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importance of mercutio in romeo and juliet
importance of mercutio in romeo and juliet
essay about mercutio in romeo and juliet
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Mercutio of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
Although the story of Romeo and Juliet does not focus on Mercutio, to many, he is one of the most interesting characters in literature. His name puns on the word mercurial which meansunpredictably changeable. His unsteady behavior makes him wise beyond his intentions. Arecurring trend in Shakespeare’s plays is the existence of a witty fool and many foolish wits.
People such as Romeo, Friar Laurence, and Capulet are people who are made out to be wise, but,in the end, they make all the wrong decisions. Mercutio serves as a foil to all these characters.
He is considered by every character in the play to be a fool, but, in the long run, he is the one whois the wisest.
He brings a sense of comic relief as well as a reality check to many of the character’s inthe play. Although he can be seen as a laughable youth, his character serves to show how manyof the so-called wiser characters are actually fools.
The audience is first introduced to Mercutio in Act one, Scene two . Romeo speaks of having a dream and believing it to be true. This leads Mercutio to his famous Queen Mab speech.
When he breaks down after his speech, Romeo states, “Thou Talk’st of nothing (I.iv. 96).”
Mercutio responds with his first wise quote, “True, I talk of dreams, Which are the children of anidle brain (I.iv. 97-98).” This comment does not refer to Romeo’s dream of love alone. Friar Laurence’s dream of peace in Verona proves false. In Act two, Scene four ,when the nurseappears in her gaudy attire acting as if she is the owner of the Capulet’s servant Peter, it isMercutio that churlishly reminds her that she is of the servant class as well. Mercutio’s commentprovides an alternative view of real...
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... again, according to Mercutio, there is no such thing as fortune. There is the outcome of one’s actions. Romeo is unknowingly calling himself a fool for his own careless judgment.
Shakespeare is loved for his story lines, but he is respected for the characters he has
created. It is ironic how in Romeo and Juliet characters such as Capulet, Romeo, and Friar Laurence are made out to be wise but in actuality make bad judgment. It is also ironic that Mercutio is depicted as a childish youth when really he is the character with the most insight.
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.
In William Shakespeare’s play “Romeo and Juliet,” Mercutio is introduced as Romeo (the main character) and Benvolio’s (Romeo’s cousin and friend) good friend and relative of the Prince. Mercutio is a very beloved friend to Romeo, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t unkind or disrespectful. He is also very dramatic and perverted, yet somehow laid back and relaxed at the same time. He is very interesting in the way that he can seem kind, but be an awful person and friend at the same time. If Mercutio weren’t as dramatic or such an attention-seeker, he wouldn’t have died and eventually caused Tybalt, Paris, Romeo, and Juliet’s deaths and the sadness that followed each death.
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
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
Chinua Achebe challenges Joseph Conrad's novella depicting the looting of Africa, Heart of Darkness (1902) in his essay "An Image of Africa" (1975). Achebe's is an indignant yet solidly rooted argument that brings the perspective of a celebrated African writer who chips away at the almost universal acceptance of the work as "classic," and proclaims that Conrad had written "a bloody racist book" (Achebe 319). In her introduction in the Signet 1997 edition, Joyce Carol Oates writes, "[Conrad's] African natives are "dusty niggers," cannibals." Conrad [...] painfully reveals himself in such passages, and numerous others, as an unquestioning heir of centuries of Caucasian bigotry" (Oates 10). The argument seems to lie within a larger question; is the main character Charlie Marlow racist, and is Marlow an extension of Conrad's opinion?
There is no known exact cause of either anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa, but many factors play a role in the initial onset, such as: personality traits, low self-esteem, and social and cultural influences (Costin, 21). Many anorexics have specific personality traits that urge them to refrain from eating. Many are perfectionists that will diet and exercise and not eat until their bodies are perfect. Unfortunately, however, he or she never thinks their body is perfect, and continues their destructive cycle. Anorexics that are perfectionists also tend to want to be in control at all times. Often , they feel as though others are trying to force them to do
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.
