In the play Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio’s death functions as a major turning point that establishes the major concerns of tragedy. In this scene, Shakespeare uses techniques to juxtapose the central themes of hatred, violence and love to establish a sense of tragic loss, which also foreshadows the inevitable, devastating finale that is awaiting the two lovers. The themes of hatred and violence portrayed through the feud between the two families, significantly shapes the formation of tragedy. As conflict arises between Mercutio and Tybalt, Romeo attempts to intervene to stop their fight, but seemingly fate conspires to bring about the death of Mercutio. At this point, the sense of tragedy becomes illuminated in the audiences’ mind. Shakespeare achieves this effect through his playful and comedic characterisation of Mercutio. In death, his comic characterisation is juxtaposed with sadness, shifting the play from comedy to tragedy. The evocative image “a plague o’ both your houses” ominously implies to the audience, that this is only the “beginning” of the tragedy. The metaphoric reference to the word “plague” also consolidates the occurrence of tragedy and expresses the destruction of love in the play. Romeo’s line “I do protest I never injured thee, but love thee better than thou canst devise” highlights Romeo’s desire to end the conflict with Tybalt. However, he is unsuccessful. This depicts the struggle of love when confronted by deep seated hatred. As we can see, the impact of the families’ feud has lead to Tybalt’s hatred against Romeo (and all Montagues), and leads to the death of Mercutio, which in terms lead us to the advent of tragedy. In the scene of Mercutio’s death, Shakespeare uses characterisation and dramatic irony... ... middle of paper ... ...oesn't wake up, Romeo will soon take his own life. The scene where Juliet wakes and finds Romeo dead is symbolic in reiterating the tragic, but overwhelming control of fate over the star-crossed lovers. Therefore, the death of Mercutio have triggered a chain of tragic incidents and therefore establishes the major concerns of tragedy. Mercutio’s death as a turning point have greatly impacted to the establishment of the major concerns of tragedy. His death have triggered a chain of tragic incidents, which in the end lead to the death of the star-crossed lovers. This turning point shifts the play from comedy to tragedy, consolidates the defeat of love against violence and hatred and reiterates Shakespeare’s message of the control of fate over destinies. Therefore, Mercutio’s death, the climatic turning point is significant in developing the major concerns of tragedy.
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.
(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
Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, depicts an ancient feud ended by a pair of star-crossed lovers’ deaths. A lord and lady from warring families seek a forbidden love with guidance from a friar and nurse. Due to a tragic course of mischances and fateful errors, their attempt of eloping led the lovers to a tragic end. Because of rash decisions, the four characters are torn apart by miscalculating events and misunderstandings. Ultimately, the four characters encounter a heartbreaking ending, as a result of their hastiness.
In Romeo and Juliet, there are many guilty parties that contribute to the deaths and demise of Romeo, Juliet, Mercutio, Tybalt, Count Paris and the many other victims of the bitterness and grudge between the Capulets and the Montagues. However, the three most culpable parties are the set of opposing parents; the Montagues and Capulets, the prince; Escalus of Verona and ultimately the lovers, Romeo and Juliet. The blame lies mostly on these three parties because their decisions greatly influenced the outcome of this Shakespearean tragedy. In this essay, I will prove and condemn the prince, parents and lovers for the losses of life and the confusion in Romeo and Juliet.
To understand the shift in genres, there must be recognition of Mercutio as a comic character. Mercutio is Shakespeare's prominent comical character in Romeo and Juliet. He is not bound by the events around him, as he often rambles on a topic that is completely irrelevant to the situation in which he finds himself. Mercutio is a free character who is independent of the world around him. His existence is entirely comical in his play with language. For Mercutio, speech is ...
Romeo and Juliet has many themes which are fate, death and love, these are all intertwined. At the very beginning of the play, before we even know the characters, we know that ‘death-marked’ ‘Star crossed lovers’ will ‘take their lives’ which already brings in the major themes. Shakespeare uses dramatic irony throughout the play and builds up the tension until Act 3 scene 1 where death starts to play a role. The Prologue also informs us about the Montagues and Capulets dislike for each other. The theme of love is also there thought the play. There are different types of love, the unrequited love the Romeo feels for Rosaline and that Paris feels for Juliet. There is also the love between friends such as with Romeo and Mercutio as Mercutio dies to protect Romeo’s honour and then Romeo avenges his death, and then the romantic love Romeo and Juliet share. I believe the Mercutio is one of the main characters in this play. His speeches tell us a lot about him and his actions have a large affect on the ending of the play. Mercutio’s name means mercurial meaning “an unpredictable and fast changing mood” which is an accurate description of Mercutio's personality because in Queen Mabs speech at the beginning he is joking and seeking attention, but at the end he becomes serious and angry.
