MERCUTIO

Mercutio, the witty skeptic, is a foil for Romeo, the young Petrarchan lover. Mercutio mocks Romeo’s vision of love and the poetic devices he uses to express his emotions:

Romeo, Humors! Madman! Passion! Lover!
Appear thou in the likeness of a sigh,
Speak but one rhyme and I am satisfied.
(II.1.7-9)

Mercutio is an anti-romantic character who, like Juliet‘s Nurse, regards love as an exclusively physical pursuit. He advocates an adversarial concept of love that contrasts sharply with Romeo’s idealized notion of romantic union. In Act I, Scene 4, when Romeo describes his love for Rosaline using the image of love as a rose with thorns, Mercutio mocks this conventional device by punning bawdily:

If love be rough with you, be rough with love;
Prick love for pricking and you beat love down.
(I.4.27-28)

The Queen Mab speech in Act I, Scene 4, displays Mercutio’s eloquence and vivid imagination, while illustrating his cynical side. Mercutio, unlike Romeo, doesn’t believe that dreams can act as portents. Fairies predominate in the dream world Mercutio presents, and dreams are merely the result of the anxieties and desires of those who sleep.

Mercutio’s speech, while building tension for Romeo’s first meeting with Juliet at the Capulet ball, indicates that although Mercutio is Romeo’s friend, he can never be his confidant. As the play progresses, Mercutio remains unaware of Romeo’s love and subsequent marriage to Juliet.

When Mercutio hears of Tybalt’s challenge to Romeo, he is amused because he regards Romeo as a lover whose experience of conflict is limited to the world of love. So he scornfully asks: “And is he such a man to encounter Tybalt?” (II.3.16-17). Mercutio seems to exist outside the two dominant spheres of Verona because he takes neither the world of love nor the feud seriously. However, Mercutio, like Tybalt, is quick-tempered and they are both ready to draw their swords at the slightest provocation.

Mercutio is antagonistic toward Tybalt by suggesting that Tybalt is a follower of the new trends in swordsmanship, which he regards as effeminate. Like Tybalt, Mercutio has a strong sense of honor and can’t understand Romeo’s refusal to fight Tybalt, calling it, “O calm, dishonorable, vile submission” (III.1.72). Mercutio demonstrates his loyalty and courage when he takes up Tybalt’s challenge to defend his friend’s name.

The humor with which Mercutio describes his fatal wound confirms his appeal as a comic character: “No ’tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door, but ’tis enough, ’twill serve” (III.1.94 — 95). Mercutio’s death creates sympathy for Romeo’s enraged, emotional reaction in avenging his friend’s death. His death marks a distinct turning point in the play as tragedy begins to overwhelm comedy, and the fates of the protagonists darken.

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NURSE

The Nurse’s key function within the play is to act as a go-between for Romeo and Juliet, and is the only other character besides Friar Laurence to know of their wedding. The Nurse, despite being a servant in the Capulet household, has a role equivalent to that of Juliet’s mother and regards Juliet as her own daughter.

The Nurse’s relationship with Juliet focuses attention on Juliet’s age. In Juliet’s first scene, the Nurse repeatedly asserts that Juliet has not yet had her 14th birthday. In contrast to Juliet’s youth, the Nurse is old and enjoys complaining about her aches and pains. Juliet’s frustration at having to rely upon the Nurse as her messenger is used to comic effect in Act II, Scene 5, when Juliet is forced to listen to the Nurse’s ailments while trying to coax from her the news of her wedding plans:

The Nurse, like Mercutio, loves to talk at length. She often repeats herself, and her bawdy references to the sexual aspect of love set the idealistic love of Romeo and Juliet apart from the love described by other characters in the play. The Nurse doesn’t share Juliet’s idea of love; for her, love is a temporary and physical relationship, so she can’t understand the intense and spiritual love Romeo and Juliet share. When the Nurse brings Juliet news of Romeo’s wedding arrangements, she focuses on the pleasures of Juliet’s wedding night, “I am the drudge, and toil in your delight, / But you shall bear the burden soon at night” (II.5.75-76).

