Why Is Mercutio So Popular

’Help me into some house, Benvolio, Or I shall faint. A plague o ' both your houses! They have made worms ' meat of me: I have it, And soundly too: your houses!’ The famous last words of the most spoken of character in Romeo and Juliet, apart from Romeo and Juliet themselves of course. Mercutio drew his last breath in the first scene of the third act, after being introduced in the fourth scene of the first act. His introduction is the scene where Romeo, Benvolio and the gang are on their way to the Capulets ' feast. Already in his first scene, Shakespeare shows that Mercutio has a very strong relationship with Romeo. Also, in this first scene, he captured immediate attention with his comments. This is an indicator for the viewers that Mercutio will not be just a side-character, but that Mercutio will become a very memorable character. However, quickly after that thought, he’s dead.
Romeo’s great friend died relatively early in the play, while being immensely popular along the viewers. So why did he have to die so soon and why how did he become so popular?

Mercutio constantly punts, jokes and teases the other characters, making him somewhat of a funny guy. Above that, Mercutio is reckless and dirty. These traits combined make Mercutio the play’s showstopper, literally stopping the play when he does something again. The actual head character, Romeo, almost stands in the shadow of Mercutio, regarding his immense popularity. This obviously is a disaster for a play. Your head character has to stand out, not one of your side-characters. That’s why Mercutio had to go. In fact, English poet John Dryden said that Shakespeare himself admitted that he had to get rid of Mercutio, or else, he said, Mercutio would have gotten rid of him. (This is impossible, of course, a fictional character killing an actual