Throughout the play, Mercutio is there to bring laughter to the reader or viewer. He says very inappropriate and raunchy things. On the way to the Capulet party, Mercutio tells the lovesick Romeo, “If love be rough with you, be rough with love; / Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down” (1.4.27-28). He is, no doubt referring to some sort of sexual release. After the party, Mercutio tries to make Romeo come out of hiding by talking about a girl whom Romeo loves, Rosaline. He talks about her “fine foot, straight leg, and quivering thigh and the demesnes that there adjacent lie” (1.1.20-21). Surely the Globe Theater groundlings loved these intimate references as well as his subsequent jokes about “medlar” fruit

During the story Mercutio also helps the plot advance at a chaotic pace. In Act I, Mercutio delivers the “Queen Mab” speech, and this monologue reflects the movement of the entire play. It begins whimsically with descriptions of Mab’s coach and naughty nocturnal activities, and then becomes violent and angry and bitter. Romeo is even forced to call out, “Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace!” (1.5.95), but the point of the speech is clearly to introduce a frenzied tone to the play. The 1996 film version of the tragedy definitely links Mercutio to passion and chaos by portraying him as a cross-dressing, pill-dispensing, drama-queen. By Act 3 of the text, Mercutio roughly teases Benvolio about being hotheaded and then provokes Tybalt, the “ratcatcher” (3.1.74) into a sword fight, which leads to his death. He dies with as much excitement as he lives, and his last words are a curse on the houses of Montague and Capulet. After Mercutio is slain, Romeo, too, is infected with the “plague,” Mercutio’s unrestrained passion, for he becomes a man with “fire-eyed fury” (3.1.123) and decides to kill Tybalt. Juliet is also aff

Some topics in this essay:
Passion Lover”, Act Mercutio, Mercutio Mercutio, Mercutio Romeo, Tybalt Juliet, Globe Theater, Romeo Capulet’s, Finally Mercutio, Capulet Mercutio, , mercutio helps, party mercutio, minor character, film version, comic character,