Which Shakespeare lover doesn't know the famous words:
"If love be rough with you, be rough with love.
Prick love for pricking, and beat love down."
These words are spoken when Romeo, Benvolio and Mercutio first enter the stage. With just a few words you know immediately that Mercutio is skeptical when it comes to love. This contradicts with the lovesick Romeo and levelheaded Benvolio, who don't doubt true love exists. Mercutio is a hit with the public, but dies relatively early in the play, why would Shakespeare kill such an important character? A diversity of reasons could be found for this, but first you have to know who Mercutio really was.
Mercutio first enters the stage together with Romeo and Benvolio, in act 1 scene 4 the talk about the party Romeo wants to go to, the reason for this is because of love. Mercutio here expresses his disapproval towards love in the famous Queen Mab speech. He compares love to a wish which originates from dreams, these dreams are visited by the queen of the fairies Mab. In this speech Mercutio shows he is quick-witted and headstrong. He also used a lot of puns, like when Romeo tells him he is talking about nothing.
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These puns continue all through the play and even when he is dying.
The queen Mab speech could even be seen as foreshadowing, because he talks about love being just a dream and dreams are just for a few minutes. Those minutes lasted a little longer for Romeo and Juliet, but they still only had three days together. These days could be seen as an extended dream, which ended as soon as they got the love they wanted. Mercutio tells Romeo the love he wants is just an illusion and in the end that becomes
In scene 1 of Act 3, when Tybalt challenges Romeo, Mercutio responds by trying to get Tybalt to fight him instead of fighting Romeo(3.1.70-79), proving that he is such a good friend that he is willing to put his life on the line. This scene is essential to the story because it results in Mercutio dying and Romeo getting banished. If this scene didn’t occur, then Romeo would not have been banished and would have gotten the message that Juliet was faking her death. Similarly, on page three of The Ethiopss Ear, it talks about how Mercutio and Romeo had such a strong friendship that they could have been lovers, and also about how much Mercutio cared about Romeo, causing him to fight Tybalt. This helps us understand just how strong of a friendship Romeo and Mercutio had in the play, given that they could have been lovers if not for Juliet.
Quotes and rhetorical devices help to establish the fact that whenever Romeo is around Mercutio, they are pretty much always
Not only did he bring Romeo to the party, he brought him into his own death. By intending to make Romeo less depressed about his heartbreak with Rosaline, Mercutio caused another heartbreak later on in the story. Also, a few seconds before Mercutio’s death, he uttered a curse upon the two families with a strong hate for each other; The Capulets and The Montagues. This curse emerged quickly within the members of the
Romeo is often dragging and sad, then Mercutio comes along. He starts to joke with Romeo and lifts the mood of the play. Mercutio also helps to explain things to Romeo in his own odd, twisted way. He explains love to Romeo and makes sure that he knows he can overcome what has happened to him and that he will find someone new. And for all of the insanity caused by Mercutio, Romeo brings him back into reality.
When Romeo and Mercutio is talking to each other, Romeo said “Not I, Believe me. You have dancing shoes with nimble soles; I have a soul of lead so stakes me to the ground I cannot move”(I. iv.14-16). Romeo is overcome with sadness because of his love struck condition. Mercutio mocks Romeo’s vision of love and the devices he uses to express his emotions. Romeo and Mercutio are talking to one another, and Mercutio said “You are a lover.
Without a doubt, Romeo was obsessed with this idea of love, he is always claiming to be in love with a woman, yet he does not know the sweet tenderness of love nor has he experienced the genuine feeling. Romeo believes that he, himself knows love and has experienced it on more than one occasion. Due to the fact that Romeo moved on from Rosaline to Juliet shows that he is not capable of allegiance to a woman. “You are a lover. Borrow Cupid’s wings and soar with them above a common bound” (Act 1, Scenes 4, Lines 17-18) When Mercutio says this, it shows that even Romeo's friends know that Romeo often insists he love’s in multiple cases.
Romeo reveals to Mercutio that love pricks him like a thorn. Mercutio encourages Romeo to “be rough with love”, “Prick love for pricking,” and “beat love down” (I.4.27-28). While Romeo talks about his love and all its’ aching, Mercutio’s displays his neglect for love as an emotion. Romeo believes love is an emotion while Mercutio taunts Romeo and implies it is a physical pursuit of life, and if it ever treats him badly, he should do the same. Romeo believes in fate and dreams.
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.
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
This quote clearly demonstrates Romeo and Mercutio’s fighting taste differences because of how Romeo tries to prevent the fight. This shows two things regarding the
Throughout the whole play both Romeo and Mercutio were there for each other when in need of a friend or even just some comforting words. Mercutio always seems to say the right things to put Romeo back on track and in focus. While Romeo was relentlessly weeping over his unrequited love for Rosaline, Mercutio, with his wise and caring words said, “‘Why is not this not better than groaning for love? Now art thou sociable.
Mercutio says that dreams mean nothing, and pressures him into going to the party anyways. Romeo agrees, and begins the chain of events that lead to his and Juliet’s deaths. He shows how reluctant he is to go by stating,
Romeo and Juliet’s love seemed like a little harmless thing, but the reality was that their “love” led them to their eternal doom. Shakespeare applies the use of diction in the climax to further advance the motif of dreams. When Romeo first sees Juliet lying in the tomb he describes her as “Is crimson in thy lips and in thy
Nevertheless, it is also very physical as this entire dialogue is about a kiss. Thus, Shakespeare shows that their love is purely physical attraction, yet it is also quite innocent. In addition, the Nurse and Mercutio believe love to be about sexual desire and thus temporary. For example, in scene 4 of Act 1, Mercutio tells Romeo about Queen Mab, “This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs, /That presses them and learns them first to bear, / Making them women of good carriage.” In this speech, Mercutio describes love to be a delusion and very sexual.
Love can cause illusions and false realities that enhance the idea of perfection that does not really exist. Juliet’s idea of Romeo being a man of wax is questioned when Juliet learns that Romeo killed her cousin, Tybalt. She is conflicted as to whether she should hate Romeo or not for killing someone in her family. She exclaims, “Oh, that deceit should dwell/ In such a gorgeous palace!”