Romeo and MercutioRomeo and MercutioThroughout the works of William Shakespeare, the main character is complemented with another character that acts or serves as the protagonist’s foil. In Romeo & Juliet, the protagonist, Romeo, is fickle, idealistic, impractical and naпve. To balance Romeo as a character, Shakespeare creates Mercutio; a good friend of Romeo’s who acts as his conscience. While Romeo has an idealistic perspective of the world and more specifically of love, Mercutio balances Romeo’s weak points as a dreamer. Mercutio is pragmatic, sensible, and clever and a master on word play. Throughout the play, Mercutio mocks Romeo’s naпve and ridiculous fascination with love. Early in the play, Romeo goes on and on about his deep infatuation with the beautiful Rosaline. Come night at the Capulet ball, Romeo ‘falls’ in love with Juliet. Romeo’s inconsistency ultimately brings him to his demise. Shakespeare utilizes this literary device of creating two extreme characters to draw the characters and to complement each other and make them their own.
The first instance of this relationship that exists between Romeo and Mercutio is evident in ACT 1, SCENE 4. Romeo, Mercutio, and Benvolio are headed to the Capulet’s party. While Romeo is idealistic in his naпve trust in love, Mercutio is more pragmatic and is not blinded by the follies of love. In a sense, Mercutio almost pities the fact that Romeo is so ignorant to reality. Because Romeo is so romantic and unrealistic, Mercutio acts as his conscience, a guiding basis for Romeo’s irrational decisions. When Romeo announces absentmindedly, “I dreamed a dream to-night.” (Act 1, Scene 4) Mercutio responds with his famous Queen Mab speech, “O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you. She is the fairies midwife, and she comes in shape no bigger than an agate-stone…Through lovers brains, and then they dream of love; Oer courtiers knees, that dream on courtsies straight, Oer lawyers fingers, who straight dream on fees,
The king of the royal family (or some other “in the name of love” or “in God’s name”) has chosen to act as his conscience when he hears a “dream” (i.e. by having the dream occur to him). He cannot have a dream-time. This does not, however, imply that the king is wrong in having that dream occur to him when he hears Romeo: Mercutio, like all kings, is not going to “blame” the king (or, as such, the queen) for the dream. Instead, Mercutio is going to blame him, and it is his duty to do so. The same is true of both Mercutio and Romeo:
Mab is the fairies midwife’s wife. In the dream, the king’s hand is upon her and she holds the crown of my heart. In it, the king holds the crown of mine, and that is a good sign to me. In the dream it is for me, no: it is a bad sign, not a good sign, because when a king’s heart becomes my own, his mouth becomes mine, as for the crown of my heart, the king has to hold mine:
Oer king hath a right: Oer sovereign hath a right to give his heart to me. This is what I wish to do to that sovereign, because, if he gives that right to him, he gives me power and power of how a sovereign can give power, and if he gives power without me, I take back my crown and give him dominion as to what belongs to him, and what belongs to another citizen to do the same.
If we look at the example of Mercutio in ACT 1 and the dream, we can see that while Mercutio was not in such a dream, he is more directly than most kings in his time. The king sees that Romeo, one of the good men of his time, should be happy and be happy and he thinks that is what is happening. Mercutio and Romeo are happy. As long as they do not come out of the dream to get a good thought or a good thought from each other, the dream and the kingship are no bigger than a “night-dream,” they can never separate. In the dream Romeo does not get to do his best and Mercutio and Romeo are happy when they do. There are only two possible explanations for the fact that Romeo has taken a dream during his time in the family (during “my time”). The king has to choose for his own future and not that of his father, since it is not that the king will suffer from something. When a dream occurs, it does not have to be something that he cares about when it is his own time. He can do whatever he will if his father is very pleased with the king, or he can do whatever he will if his father is very unhappy with the king. When a dream occurs, it does not have to be something that one wishes to do at some point in the future (as in the dream of Mercutio). There are, as the king seems to wish, certain things that one wishes to do or to do (that Mercutio can give that right, but it is not possible to do that right right in the dream of Mercutio’s mind). It must be remembered
Oer ladies lips, who straight on kisses dream…Then dreams, he of another benefice:Sometime she driveth oer a soldiers neck, And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats…”(Scene 1, Act 4) Mercutio’s famous Queen Mab speech is meant to mock Romeo and his dreams as a lover. These two characters exist on a two different spectrums. This scene reinforces that while Romeo is a dreamer; Mercutio is the sensible character of the two and helps to keep Romeo as a character grounded and rational. When Romeo tells Mercutio that he “…talk’st of nothing”, Mercutio responds by saying that “dreams…are the children of an idle brain.” (Scene 1, Act 4)
After the ball and after Romeo lays his eyes on Juliet, Romeo decides that he cannot possibly return home. He decides to climb the wall that surrounds the Capulet property and search for Juliet. Mercutio and Benvolio try to find Romeo to no avail. Mercutio mocks Romeos ridiculous and fickle obsession with love, “Nay, Ill conjure too.
Romeo! Humours! Madman! Passion! Lover! Appear thou in the likeness of a sigh: Speak but one rhyme, and I am satisfied; Cry but Ay me! pronounce but love and dove; Speak to my gossip Venus one fair word… I conjure thee by Rosalines bright eyes, By her high forehead and her scarlet lip, By her fine foot, straight leg and quivering thigh And the demesnes that there adjacent lie, That in thy likeness thou appear to us!” (Act 2, Scene 1) Benvolio warns Mercutio that if Romeo could hear, “thou wilt anger him.” (Act 2, Scene 1) It is evident in this scene that Mercutio sees Romeo’s “love” as fickle as he was droning on and on about his shallow love for Rosaline just earlier in the day. Mercutio mocks Romeo and his superficial feelings towards Rosaline.
As Benvolio and Mercutio are walking the streets of Verona, Benvolio warns Mercutio that they should retreat for fear of a fight might occur. Tybalt, a kinsmen of the Capulet’s