Why Is Mercutio Important

How Important Is Too Important?

Some people will argue that Mercutio from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet was becoming too important of a character and because of this, Shakespeare had to find a way kill him. I agree that Shakespeare had to kill him because he was starting to overtake Romeo and Juliet, he started to take away from the importance of other characters, and Shakespeare wouldn’t kill an important character for no reason.

One reason I believe Shakespeare killed Mercutio is because he was starting to overtake Romeo and Juliet. The reason I believe this is that in some scenes, Mercutio speaks twice as much as anyone else such as scene four in act one. This is the first time we meet Mercutio and he speaks eleven times including his famous Queen Mab speech. Overall, Mercutio does more than half the talking in the whole scene. Also, in act two he isn’t in three of the six scenes but when he is a scene he isn’t a static character, he is an active character who speaks frequently and almost as much as Romeo and Juliet. This becomes a problem for Shakespeare because if a “side-character” speaks fifty percent of the time and the rest is everyone else, then he becomes a character that is too important. Yes,

Mercutio was an important character that was not just influential but also compelling and interesting as he had many different sides to his personality. He was a likeable character that is sometimes fun to listen to. Because of this he became important enough to become a threat to the importance and influence of the characters that are supposed to be more important. This makes killing Mercutio a very viable option to the problem. Shakespeare can’t just take him out of the play, he’s a character that people would notice if he just went missing. Not only would killing Mercutio solve his problem, but it also helped the story move along and made it much more