This clash in outlook manifests itself when she advises Juliet to forget the banished Romeo and marry Paris, betraying Juliet’s trust by advocating a false marriage:

I think it best you married with the County.
O, he’s a lovely gentleman.
Romeo’s a dishclout to him.
(III.5.218-220)

Juliet can’t believe that the Nurse offers such a course of action after she praised Romeo and helped bring the couple together. The Nurse is ultimately subject to the whims of society. Her social position places her in the serving class — she is not empowered to create change around her. Her maternal instinct toward Juliet buoys her to aid Juliet in marrying Romeo; however, when Capulet becomes enraged, the Nurse retreats quickly into submission and urges Juliet to forget Romeo.

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JULIET

Juliet, like Romeo, makes the transition from an innocent adolescent to responsible adult during the course of the play. In Juliet’s case, however, there is a heightened sense that she has been forced to mature too quickly. The emphasis throughout the play on Juliet’s youth, despite her growing maturity, establishes her as a tragic heroine.

Juliet is presented as quiet and obedient; however, she possesses an inner strength that enables her to have maturity beyond her years. When her mother suggests that she marry Paris because Paris is rich and good looking, Juliet responds: “I’ll look to like, if looking liking move” (I.3.97).

When she meets and falls in love with Romeo, she is prepared to defy her parents and marry Romeo in secret. In Act III, Scene 5, Capulet demands his right as her father to marry her to Paris, threatening her with disinheritance and public shame.

Juliet, however, is resolute in her decision to die rather than enter into a false marriage: “If all else fail, myself have power to die”(III.5.244). At this point, when Juliet is most isolated from her family, even the Nurse betrays Juliet’s trust by advising her to forget Romeo and comply with her father’s wishes.

In her relationship with Romeo, Juliet is loving, witty, loyal, and strong. When Romeo and Juliet kiss at the feast, Juliet teases Romeo for using the popular imagery of love poetry to express his feelings and for kissing according to convention rather than from the heart: “You kiss by th’ book” (I.5.110). This establishes a pattern for their relationship in which Juliet displays greater maturity, particularly in moments of great emotional intensity.

In the balcony scene of Act II, Scene 2, Juliet is aware of the foolhardiness of their love: “It is too rash, too unadvis’d, too sudden.” This sense of rushing headlong accurately characterizes their love, yet despite her premonition, Juliet is the one who suggests later in the scene that they marry. Act III, Scene 2, marks Juliet’s move toward sexual and emotional maturity when she anticipates the consummation of her marriage to Romeo. The lyrical language Juliet employs as she waits impatiently for the night to come underscores the intensity of her feelings:

Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night,
That runaway eyes may wink, and Romeo
Leap to these arms untalk’d of and unseen.
(III.2.5-7)

The news of Tybalt’s death initially produces conflicting feelings for Juliet because she’s torn between her love for her husband and the loyalty she feels for Tybalt, her slain cousin: “Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband?” (III.2.98). Juliet’s love for Romeo soon resolves the conflict:

My husband lives, that Tybalt would have slain,
And Tybalt’s dead, that would have slain my husband.
All this is comfort.
(III.2.105-107)

Juliet’s decision in Act IV to take the Friar’s potion rather than enter into a bigamous marriage with Paris increases Juliet’s stature as a tragic heroine. She reflects on the plan but prepares to face the dangers involved bravely: “My dismal scene I needs must act alone.”

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ROMEO

During the course of the play, Romeo matures from adolescence to adulthood as a result of his love for Juliet and his unfortunate involvement in the feud, marking his development from a comic character to a tragic figure.

Romeo is initially presented as aPetrarchan lover,a man whose feelings of love aren’t reciprocated by the lady he admires and who uses the poetic language of sonnets to express his emotions about his situation. Romeo’s exaggerated language in his early speeches characterizes him as a young and inexperienced lover who is more in love with the concept of being in love than with the woman herself.

