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Tragic Plague In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

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Almost half way through the play of “Romeo and Juliet”, Romeo Montague’s best friend, Mercutio, goads Tybalt Capulet into a duel. As they fight, Mercutio is harshly stabbed by Tybalt, who then immediately runs away. Unexpectedly, Mercutio curses both families in his final words, wishing a horrific plague on both the Capulets and the Montagues, (“a plague o’ both your houses”). Later, by the end of the play, it is clear that Mercutio’s final words have foreshadowed the loss that both families suffered, which is the death of Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet. After Tybalt stabs Mercutio, Romeo is irated and dares to end Tybalt’s life by drawing his sword and stabbing him. Due to Tybalt’s tragic death, Romeo is banished from Verona. Unfortunately, this stopped him from seeing his Juliet as often as he wished, and this drove Juliet to choose to run off with him, instead of marrying Paris. …show more content…

When Friar Laurence comes up with a plan to assist Juliet to escape her family and flee with her Romeo out of the city of Verona, he hopes it will successfully work, but, without the attention of the Capulets and the Montagues. The plan was to invent a potion that would be consumed by Juliet on the night before her wedding day. The potion will then make Juliet fake her own death with a sleep that is as long as 48 hours. Time passes by and the wedding is only one night away. Before going to sleep, Juliet dares to consume the potion entirely, wishing to not wake up until two days have passed. The next day, Juliet’s parents discover her “death” and feel

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449 Words | 2 Pages

Juliet finds out that she must marry Paris she goes to the Friar and threatens to kill herself if she marries Pairs. Out of concern the Friar devises a plan to have take a potion to put her into a death-like sleep for forty-two hours, just enough time to miss the wedding. Juliet agrees and they put the plan into

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522 Words | 3 Pages

When Romeo is banished from Verona to Mantua due to his actions, Juliet is heartbroken. But her heart aches even further when she learns that she will be married to Paris. Wanting to escape the marriage and run away with Romeo, Friar Lawrence devises a plan. In this plan, Romeo will take Juliet away after she drinks a potion that will make her fall into a deep slumber for 42 hours, feigning death. Juliet takes the potion and falls asleep, and Paris, who could have married her, visits her tomb in morning.

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892 Words | 4 Pages

Juliet is then forced to marry Paris, a nobleman, but she refuses and seeks the help of Friar Laurence once again. He gives Juliet a potion that will make her appear dead for 42 hours, allowing her to escape to Romeo's side when she wakes up. However, Romeo believes that Juliet is dead when he hears the news and he returns to Verona to kill himself next to her tomb. Juliet awakens to find Romeo dead beside her and kills herself as well. The tragic ending brings the two families together in grief and ends the feud between them.

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430 Words | 2 Pages

At the end of act three Juliet found out Romeo was banned from Verona and she was grief stricken. Her parents then went back to the marriage to Paris,yet Juliet didn't love Paris, she was already engaged with Romeo. Juliet took the matters in her own hands and made it worse by going to friar Lawrence to seek advice. As Juliet talked to the Friar he gave her advice to drink a potion that he had made that will make her into a deathlike state that lasted for about two days, the instructions that he told Juliet was to go home and take the potion, parents or her nurse will notice and put her in their family tomb,finally when she awakes she will run off to Romeo and live happily. Juliet was worried for this idea and began to think over this process “How if, when I am laid into the tomb, I wake before the time Romeo come to redeem me?...”

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715 Words | 3 Pages

Juliet is asking Friar Laurence what she should do because she doesn’t want to marry Paris, so Friar Laurence will give Juliet a potion to make Juliet sleep for 2 days and then her parents will think she died and will bury her in the family tomb, all so she can avoid marring

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808 Words | 4 Pages

When Tybalt becomes angry when Romeo falls in love with Juliet at the party. Tybalt then walked the streets of Verona, because he was angry his uncle (Capulet) would not remove Romeo from the party. Tybalt started to engage in a fight with Romeo's friend, Mercutio. This engagement between Tybalt and Mercutio resulted in the death of Mercutio. “I am hurt a plague o’ both houses!

