Leading up to Mercutio death scene; a public place: Mercutio and Benvolio enter and they talk about Romeos supposed romance with Rosilline and they laugh and joke about the fact he is besotted with her. But in actual fact he’s truly in love with Juliet! Then the conversation turns to Tybalt ‘The king of cats,’ cats meaning trouble. Romeo enters and they laugh about what he did the night before, Romeo gave them the ‘slip.’ and they carry on laughing at Romeo and the way he has acted over the last few days. Enter nurse, the nurse comes in and conversation, and Mercutio joke and joshes with the old lady and sings ‘An old hare hoar…’ and being rather rude. Benvolio and Mercutio leave.
Act three: scene 1, a public place. Hot day and every body is stiferling and moody.
Benvolio and Mercutio talk about ‘the king of cats’ and the way he Sword fights. Enter Tybalt and asks where Romeo is, Mercutio and Benvolio are reluctant to tell.
Enter Romeo and they argue, Mercutio steps in a draws his sword they fight Romeo pulls them apart and Tybalt makes a lunge at Romeo, he misses and stabs Mercutio.
Mercutio falls to the ground and he cries out ‘where is my page, go villain fetch a surgeon.’ The page goes and gets a surgeon, Tybalt has fled, page is back and helps Mercutio up before he leaves Mercutio says ‘a plague, a plague on both your houses’ he has realized that the war between the two houses is stupid and outdated. Tybalt is back and Romeo and he fight, Tybalt falls is caught.
Shakespeare stage is very sophisticated, before his death Mercutio is seen at his best laughing and joking around and trying to act the fool, this is good as I think Shakespeare wanted people to think that at heart Mercutio wasn’t just a argument starting person. Mercutio’s death scene is important as it shows us how gallant Romeo’s friends are and that they would do anything to help him. Mercutio up to this point is an important character as he provides the comic relief. You seen the ‘best before death’ scenes in many of Shakespeare pieces and his style of writing is ti include a harsh point then add a funny point to that, like when Mercutio is talking about Tybalt and how he is a good fighter Shakespeare add a slight bit of humour to it, by saying he is the ‘King of cats’ and this type of dry humour can be seen all over Shakespeare’s writings. I would say that Romeo and Juliet is a black comedy as it combines death, love, and friendship but also has a dark and sometimes funny side, and this can be seen in the Death scene when Mercutio say ‘Ay, Ay, a scratch; marry, ’tis enough…’ and then laughs.
Over all Mercutio’s death scene is a power and striking one, and really starts the downward spiral for Romeo. Shakespeare’s sense of humour and stagecraft make this one of the most powerful scenes in the play.
