Comparing Menenius And Mercutio In Shakespeare's Romeo

Gifted in wit, manipulation, and powers of diversion, both Menenius and Mercutio were characters that worked more or less behind the scenes, shrouded in the shadows of their stories’ heroes and left to scheme without interference.

For Romeo, Mercutio is a friend, advisor (though his advice is occasionally unscrupulous, at best), and protector, who cares dearly about Romeo and his wellbeing. Mercutio makes it his ultimate goal to keep Romeo “on track”; however, what Romeo sees as his path in life is a very different one than Mercutio sees for him. Romeo has a tendency to walk with his head in the clouds, dreaming of romance and peace, falling in love left and right, paying no attention to the harsh reality he lives in. Mercutio wants to make sure Romeo stays rooted to the ground, so he doesn’t fly off completely and leave Mercutio behind. Mercutio meets Romeo’s romantic ravings with cold, hard reality, and tries to make it clear exactly what he thinks about Romeo

Menenius serves as a sort of public relations specialist for Coriolanus and his family, and cleans up the mess Coriolanus tends to leave behind him whenever he speaks publicly. Unlike Mercutio, who was willing to give his life to keep Romeo from moving on, Menenius is desperate to help Coriolanus attain a higher station. Menenius acts as an advisor to Coriolanus during Coriolanus’ attempts to move from general to senator, and does everything in his power to help him achieve that office. While Coriolanus is cold, calculated, and ignorant of public opinion, Menenius is a schmoozing, charming, social man that is effective on multiple occasions of reminding the people of why they originally liked Coriolanus. Without Menenius’ efforts, Coriolanus would not have made it nearly so far along on his social climb, and would have likely been exiled even sooner, or simply never made it past the station of