Mercutio Is To Blame For Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

In the play of “Romeo and Juliet”, by William Shakespeare, Tybalt is to blame for their deaths, because he killed Mercutio, Romeo's friend, leading to his banishment and Juliet misery/desperation causing her to fall into a deep sleep. Mercutio's death from Tybalt, only resulted from Tybalt provoking and insulting Romeo. As a friend Mercutio defended Romeo but in the end payed the price with his life. Shakespeare suggests that, “My very friend, hath got his mortal hurt In my behalf. My reputation stain'd With Tybalt’s slander”(Act 3, Scene 1,line 105).

Since the fathers from both families dislike each other, they have caused death in the young lovers' lives because of many disputes. According to Document C, “The feud has caused deaths between Tybalt and Mercutio.” Tybalt is Juliet’s cousin and Mercutio is Romeo’s friend. Due to Mercutio's pun-filled language and tough personality, he starts the brawl between himself and Tybalt. While Mercutio is dying, he sends

Many people can be put to blame for these two young people, including their parents, by keeping the feud between the two families going. Mercutio can be blamed, to some degree. He was the one who got Romeo to go to the ball. When Mercutio was killed, Romeo avenged his death, and ended up having to leave Verona instead of staying with Juliet.

Mercutio neglects this suggestion and they both are encountered by Tybalt and his group of men. Mercutio is annoyed by Tybalt and starts to taunt him. Romeo enters, Tybalt's attention

The rage that this quote later gave Tybalt eventually led to the death of Mercutio which also led to the two deaths of Romeo and Juliet.

As he steps in between the two fighters, Tybalt seizes the opportunity, and with one swift move, stabs Mercutio. So, while Tybalt takes the physical action of stabbing Mercutio, leading to his off-stage death, Romeo is the catalyst. Without Romeo’s involvement, by his actions, Mercutio’s death at the hands of Tybalt would not have occurred.

Additionally, after Romeo’s marriage with Juliet he gets in the middle of a fight. If Romeo did not engage in the brawl between Mercutio his best friend and Tybalt his opposing rival, they would still have a fair chance at survival. Mercutio engages in a fight with Tybalt on Romeo’s behalf because Romeo refuses to fight Tybalt, since Tybalt is now Romeo’s cousin-in-law. In addition, Romeo attempts to break up the progressive fight, but his actions are futile. Furthermore, Romeo getting among Mercutio and Tybalt does more harm than good because Mercutio dies. The only explanation of how Mercutio dies is that Tybalt is able to pierce Mercutio’s chest under Romeo’s arm. Romeo blocks Mercutio’s view, leaving him defenseless and feeble.

Romeo and Juliet is a play by William Shakespeare that tells a tragic tale of “star crossed lovers” doomed to die. The tragic end of the play is the result of the irresponsible actions and selfishness ok key characters in the play, the Nurse and the Friar. Another person in the play but isn’t responsible for the death of Romeo and Juliet was Mercutio, but his actions were rash and premature.

Although Mercutio started the fight, people might say that Romeo is responsible for his banishment. But if Mercutio never wanted to fight Tybalt, Romeo wouldn’t have killed Tybalt. Shakespeare states, “Couple it with something; make it a word and a blow. ”(Shakespeare.3.1.40). In this quote, Mercutio is trying to get Tybalt to fight him.

“And but one word with one of us? couple it with something, make it a word and a blow.” [III, i, 37-38] Tybalt was not willing to fight mercutio if mercutio had not escalated tybalt's anger. Moreover, Mercutio could have avoided this situation if he had showed respect in return.This comes to show how mercutio had made impulsive decisions instead of making rational decisions. As a result, we can see Mercutio's death occurs due to his rash and impulsive decisions. Mercutio’s impulsive acts result in his own passing. When Romeo refuses to participate in a duel with Tybalt, Mercutio challenges Tybalt himself. Using words which are highly intimidating and threatening, Mercutio gives Tybalt no choice but to engage in a duel. The following violent words are exchanged between the two characters.

In contrast, Mercutio attempts to stop Tybalt’s thirst for vengeance when he tries to duel Romeo but ultimately gets killed in the process of trying to save his good friend from being killed by Tybalt which causes Romeo to take vengeance upon Tybalt by killing him.

Tybalt is a very vengeful character. When tybalt and Mercutio fight, Mercutio gets stabbed and dies which will cause Romeo go crazy. “Why the devil come you between us? I was hurt under your arm.”(3.1.70) with these words, Romeo feels guilty about his best friend's death, that was mainly caused because Romeo denied fighting Tybalt.

In act 3 Tybalt explains how romeo is the problem for mostly everything. Tybalt is telling Mercutio the only reason he has for fighting him as well is because he consorts with Romeo. “Mercutio, thou consortest with Romeo”(3.1.42) Mercutio would have never died if it wasn't for Romeo. And after Romeo sees Mercutio die he kills Tybalt with his own hand.

Even though Tybalt, who came from the Capulets, was the one who killed Mercutio, both families were responsible for the death. Mercutio’s last words portray that his death was Romeo’s fault, as much as Tybalt’s fault, for closing the gap between the two rival families. In Act 3 Scene 1, Tybalt called Romeo a villain, “No better term than this: thou art a villain” (3.1.57.) During that time, being called a villain was a terrible insult which could have started a fight. Romeo decided to ignore this comment, from Tybalt because of his relationship with Juliet. Mercutio on the other hand

The entire story of Romeo and Juliet has many choices and things unknown to the characters that you may stop and think who really is responsible for the deaths of both Romeo and Juliet. There is more than just one person messing up in this story though there are many factors which had domino impacts on what happens afterwards in the story. From the death of a character to one simple decision that went wrong to inconsiderate parents the blame is spread around to everyone. One character that really started the entire domino effect was Mercutio. If he had not been egging on Tybalt to a sort of gentlemen's duel he would not have died and caused Romeo to want to avenge him.