Why Would Mercutio Kill

Would Mercutio Kill? When discussing characters written by the revered English playwright William Shakespeare, it is obvious that many of them would, and do, kill innocent people throughout their stories. From Hamlet to Macbeth, to Lady Macbeth. So many of Shakespeare’s famous characters, however morally gray, still are capable of the murder of an innocent. This question does extend to other characters. Would Juliet from his most famous play, Romeo and Juliet, murder an innocent person? How about Mercutio, Romeo’s flamboyant friend, and the character who serves for much of the comic relief in the tragedy? Despite being comic relief, Mercutio would almost certainly kill an innocent if he were placed in a position where he needed to do so.

Well, the audience does not know much about Mercutio beyond the facade that he places upon himself towards the other characters of the play, and additionally to the audience themselves. The moment that the audience can most easily see this facade break is when Tybalt, the enemy of the Montagues, confronts Romeo, and Mercutio intervenes. Mercutio’s empathy in this matter does not reach extraordinary lengths, or even somewhat understandable lengths, as when Romeo is pleading to Tybalt that he does not want to fight and instead wants to love Mercutio states, “O calm, dishonourable, vile submission!” (III.i.1571). At this moment, he believes that the act of submission itself is dishonorable. Although he was acting in self-defense against a person who is not innocent, the question of him being capable of murdering an innocent

Being a person who loves to seek out mischief, he is certainly familiar with the streets of Verona and could use their layouts to his advantage. Keeping in line with the rest of the play, it is quite possible that Mercutio knows Friar Laurence and could obtain some poison from him, either by stealing it or requesting it, and could use that to end this innocent person’s life. It is more probable that Mercutio would have to be placed in an unsavory situation to commit to this act. But, even considering this, he still is a character who hinges on the borderline of being bold, and often just acts outright impulsively, such as encouraging Romeo to attend the Capulet’s ball, knowing he would be considered an