The play’s emphasis on characters’ eyes and the act of looking accords with Romeo’s role as a blind lover who doesn’t believe that there could be another lady more fair than his Rosaline. Romeo denies that he could be deluded by love, the “religion” of his eye. This zeal, combined with his rejection of Benvolio’s advice to find another love to replace Rosaline, highlights Romeo’s immaturity as a lover. Similar imagery creates a comic effect when Romeo falls in love at first sight with Juliet at the Capulet feast. When Romeo sees Juliet, he realizes the artificiality of his love for Rosaline: “Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! / For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night” (I.5.52-53).

As the play progresses, Romeo’s increasing maturity as a lover is marked by the change in his language. He begins to speak in blank verse as well as rhyme, which allows his language to sound less artificial and more like everyday language.

The fated destinies of Romeo and Juliet are foreshadowed throughout the play. Romeo’s sense of foreboding as he makes his way to the Capulet feast anticipates his first meeting with Juliet:

my mind misgives
Some consequence yet hanging in the stars
Shall bitterly begin his fearful date
(I.4.106-107)

Romeo’s role first as a melancholy lover in the opening scenes of the play and then as a Juliet’s secret love is significant. Romeo belongs in a world defined by love rather than a world fractured by feud. Tybalt’s death in Act III, Scene 1, brings about the clash between the private world of the lovers and the public world of the feud. Romeo is reluctant to fight Tybalt because they are now related through Romeo’s marriage to Juliet.

When Tybalt kills Mercutio, however, Romeo (out of loyalty to his friend and anger at Tybalt’s arrogance) kills Tybalt, thus avenging his friend’s death. In one ill-fated moment, he placed his love of Juliet over his concern for Mercutio, and Mercutio was killed. Romeo then compounds the problem by placing his own feelings of anger over any concerns for Juliet by killing Tybalt.

Romeo’s immaturity is again manifest later when he learns of his banishment. He lies on the floor of the Friar’s cell, wailing and crying over his fate. When the Nurse arrives, he clumsily attempts suicide. The Friar reminds him to consider Juliet and chides him for not thinking through the consequences of his actions for his wife.

The Friar then offers a course of action to follow, and Romeo becomes calm. Later, when Romeo receives the news of Juliet’s death, he exhibits maturity and composure as he resolves to die. His only desire is to be with Juliet: “Well Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight” (V.1.36). His resolution is reflected in the violent image he uses to order Balthasar, his servant, to keep out of the tomb:

The time and my intents are savage-wild,
More fierce and more inexorable far
Than empty tigers or the roaring sea.
(V.3.37-40)

After killing Paris, Romeo remorsefully takes pity on him and fulfills Paris’ dying wish to be laid next to Juliet. Romeo notes that both he and Paris are victims of fate and describes Paris as: “One writ with me in sour misfortune’s book” (V.3.83) since Paris experienced an unreciprocated love from Juliet similar to Romeo’s unrequited love for Rosaline. Romeo is also filled with compassion because he knows that Paris has died without understanding the true love that he and Juliet shared.

Romeo’s final speech recalls the Prologue in which the “star-cross’d” lives of the lovers are sacrificed to end the feud:

O here
Will I set up my everlasting rest
And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars
From this world wearied flesh.
(V.3.109-112)

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FRIAR LAWRENCE

Friar Laurence is presented as a holy man who is trusted and respected by the other characters. The Friar’s role as the friend and advisor to Romeo and Juliet highlights the conflict between parents and their children within the play. The centrality of the Friar’s role suggests a notable failure of parental love. Romeo and Juliet can’t tell their parents of their love because of the quarrel between the two families.

In their isolation, Romeo and Juliet turn to the Friar who can offer neutral advice. At first, the Friar can’t believe how quickly Romeo has abandoned Rosaline and fallen in love with Juliet, so he reminds Romeo of the suddenness of his decisions. The Friar uses the formal language of rhyme and proverbs to stress the need for caution to Romeo. However, he agrees to marry Romeo and Juliet in the hope that their marriage will heal the rift between the Montagues and the Capulets. His decision to marry the lovers is well-meaning but indicates that he has been naive in his assessment of the feud and hasn’t reflected on the implications of Romeo and Juliet’s clandestine marriage.