Demeter, Debora (1998). The Human Sexuality: Sex and the Elderly. Retrieved November 10, 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://www.umkc.edu/sites/hsw/age/
"I don't want to bother you much with what happened to me personally,' [Conrad] began, showing in this remark the weakness of many tellers of tales who seem so often unaware of what their audience would most like to hear" (Conrad, 9). Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad's best-known work, has been examined on many bases more than I can possibly list here, but including imperialism, colonialism, and racism. I would reason that all bases of analysis are perfectly acceptable through which to critique Conrad's novella, or any piece of writing. I would reason this, were some of these bases mainly, racism not taken to an extreme level. In arguing racism, many critics seem to take Heart of Darkness as Conrad's unwavering view on Africa, Africans, life, or whatever else one may please to take it as. I, therefore, propose that Heart of Darkness be taken for what it truly is: a work of fiction set in late 19th century Europe and Africa.
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is one of the most widely recognized and acclaimed novellas written. But with fame and recognition comes controversy, which is clearly demonstrated by the broad interpretations of the book. Many people believe Heart of Darkness is racist, while others believe the book is perfectly civil. Chinua Achebe, one of Africa's most renowned novelists, strongly believes that the book is dehumanizing and racist; I agree with him, to a certain extent. Three of the most prominent ways that Achebe discusses Conrad’s racism is by the way the African people are portrayed, the African culture, and the comparison of Europe to Africa.
It is human nature to place blame and point fingers at someone, but it is a lot less common to take responsibility for your own actions. Sometimes, we put ourselves in positions that are detrimental to our lives or well-being. Even though we are responsible, it is likely that we will place the blame elsewhere. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio found himself with a similar conflict. Tybalt, Juliet's cousin, killed Mercutio during a fight in the town square. It would be easy to say that Tybalt caused Mercutio’s death since it was his sword that killed him, but that is simply false. Mercutio ignored many warnings and continued to antagonize the fight that lead to his death. The character ultimately responsible for Mercutio’s death is
His statement means he doesn’t want to cause Tybalt any harm but would rather leave the scene. Mercutio steps in for Romeo, Romeo comes between them, and Tybalt’s sword stabs Mercutio when Romeo was holding Mercutio back. As Mercutio lays wounded and waiting for a surgeon, he blames Romeo for his injury saying,
It was not until 1975 when Chinua Achebe gave his famous lecture, “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness” that the issue of race was tackled head on in Conrad’s work. It is this lecture that has become the cornerstone of writing and criticism of Heart of Darkness. It would be hard to find an essay since then that doesn’t in some way discuss or acknowledge Achebe’s essay. Even critic’s who do not use take into account historical or auto-biographical details of a work, such as Miller, have written responses to Achebe. In Miller’s essay “Should we read Heart of Darkness” he discusses, in his own way, the essence of Achebe’s argument that the novella should not be read because of it’s racist undertones. On critic has even gone on to say that Achebe’s essay has become a work included in the literature canon.
In “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness," Achebe takes notes the ways that Conrad degrades Africans by reducing their religious practices to misconception, belittling their complex geography to just a single mass of jungle, telling them to remain in their place, and taking away their capability of speaking. Achebe criticizes Joseph Conrad for his racist stereotypes towards the people of Africa. Achebe also sensibly labels these stereotypes and shows that Africa is in fact a rich land full of intelligent people who are, in fact, very human.
Achebe argues that the racist observed in the Heart of Darkness is expressed due to the western psychology or as Achebe states “desire,” this being to show Africa as an antithesis to Europe. He first states Conrad as “one of the great stylists of modern fiction.” [pg.1] He praises Conrad’s talents in writing but believes Conrad’s obvious racism has not been addressed. He later describes in more detail that Conrad’s “methods amount to no more than a steady, ponderous, fake-ritualistic repetition of two antithetical sentences.”
Achebe, Chinua. "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness." Heart of Darkness: An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Sources, Essays in Criticism. 3rd ed. Ed. Robert Kimbrough. New York: W.W. Norton, 1988. 251-262.