Examples Of Mercutio's Long Shadow In Romeo And Juliet

Mercutio’s Long Shadow

Quick-witted, loyal, and funny, Mercutio belongs in the list of Shakespeare’s most memorable and well written characters. Mercutio’s lines portray a man always ready and willing to laugh, a man who puts a friend’s honor over his own safety. Notwithstanding all of this, his role includes a much greater one; the character of Mercutio provides a key to understanding ‘The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet.’

This, of course, cannot come close to possible-Mercutio dies so early in the play that he would have inadequate time to impact the play. Nevertheless, the events leading up to and surrounding his death influence the plot in themselves. His last words, for example, “A plague o’ both your houses” (3.1.101), ultimately fulfill themselves in the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. Mercutio’s curse shows the desperation of characters facing death; this typifies the later deaths of Tybalt, Lady Montague, Paris, Romeo, and Juliet.

Benvolio says “An envious thrust from Tybalt hits the life of stout Mercutio, and then Tybalt fled, But by and by comes back to Romeo, Who had but newly entertained revenge,[And so]was stout Tybalt slain” (3.1.162-167). When Mercutio dies, the play entered a downhill spiral of gloom and demise, of which the successive deaths of Romeo and Juliet became the lowest