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Mercutio Is To Blame In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

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The death of Romeo and Juliet is surrounded with a lot of controversy on who is to blame. Some speculate that Friar Lawrence or Lord Capulet is to blame. However, could it be the most unusual suspect in the entire story? Romeo’s best friend Mercutio. In Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, the children of two rival houses fall in love but were destined to die tragically from the beginning they met. The events causing the death of the star crossed lovers could be traced to Romeo’s best friend Mercutio.
Mercutio is the one and only best friend to Romeo. He is very hot tempered, comical, and seems to view life in an unserious manner. He actively teases Romeo about his love life and is the person to stir trouble. At the beginning of the story Romeo dreams of his impending death and expresses it to Mercutio, but Mercutio brushes it off telling Romeo “ True, I talk of dreams; which are the children of an idle brain, beast of nothing but vain in fantasy”, (Act 1, Scene 4, line 98-100). It shows that Mercutio does not take …show more content…

Several moments leading to Mercutio’s death, Romeo approaches Tybalt stating he must love Tybalt as family, but Tybalt wants to fight. Confused, Tybalt starts to harass Romeo. Mercutio becomes so angered by Romeo's attempts to just walk away from Tybalt that he declares, “ O calm, dishonorable, vile submission! Alla stocatta carries it away: Tybalt you ratcatcher will you walk!”, (Act 3, Scene 3, line 68-70), and challenges Tybalt himself. However, Mercutio's rash, emotionally driven response is a poor response, not only because fighting on the streets breaks the Prince’s newly decreed law, but also because it leads to his own death. His death sparks vengeance in Romeo which gets him exiled for killing tybalt, and inspiring the Capulets to wed their Daughter,

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