Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare has many contrasting characters, but the most prominent are Romeo and Mercutio. Romeo is a hopeless romantic, while Mercutio believes that love is a strictly physical ordeal. Mercutio has a strong sense of misogyny, while Romeo believes that monogamy and equal partnership reign true. Romeo and Mercutio contrast each other by their distinct personalities and beliefs, as well as their attitudes towards women and life. Mercutio has always had an anti-romantic mentality, and shows no restraint in voicing his opinion and chastising others for their beliefs. Mercutio uses poetry to mock Romeo for his vision of love in Act II, “Romeo, Humors! Madman! Passion! Lover! Appear thou in the likeness of a sigh, speak but one rhyme and I am satisfied,” (II.1.7-9). He obviously has a very cynical side and does not mind showing it to people, no matter how those people react to him. On the other hand, Romeo has always had a very ardent sense of love. Romeo shows deep understanding of his love for Rosaline by exclaiming, "Did …show more content…
He consistently degrades women by making jokes about them and mocking people who view women as more than pieces of meat. Mercutio illustrates this when mocking Romeo for his love for Rosaline by saying, “If love be rough with you, be rough with love; Prick love for pricking and you beat love down,”(I.4.27-28). Romeo values love and women and believes that marriage is a partnership and is mutually beneficial, and that women are worth more than their bodies. Romeo shows this by saying, “My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love is as deep; the more love I give to thee the more I have, for both are infinite,” (II.2.133-135). He shows a very deep understanding of how love is supposed to be and how women should be valued. Romeo knows that love goes both ways and is not only physical and that women are to be loved and treated as an
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 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.
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
Romeo and Juliet is a famous tragedy written by Shakespeare. The plot is based on an Italian tale but Shakespeare makes it more dramatic by developing specific characters, such as the Nurse and Mercutio. The plot is set in Verona in the sixteenth century. The Montagues and the Capulets are two distinguished families in Verona; however, they see each other as enemies. They are fighting all the time. Romeo and Juliet, who respectively are Montague and Capulet, fall in love at their first sight. In the end, two star-crossed lovers are dead. The Montagues and the Capulets reconciled by their children’s death and end the feud which has lasted generations.
Whether it is crude humor or a witty remark, Mercutio amuses readers over the course of the play. Towards the beginning of the play, Benvolio and Mercutio take Romeo with them to a Capulet party. While trying to cheer Romeo up about his one-sided love, Mercutio tells him that, “If love be rough with you, be rough with love; Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down“ (1.4 26-28). At first glance, this could be seen simply as Mercutio trying to motivate his friend, saying that Romeo should not give in to love. However, the word choice as well as phrasing of these lines is more suggestive.
Using his imagination Mercutio describes Queen Mab to Romeo as one would describe Santa Claus, where Santa is actually fictitious, but also in a sense reality. In Queen Mab's case, people do have different dreams of the things they want, but the imaginative part is that Queen Mab sends these. dreams to people. The account of Queen Mab is supposed to prove Mercutio's imagination and that under his pugnacity there is a poet. In William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio plays the part of Romeo's rebel friend who uses his imagination to cheer Romeo up and describe him. what he thinks of dreams. When talking about Queen Mab, the dream fairy, tells what she discovers in people's dreams, and how she can make someone dream of something.
...tio scorns Romeo, "If love be rough with you, be rough with love; /Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down/Humors! Madman! Passion! Lover! /Appear thou in the likeness of a sigh, /Speak but one rhyme and I am satisfied" (I.iv.27-28, II.1.7-9). This proves that even though they might be friends, both Romeo and Mercutio have opposing aspect to love. Romeo at beginning was all sad, which led him to his death, while Mercutio mockery drives him to his own death. These two friends died due to their much desire of love or their childish way of mockery in relationships.
Romeo despite being a courteous,smart and capable man, does not think about how his actions will affect others. When Tybalt kills Mercutio, Romeo is feelings all kinds of things including angry, sad and ridiculous. He says to himself, “O sweet Juliet, thy beauty hath made me effeminate and in my temper softened valor’s steel”(III:120-122). Falling in love has made his soft. He does not feel very tough when he notices seeing his friend was killed in front of him. The word “effeminate” refers to him becoming more feminine.The article, “A Brain too Young for Good Judgement” says, “In the face of ridicule, they may want revenge.”Romeo is feelings ridiculous because he stood...
and it is Shakespeare's portrayal of him as the opposite to Romeo in many ways, that adds appeal to the story. Romeo is shown as a dreamer and his views on love and his relationships are quite romantic and idealistic. ...
He doesn’t mention any other aspect of a women to Romeo so therefore we can infer he doesn’t care about and therefore associate anything else with love( only the parts he finds sexual). This idea can also be proven when Mercutio states “Nay, I’ll conjure too! Romeo! Humours, madman, passion, lover! Use of the noun “madman” shows Mercutio thinks it’s mad how anyone can love like Romeo. This is likely because he doesn’t understand true love himself as the play never mentions him having had a partner deeper than for sex. Therefore love is just sexual for him as that is the only concept of love he knows . This factor could make the audience feel sympathy for Mercutio as they may feel bad for someone who has never felt love as it is supposedly such a powerful thing, which they learn from Romeo’s
When suddenly Baz Luhrmann nineteen minutes into his work presents a drag Mercutio dressed scandalously in a ridiculous white wig and wearing red lipstick to top it all off, it seems he has no regard for the original Romeo and Juliet. In his portrayal of a character as crucial as Mercutio, Luhrmann crosses the fine line between the individual possessing eloquence and profuse wit Shakespeare creates, and a downright maniac. Before entering the Capulets’ mansion Mercutio’s acclaimed Queen Mab Speech in Act One, Scene Four, displays the aforementioned eloquence and vivid imagination of the character. Specifically, Mercutio claims, “Oh, then I see you’ve been with Queen Mab/...True, I talk of dreams,/Which are the children of an idle brain,/Begot of nothing but vain fantasy,”(I iv 53, 97-99). Anyone with a rational mind does not expect Mercutio to deliver his lines about dreams being merely the result of the anxieties and desires of those who sleep while holding ecstasy and jumping agitatedly. Luhrmann offers an insane Mercutio in his take on Romeo and Juliet and all it achieves is a massacre of the brilliance of the dialogue. The unconventional director stages the exchange to end with Romeo accepting a psychoactive drug inducing him in a euphoric state, then shattering any proceeding potential romantic mood.
Romeo has an obsessive personality. The morning before he meets Juliet, he is obsessing on Rosaline. To see Rosaline, Romeo snuck into a Capulet’s party; once there, he meets Juliet and instantly he forgets his obsession of Rosaline, thinking Juliet is the most beautiful creature on earth. Friar Lawrence even acknowledges this when he states, “Young men’s love then lies / Not truly in their hearts but in their eyes” (II iii 67-68). Romeo’s affection is easily swayed from Rosaline to Juliet.
Romeo has a very extreme look towards love. To him love is almost exclusively about what is on the outside; not what they act like. His love is pithy; he was
Romeo's perception of love as "rough" is generally due to his own response to the events in his life. Mercutio sees love as a "tender thing," and therefore offers this advice:
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, death, 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