Brief Summary Of Mercutio In William Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

Mercutio and Benvolio are outside and shortly after, Tybalt approaches, eager to fight Romeo because he is still extremely angry that Romeo crashed the Capulet’s party. Mercutio does not tell Tybalt where Romeo is, as Mercutio does not know that Romeo has just been married to Juliet. Romeo arrives, and Tybalt begins to act aggressively toward him. Romeo refuses to fight Tybalt, because Tybalt and Romeo are now family, through Romeo’s marriage to Juliet. Tybalt, along with Mercutio and Benvolio do not know about their marriage. Mercutio sees Romeo’s refusal to fight Tybalt as an act of weakness, and refuses to standby while Tybalt continues to insult Romeo. Mercutio then decides to step in and he begins to fight Tybalt himself. Romeo steps between him, and Tybalt stabs Mercutio underneath Romeo’s arm, which results in Mercutio’s death.

After Mercutio dies, Romeo gets his revenge by killing Tybalt. After Romeo kills Tybalt, he runs and the Capulets and the Montagues, along with the Prince arrive. Benvolio explains what happens, that Romeo was only getting revenge after Mercutio’s death, and that Tybalt started the fight. The Prince, being Mercutio’s cousin, instead of putting Romeo to death, decides to banish Romeo from Verona. The Nurse goes to Juliet to deliever the news of Tybalt’s death. She also tells Juliet that Romeo is the one who killed Tybalt. Juliet is saddened at first by her cousins’ murder, but is more upset over the fact that Romeo is banished, meaning they’ll never be able to see each other again. Romeo runs to Friar Laurence’s cell to hide, and wants to kill himself because he believes banishment is a far worse punishment than death because he will have to live without Juliet. Friar Laurence tells him to quit crying, and to be thankful for his banishment because it could be much worse.