingle with both households. In this scene, Mercutio, unlike Romeo, doesn’t think that dreams can be warnings and explains that dreams are the outcome of the stress and eagerness of those that sleep. Because Mercutio isn’t a Capulet or Montague, he’s invited to the Capulet’s party while Benvolio
Mercutio, is a witty skeptic, a foil for Romeo. An anti-romantic who mock's Romeo's visions of love and is a friend to our leading hero himself.
(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
One of the many ways Romeo Montague shows his noble qualities is through his loyalty to Mercutio and Juliet .Ro meo is willing to die for those he cares about as he speaks to Benvolio his strong loyalty is proven as his friend,mercutio, lay dead ”For mercutio's soul is but a little way above our heads… either thou or I must go with him.” as he states he or Tybalt must die for him to feel at peace (3.1. 125). Shakespeare uses cosmic irony to make us expect a violent end when he runs head first into a life or death instance but in the end romeo ends up with a mostly peaceful end by poison. Romeo fights his cousin of less than an hour he has watched his friend fall to a blade of his own kin.Romeo’s blade brings about
In “The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare, two very young people fall in love but cannot be with each other because of the feud in between their families. The feud ends when Romeo and Juliet both kill themselves because of heartbreak over the other. The minor characters Mercutio, Tybalt, and Friar Lawrence serve as foils to Romeo, to help support the theme of patience.
The most famous foil character in ''Romeo and Juliet'' is Mercutio. He is known for his sharp wit and quick, often ribald, humor and is considered a foil to Romeo. He lacks Romeo's effusive romance, his adoration and almost courtly approach to the idea of love. He often urges Romeo to just find a woman to sleep with and stop worrying about the ephemeral, yet all consuming, love Romeo is desperate to achieve. Mercutio warns Romeo to be skeptical of love and not to rush ahead, but Romeo is all rush, no
Another episode of fate, or rather dramatic irony, happens when Romeo somehow misses getting a letter from Tybalt Capulet, his enemy, challenging him to a duel. Romeo, unknowing of the tragic letter sent to him, but not gotten, goes to tell his friends of his beautiful bride, but, in return, comes face-to-face with none other than Tybalt, his loathed enemy, the kin to his new bride, Juliet. As soon as Romeo shows up, though, he is greeted by Tybalt’s insults, calling him a villain, but instead of stepping up to Tybalt’s challenge, though, Romeo backs down, saying, “Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee doth much excuse the appertaining rage to such a greeting. Villain I am none. Therefore farewell. I see thou knowest not me.” After harsh words are spoken, families are disgraced, and names are scorned, Romeo finally just backs away. Mercutio, though, cannot let his man be put to disgrace, so he decides to defend Romeo’s name.
“What's wrong my dear?” Albert said concerned. “I don't think we are a good match” she responded coldly. Albert was hurt and taken aback “What do you mean? I love you more than the world!” he said. Piggi snorted “ I don't love you, I love Porksalot! He is better looking than you are” Wiith those words Piggi trotted away.