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1006 Words | 5 Pages

The love Mercutio has for Romeo makes him want to fight Tybalt, which leads to Tybalt stabbing him and his death. Love destroys by making Mercutio fight for Romeo. Additionally this can also be seen with Juliet killing herself when she sees Romeo

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825 Words | 4 Pages

While Mercutio is dying Romeo is deciding what he wants to do to Tybalt for killing his friend. After Mercutio dies Romeo realizes that Tybalt must pay for what he has done, Romeo kills Tybalt in a duel. This killing spree upsets the families. Romeo did not want his friend to die on the count of his family’s feud with the Capulets. Mercutio knew that the two families did not get along and tried to stay neutral with the conflict, but because he let his feelings about Tybalt get in the way, he unfortunately paid for it with his

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148 Words | 1 Pages

In the play, Tybalt murders Mercutio and his death angers Romeo, who then challenges Tybalt. Tybalt states, "... Mercutio's soul is but way above our heads...either thou or I, or both, must go with him." This quote shows how Capulet and a Montague use violence because Romeo is trying to save his love with Juliet. Romeo wants

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862 Words | 4 Pages

This is displayed through the quote, “I am hurt.” Tybalt had not meant to harm Mercutio and fled instantly and Mercutio is clearly astounded that he’d been wounded so fatally. Despite the ancient feud that had escalated throughout Verona, no kinsman of the Montagues and Capulets, or a Montague and Capulet themselves, had were meant to perish by the hands of the opposite house. The drama rises as the audience realises that the feud has grown more serious and legal action has to be taken. Although Tybalt is violent and loathes the Montagues with a fiery passion, he had never meant to kill one or the kinsman of one and now it seems as though things will result badly from now

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329 Words | 2 Pages

In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Tybalt is at the most of Mercutio’s death because of his explosive personality and temper, which led to him acting without thinking. In act 3 Scene 1, a tragic and dramatic fight takes place, where Mercutio was struck by Tybalt and as a result, died. This fight came to be because Tybalt came up to Romeo demanding a duel for he was at a Capulet ball. Romeo, being married to Tybalt’s in-law tries to avoid the conflict when Tybalt states “Romeo, the love I bear thee can afford No better term than this: thou art a villain” (3.1.61-62)

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It was a trigger for the families’ hatred towards each other to escalate to a level higher than ever presented in the play, thus making it even more unlikely for Romeo and Juliet’s love to become a reality. Although it is debatable whether Mercutio’s death was accidental or intentional, it is clear that the conflict between him and Tybalt was initiated by Mercutio’s taunting and mocking of Tybalt, including threats to take “one of [Tybalt’s] nine lives” (3.1.76-77). Without Mercutio’s eagerness to duel with Tybalt the murder would have never happened in the first place as it was Tybalt’s intention to duel Romeo, not Mercutio. Romeo’s delineation and presentation of “calm, dishonourable, vile submission” (3.1.72) insulted Mercutio’s pride enough to challenge Tybalt to a sword fight, resulting in Mercutio’s death; this in turn became the motif behind Romeo’s murder of Tybalt in the same scene.

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1059 Words | 5 Pages

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.

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679 Words | 3 Pages

I’m done for. Curse your families!’” (Shakespeare 6, III, i) This quotes states that by Mercutio dying, he “puts a curse” on both their families. Later Romeo will kill Tybalt through rage basically playing into the

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232 Words | 1 Pages

Romeo & Juliet The many plays Shakespeare created are true marvels. There was one that stood out among the rest, though. The name of this play was called ‘Romeo and Juliet’, a sweet story of forbidden love, with some death thrown into the mix. The first performance of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ took place in the autumn/winter of 1594, when the playhouses reopened for the first time after an outbreak of the plague had forced the police to close all the playhouses in London in January 1593.

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