Gabriel Anderson Heredia English November 10th, 2015 Mercutio Character Traits Mercutio was a very interesting character before he died. His mood certainly changes very easily. In act 3 scene 1 when Mercutio and Benvolio are in the street, Mercutio is acting normal. But as soon as Tybalt comes and challenges Romeo to a duel he gets very angry and he takes Romeo’s place in the duel.
There were many violent ends within the play that all began with Romeo and Juliet’s forbidden love, and one was the passing of five characters. Mercutio was a relative to the prince and as such he was untouchable. On the other hand he also subtly chose sides. Being friends with the Montagues was the beginning of the road to his death. He was an extremely witty person within the play constantly making jokes, but he also had a vivid imagination coming up with eloquent stories for the trio to hear.
Mercutios relationship with Romeo is a foil because their beliefs are extremely controversial with each other's. Fates, dreams and love are few of the thoughts where they disagree, and there opinions on each matter were shown a myriad throughout the play , this is shown to be true when Romeo states, "In bed asleep, while they do dreams come true" (1.4, lns 52). This quote supports my answer because Romeo is stating that your dream are prophecies where Mercutio, "...nothing but fantasy" (1.4, lns 98) believes that they mean nothing and are just childish thought. Another quote from the text that supports my answer is between Romeo and Mercutio, "And, to sink in it, should you burden love- too great oppression for a tender thing" (1.4, lns 23-24)
Because of Mercutio’s opposing traits to Romeo, he is Romeo’s foil to show Romeo’s significant
Mercutio is making light of Romeo’s deep depressing love for Rosaline, he’s mocking love and making it a joke. This creates an emphasis on Romeo’s utter affixation with love. Mercutio’s playfulness and ability to make a serious subject humorous and reasonable bring out the deep, dark, and depressing side of Romeo, who is completely the opposite when it comes to love. Romeo does not see love as a joke and we see him fall into a depression, Mercutio only makes this sadness more apparent as he talks so jokingly of love. Shakespeare uses Mercutio to lighten Romeo’s depression and make it more
Mercutio is a round character and a close friend of Romeo and Benvolio. He is loyal and displays many characteristics. Mercutio’s beliefs and temper contributed to his death. First, Mercutio has a strong sense of honor.
Mercutio is different from Romeo because he does not believe in love and makes fun of Romeo and falling in love so heavily all the time. When Romeo describes his love for Rosaline using a rose with thorns as a metaphor. Mercutio laughs and says ”If love be rough with you, be rough with love; Prick love for pricking and you beat love down”(I.4.27-28). In another scenario of Romeo and Mercutio’s foils is when Romeo tells his friends about a dream he had about the party and is expecting a disastrous outcome of the party. Mercutio makes fun of Romeo because he does not believe that dreams can become visions of impending danger.
Throughout history, it seems that many great stories include an outrageous character that completely grasps the audiences attention. In The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio is considered to be one of Shakespeare's most memorable creations because of his unique personality with the use of his wittiness, him being a foil to Romeo, and his ruining of romantic sentiments. Mercutio's wittiness makes him a memorable character because his silliness conveys the misery starting to screen so the general audience is able to a more prominent attitude. Mercutio begins a fight with Tybalt, but get injured when Tybalt accidents stabs him.
Connor Flanigan Mr. Zamanis English 9 6 March 2024 Romeo & Juliet Few characters are capable of bringing comedy and truth into a play like Mercutio can. Mercutio is one of the key characters in Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. This play is a tragedy of two young starstruck lovers, in the midst of a family rivalry that causes them to inevitably die together. Mercutio, Romeo's best friend, is viewed by many as one of Shakespeare’s greatest characters. He is one of Shakespeare’s greatest characters because of his loyalty, humor, and confidence.
Mercutio’s speech about Queen Mab, who is responsible for making men dream, captures Mercutio’s brilliantly witty character. With the fantastical descriptions of the “fairies’ midwife” (1.4.52) and her entourage, the monologue is reminiscent of a fairy tale or a nursery rhyme (“Her chariot is an empty hazelnut made by the joiner squirrel,” 1.4.65). Mercutio uses this speech to dismiss Romeo’s ‘prophetic’ dream that he attempts — and fails — to tell his friend about, in hopes of not going to the Capulet’s masquerade. I interpreted the speech in which Mercutio is an older figure jokingly patronising a child’s whining (Romeo in 1.1) by providing a fable of sorts to ultimately explain and rationalise that dreams “are the children of an idle brain”
SparkNotes. SparkNotes, n.d. Web. 08 Mar. 2016. These quotes mean that Mercutio was telling Romeo to do something about his sadness and go have fun, to dance, and find a new love to satisfy his sadness. So Romeo did by finding, marrying, and dying for Juliet. Which caused Juliet (a Capulet) kill herself because she loved Romeo (a Montague).
In the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Mercutio, a friend of Romeo plays deep role within the play. In the play many characters represent the masculine and feminine space. Mercutio’s represents the masculine space of love and it affects Romeo in the long run. Because of Mercutio’s huge expression and dominance of the masculine space, his mockery towards the feminine space of love and fooling around with women, pushes Romeo towards tragedy.
All stories, plays, and literary arts, have characters that propel the plot forward with their actions and decisions, and in William Shakespeare's play, “Romeo and Juliet”, Mercutio is that character. He plays an extremely important and essential role in the play. Without him, Romeo wouldn't have met his love, and also enemy, Juliet Capulet. Mercutio was also the one that provoked a fight with Tybalt, Juliet's cousin, and as a result, Tybalt killed Mercuito and this is where and when Romeo and Juliet’s love story starts to collapse. Mercutio is an optimistic, loyal, and comedic character, also the kinsman of Prince Escalus.
As a matter of fact, Mercutio was not the funnest person to be around. Even though he made jokes, most of them were about people and it hurt their feelings when he said most things. The conversation between him and the Nurse in paragraph 3 wasn’t even grim compared to most of the other things he’s said. (Conclusion) In conclusion, Mercutio was loyal to Romeo and the Montagues by staying by their side ‘til the end of his days, he was a wise young man who stayed around when Romeo needed advice even if it wasn’t good, and he was humorous towards everything that life brought even in serious times.
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.
