Other characters

Mercutio

Mercutio is one of Romeo’s closest friends in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. He is also a relative of Prince Escalus and has several important soliloquies in the play. 

One of Mercutio’s positive qualities is that he is cheerful and fond of joking, which means that he frequently provides the play with comic relief. He particularly enjoys making sexual jokes. He is never able to understand the heartfelt love Romeo has for Juliet; to Mercutio, love and sex are the same - just as Juliet’s nurse believes. 

We see an example of Mercutio’s focus on sex when he meets Romeo after the Capulet ball. He wrongly believes that Romeo has been having sex with Rosaline all night and jokingly says to him: “Such a case as yours constrains a man to bow in the hams.” (2.4.50-51) He is implying that Romeo is so exhausted from sex that his knees have gone weak. 

However, there is also a dark side to Mercutio as he is hotheaded and proud. In Act 3, Scene 1, Romeo refuses to fight Tybalt because he considers Tybalt family after his secret marriage to Juliet. Unfortunately, Romeo does not explain this to Tybalt and Mercutio. As a result, Mercutio attacks Tybalt to protect his and Romeo’s honor and is killed. In that sense, Mercutio becomes a tragic victim of his own temper and Romeo’s misinformation. It is also an example of dramatic irony since we - unlike Mercutio - know about the marriage and Romeo's kinship with Tybalt.

Mercutio is uncontrolled and does not follow the rules. This is underlined by the fact that he mainly speaks in prose. This is unusual since noblemen normally speak in blank verse in Shakespeare’s plays. Prose is irregular and does not include a specific meter or rhyme; it follows no rules, just as Mercutio. 

As he is dying, Mercutio bitterly curses the Montague and Capulet families: “A plague o’ both your houses!” (3.1.95). These famous words foreshadow the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. The sudden murder of Mercutio is one of the most shocking elements in Shakespeare’s play....