William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet "The Most Interesting Characters in the play are not Romeo and Juliet"

I believe that the above statement is true and I agree with it

entirely. If it wasn't for the other characters the play would go

something like this: "Romeo met Juliet, they fell in love, and lived

happily ever after." How boring! You need other characters to

complicate matters a bit.

For this essay, I shall write about two other characters in the play

that have a great influence on the chain of events in it: Mercutio and

Friar Lawrence.

Mercutio

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Mercutio is one of the most unique characters in Romeo and Juliet. His

language is always powerful and imaginative. He represents all that is

funny, youthful and playful in the play and has an important role.

First of all, Mercutio is Romeo's friend. He is neither a Montague,

nor a Capulet. Therefore, he has not been born into the family feud,

but his friendship with Romeo does make him associated with the

Montagues.

Mercutio's character stands out from the rest because of the energy in

everything he says. He is very fun loving and has a genuine love for

life. He lives life on the edge and is always looking for something

new and exciting to do. He is constantly playing on words, using

metaphors and words with two or more meanings. Romeo describes him as

"a gentleman…who loves to hear himself talk." As displayed in his

famous "Queen Mab speech" in Act I scene iv he is spectacularly

creative. He describes in detail everything about a little world he

has imagined. He uses Celtic mytho...

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...e of his crying. "Art thou a man?" he questions,

"thy tears are womanish!" Perhaps Friar Lawrence is trying to do the

best for Romeo in getting him to toughen up a bit. This is important

because it shows us how men were supposed to be like in Shakespeare's

time. He continues his onslaught, telling Romeo that he is to blame

for his banishment "hast thou slain Tybalt?" and "powder in a skills

soldier's flask is set afire by thine own ignorance." Perhaps he is

cross with Romeo for putting this on him and making it his

responsibility.

Friar Lawrence did everything he could to try and allow Romeo and

Juliet to live in peace. Maybe with a little more time he could have

planned things better. The countless mistakes by Friar Lawrence are

understandable, but deadly. He was a man of good intentions, but one

of short sight.