After Tybalt killed Mercutio and Romeo challenges him to a duel, Romeo demands, “That late thou gavest me, for Mercutio’s soul/ Is but a little way above our heads/ Staying for thine to keep him company/ Either thou or I, or both, must go with him” (Shakespeare Act III scene i, lines 119-123). This quote shows how Romeo’s downfall is partly his fault because he is defying the prince’s command to no longer fight with the Capulets by challenging Tybalt. Since Romeo is aware that he is defying the prince and fighting anyway it is proven he is contributing to his own demise or downfall. When Mercutio is wounded after fighting Tybalt , he cries, “I am hurt/ A plague o’ both your houses!” (Shakespeare Act III scene i, lines 84-85). 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 in 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 a tragic hero because his demise is partly his fault and not an
Shakespeare uses Mercutio’s insight as a contrast to every other character to show how ridiculous the other characters actually are. If you pay attention to the plots and story lines, this play is a love story. If you understand Mercutio’s purpose, then this play is one of the greatest satires on human emotions ever made.
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.
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
Mercutio and Benvolio encountered Tybalt on the street of Verona and soon enough the newly wed Romeo came. Tybalt then provokes a fight with Romeo, " 'Romeo the love I bear thee can afford no better term than this: Thou art a villain', said Tybalt." Shakespeare's play (3, 1, 61-62, 119). Romeo, on the other hand, turned down Tybalt's invitation with a response of, " 'Villain I am none. Therefore, farewell. I see thou knowest me not.' " (3, 1, 65-66, 119). Mercutio was greatly disappointed with Romeo so he just accepted Tybalt's challenge, which caused his death. Mercutio died cursing the Capulets and Montagues. Romeo felt the pain of Mercutio's lost. He craved for revenge over Tybalt so he slain him from his return. The lost of a best friend pushed Romeo to kill Tybalt. He never realized that it would end up that way, that he will lose him. It was the moment that he felt the importance of Mercutio in his life.
Thought the play, these lovers go through many obstacles that range from arranging a wedding and finding a time to meet to Juliet trying to get out of marrying Paris. The entire time fate is tossing them around. Romeo realizes this after he kills Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin, in a brawl. At first, Romeo does not want to fight because Romeo and Juliet are already married at this time and he knows that they are cousins. Tybalt asks for a brawl from Romeo but Mercutio fights instead. Mercutio gets killed by Tybalt and that is what makes Romeo mad and fight Tybalt.
The story of Romeo and Juliet had many tragic, yet meaningful events that somewhat constructed what we know today as, “The tragic love story of Romeo and Juliet.” In fact, all of those ‘tragic yet meaningful events’ are all the deaths of Mercutio, Tybalt, Romeo, and Juliet. All of the tragic, meaningful events show what theme the story portrays. Romeo and Juliet itself is a well-known so called ‘love’ play/story, but when you really ‘dig deeper’ into it you will soon come to realize that it is more of a death play than a love play. Romeo and Juliet could be considered more of a death play than a love play because, majority of the events that happened were violent and the violence resulted in death; the only two people who showed ‘love’ throughout the story was Romeo and Juliet. It is clearly shown that death brought nothing but sorrow, sadness, and problems to Romeo and Juliet from beginning to end. Analyzing the story, it is obviously shown that death is written all over Romeo and Juliet, and that all the deaths of certain characters formed Romeo and Juliet itself. Therefore, with that being said, the theme that will be most strongly portrayed is death.
The first reason why the play is a traditional tragedy is that the hero, Romeo, possesses a major flaw which leads him into much trouble and eventually his demise: his fiery, impetuous nature. In one of the many brawls between the Capulets and the Montagues, Romeo displays his rashness. In this encounter, Tybalt and Mercutio, Romeo’s best friend, joke around as they are dueling, but the duel takes a turn for the worse when Tybalt kills Mercutio. Romeo, devastated by the death of his best friend and hell-bent on avenging it, challenges Tybalt to a duel. Romeo kills Tybalt out of anger and is banished from Verona, separated from his love Juliet. The punishment does not fit the crime, but it cannot be denied that Romeo brought it upon himself. He acknowledges his own rash behavior by saying, “Oh, I am fortune’s fool!” (III, i, 99). If he could have controlled his temper, the whole fight would have been avoided. Not only is Romeo impulsive in battles...
In the tremendous play of ‘Romeo & Juliet’, Shakespeare’s ways engages the audience straight away. The astounding methods he uses hooks the audience into the play and allows them to read on, wondering what will happen. The tragic love story of Romeo & Juliet, as mentioned in the prologue, sets a variety of themes throughout Act 1 Scene 5. Many of the recognisable themes are: youth and age, revenge, forbidden love, fate, action and hate. The main idea of the play is a feud that had been going on between two families, The ‘Montagues and Capulets’, the son of the Montagues and the daughter of the Capulets fall in love and the story tells us how tragic, death, happiness and revenge find them throughout the play.