The conflict between youth and old age also manifests itself in the Friar’s relationship with Romeo and Juliet. When Friar Laurence tries to soothe Romeo’s grief at the news of his banishment with rational argument, Romeo quickly responds that if the Friar were young and in love, he wouldn’t accept such advice any better.

The Friar’s knowledge of plants — especially their dual qualities to heal and hurt — play an important role in the action that follows. His attempts to heal the feud by reversing nature — causing Juliet’s “death” in order to bring about acceptance of her life with Romeo is notably unnatural. The Friar must extricate Juliet from the tomb in order to save her life — another reversal of nature. This use of nature for unnatural purposes precipitates many of the consequences leading to the tragic conclusion of the play. Ultimately, the Friar acts distinctly human — he flees the tomb and abandons Juliet.

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KEY THEMES IN ROMEO & JULIET

Fate

From the beginning, we know that the story of Romeo and Juliet will end in tragedy. We also know that their tragic ends will not result from their own personal defects but from fate, which has marked them for sorrow. Emphasizing fate’s control over their destinies, the Prologue tells us these “star-cross’d lovers'” relationship is deathmark’d.”

In Act I, Scene ii, as Lord Capulet’s servant is searching for someone who can read the guest list to him, Benvolio and Romeo enter. Completely by chance, Capulet’s servant meets Romeo and Benvolio, wondering if they know how to read. This accidental meeting emphasizes the importance of fate in the play. Romeo claims it is his “fortune” to read — indeed, “fortune” or chance has led Capulet’s servant to him — and this scene prepares us for the tragic inevitability of the play.

The lovers will be punished not because of flaws within their personalities but because fate is against them. Ironically, the servant invites Romeo to the Capulet’s house, as long as he is not a Montague, to “crush a cup of wine.” Only fate could manufacture this unlikely meeting with Capulet’s illiterate servant, as only fate will allow Romeo to trespass into the Capulet’s domain and meet Juliet.

Love

Love is another important thematic element in the play, which presents various types of love: the sensual, physical love advocated by the Nurse; the Proper or contractual love represented by Paris; and the passionate, romantic love of Romeo and Juliet. How do these various types of love relate to one another? Is physical attraction a necessary component of romantic love? Because words are slippery, Juliet worries that Romeo’s protestation of love are merely lies. How can we know if love is true?

Value and Doubleness

Another important theme is the idea of value and doubleness. Just as language is ambiguous, so are value judgments. As the Friar reminds us, “virtue itself turns vice being misapplied, /And vice sometime’s by action dignified” (II.iii.17-18). Within a flower, for example lies both poison and medicine. Similarly, the deaths of Romeo and Juliet are tragic but also bring new life to Verona. The Friar’s own role in the play contains this ambiguity. Although he tries to help the lovers, his actions lead to their suffering. Shakespeare’s message is that nothing is purely good or evil; everything contains elements of both. Ambiguity rules.

Meaning of Gender

A final theme to be considered is the meaning of gender. In particular, the play offers a variety of versions of masculinity. One example is Mercutio, the showy male bird, who enjoys quarreling, fencing and joking. Mercutio has definite ideas about what masculinity should look like. He criticizes Tybalt for being too interested in his clothes and for speaking with a fake accent. Similarly, he suggests that Romeo’s love-melancholy is effeminate, while his more sociable self is properly masculine. Therefore, his happiest when Romeo rejoins his witty, crazy group of male friends: “Now art thou sociable, now art thou Romeo; now art thou art, by art as well as by nature” (II.iv.89-90).

Romeo’s masculinity is constantly questioned. Following Mercutio’s death, for example, Romeo fears that his love of Juliet has effeminized him: “Thy beauty hath made me effeminate/And in my temper soften’d valour’s steel” (III.i.116-117) so that his reputation as a man is “stain’d” (III.i.1113). In addition, the Friar accuses Romeo of being an “[u]nseemly woman in a seeming man” and says that his tears are “womanish” (III.iii.109-111).

What is the proper role for a man? The play seems to suggest that violence is not the way. Mediating between Mercutio’s violent temper and Romeo’s passivity, the Prince is possibly the best model of masculine behavior in the play: impartial and fair, he also opposes civil violence.

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