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Mercutio Responsible For The Deaths Of Romeo And Juliet Essay

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As teenagers, we develop crushes and fall in love at first sight, but would this really lead to dying for them. In the play, Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, is a romantic tragedy of star-crossed lovers from two similar, powerful families that are feuding. This leads to chaos in the city of Verona, where Romeo falls in love with Juliet and has to hide their love from their families. Because of their love for eachother, the couple secretly gets married, which later leads to the death of both of them. In spite of the fact that both of them died there are factors that took play in their deaths. Even though Romeo and Juliet committed suicide, Tybalt and Mercutio should be held responsible for their deaths. In the tragedy, some believe that …show more content…

When Tybalt sees Romeo at the party, he acts to have a duel with Romeo. But based on Mercutio’s personality, he tends to pester very often. Mercutio instigates the fight, leading to more quarrels that are unnecessary and can be prevented. As a result of Mercutio dying, Romeo gets furious and seeks vengeance for Mercutio by stabbing Tybalt. Mercutio mentions “ But I’ll be hanged, sir, if he wear your livery. Marry, go before the field he’ll be your follower. Your worship in that sense may call him ‘man’” (III.i.55-60). In the passage, Mercutio teases Tybalt when he says “here comes my man”, meaning the man he is looking for is arriving. Mercutio misinterprets what Tybalt said on purpose to anger him in this scene. As “your livery” can refer to a nobleman’s personal servant, Mercutio jokes that Romeo would only be a follower of Tybalt into a dueling field where they would fight it out man to man. This is how Shakespeare makes Mercutio behave, because his personality adds slight comedy to the tragedy for the audience. However his behavior leads to the tragedy starting and just pure chaos in the city of Verona over such a brief time. His impulsive behavior led to the death of him and five others in the span of a week. All in all, Mercutio’s childish and impetuous behavior toward others in the tragedy, leads to more of a …show more content…

Tybalt seeking out Romeo caused this entire mess because Romeo got married to Juliet a few hours before the fight. Tybalt found Mercutio and Benvolio instead. Tybalt demanded to know where Romeo was but Mercutio and Benvolio didn't even know either. Mercutio started teasing Tybalt,¨Consort? What, dost thou make us minstrels? And thou make Minstrels of us, look to hear nothing but discords. Here's my fiddlestick; here's that shall make you dance. Zounds, consort¨(lll, i, 45-50), showing Mercutio teasing Tybalt causing him to get mad and attack. After Mercutio teased Tybalt, he attacked Mercutio, turning into a feud. Romeo arrives sometime later, and tries to break up the fight. Romeo tries to tell Mercutio to stop, which gives Tybalt an opening to stab Mercutio. Mercutio dies and Romeo follows Tybalt and kills him. Similarly, the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet was Tybalt's doing if he did not seek out Romeo then he wouldn't have been

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