The Plague In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

One of the most popularly quoted lines from William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is from Mercutio’s monologue and curse at the beginning of the third act. Mercutio’s biting retort against the very same feud that led to his own death, in which he exclaims, “A plague o’both your houses! Zounds, a dog, a rat, a mouse, a cat, to scratch a man to death! A braggart, a rogue, a villain that fights by the book of arithmetic! Why the devil came you between us? I was hurt under your arm” (R&J. 3.1.100-108). Mercutio’s final words drive the play to become the tragedy it is and remind the audience of the threatening plague that both existed in reality and fiction. Sites of Comfort and Terror in Early Modern Drama Representing the Plague in Early Modern

Raymon Utterback in “The Death of Mercutio” accurately portrays this shift in tone and performance, stating, “Before this, despite the various tensions (including those established by the Prologues and the imagery), the events and the hopes of several characters are directed toward the reconciliation of the feuding households in love and toward the possible happiness of the lovers. After it, the play moves toward death and the final reconcil iation, in grief, of the heirless families” (Utterback 107). The tensions and feud between the Capulets and Montagues is seemingly pushed into the background as the hopeful story of Romeo and Juliet’s love and affection takes the forefront. However, Mercutio reminds us that because of the death of Tybalt and himself, reconcliliation is no longer possible, and the “plague,” which could be seen as the feud itself, is finally rearing its’ ugly head and exacting its’ vengeance. However, the actual mentions of the plague are quite removed from the forefront of the play, with the second and final time of it being mentioned in Friar John’s failure to deliver a message to Romeo. This is discussed in detail in the chapter “A Plague on Both Your Houses,” in which it concurs, “The houses of Montague and Capulet might have been spared additional deaths had Friar John not been delayed within a house closed by officials for fear of plague; nevertheless the disease itself does not appear. It moves the plot but from a distance that renders it harmless in its immediate effects” (Gilman 178-179). While plague was not a seemingly direct force as Mercutio threatens it to be, the presence of the plague is what forces the play into the tragic ending. While immediately dispelled, the lasting effects of the plague left both houses barren,