Mercutio Monologue

Mercutio’s introduction in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet establishes himself as a fanciful character. His speech solidifies his character as someone who has zero patience for Romeo’s immaturity in the love department; no patience for any self pity for that matter. Mercutio suggests he and the Montegues crash a Capulet party. Romeo, heartbroken by Rosaline, refuses to join his friends because of uneasiness due to a dream. Mercutio starts to convince him to go by using an allusion to fairy Queen Mab to demonstrate to Romeo his infantile attitude. The purpose of this speech is simple: to knock Romeo out of his piteous state and make him realize his immaturity while developing Mercutio’s personality through imagery, allusion, and wordplay.

When Mercutio first starts to describe Queen Mab’s effect on dreamers, he says, “Through lovers’ brains, and then they dream of love; / O'er courtiers’ knees, that dream on court'sies straight; / O'er lawyers’ fingers, who straight dream on fees;” (1.4.76-78). These lines are describing Mercutio’s opinion of each group- he conjectures that lawyers only care about money, romantics about love, and noblemen about courting someone. He then displays his detest to love using a double entendre: “O'er ladies’ lips, who straight on kisses dream, / Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues, / Because their breaths with sweetmeats tainted are” (1.4.79-81). This generalization is basically saying that ladies are single-mindedly preoccupied with sexual encounters that they are being cursed with STDs. Mercutio’s impatience for any love is significant as it reduces his patience with Romeo’s heartbreak. However, this section foreshadows Mercutio’s future trouble with violence as well. He explains how a soldier that “dreams he of cutting foreign throats” (1.4.88) can also “start[s] and wake[s], /And being thus frighted, swears a prayer or two /And sleeps again” (1.4.91-93). At this point, Meructio presents a dislike for soldiers cemented when he is murdered by Tybalt, a capulet kinsman. His opinions and animosities being presented in this speech, although directed toward Romeo, match with his loquacious personality this monologue is introducing to the