Romeo and Juliet - page 3
Keywords: Romeo and juliet, romeo, juliet, english
By Abdullatif Beirakji on 16/05/2007
Level: GCSE Key Stage 4 (Years 10-11)
Page Number: 3 of 9 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
and status.
Benvolio seemed to be the only character that is against fighting and his attitude towards brawls was obvious not only in Act3 scene1 but he also tried to stop the fight between the Montague and the Capulet servants in the beginning of the play. In the beginning of Act3 Scene1, Benvolio tried to persuade Mercutio to get off the streets “I pray thee, good Mercutio, let's retire: The day is hot, the Capulets abroad,” this quotation portrays that Benvolio is anxious about the idea of fighting with the Capulets. It also shows that Benvolio understands that the heat of the day will not only encourage people to go out but it might also cause their tempers to flare up. However as the scene progress Benvolio’s character develops and this could be seen when Benvolio realised that “Brave Mercutio’s dead”, where at this point he get distressed and no longer shows his usual peacemaking attitude, and we can notice this when he does not prevent or warn Romeo against fighting Tybalt, and another example is when Tybalt was dead Benvolio was only worried about protecting and defending his friend Romeo.
Mercutio is a very argumentative character, almost like a contrast of Benvolio, and he likes to appear unique and does not like to be like others, this could be seen by the way he speaks in prose. “Come, come, thou art as hot a Jack in thy mood as any in Italy, and as soon moved to be moody, and as soon moody to be moved.” Later on after getting stabbed poignancy Mercutio has lost all throwaway humour and effectively curses Romeo “I am hurt. A plague o’ both your houses!” blaming the feud of the two families for his death as in Shakespeare’s time people still very superstitious.
Tybalt is like Mercutio, a very argumentative character, but the difference is that Tybalt is the one who looks for fights. However when Tybalt stabbed Mercutio it was not clear whether Tybalt meant to kill him, but it seemed to be a spur of the moment decision, as he was shocked and worried, where this is seen by the way he stopped thinking about Romeo and went away.
Romeo’s character has developed clearly through this scene. In the beginning of the scene he was highly elated because he had just got married to Juliet. Where his happiness and worry made him reply to Tybalt
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