How is mercutio witty

Who seems less impulsive and more realistic—Romeo or Juliet? Why does Friar Lawrence decide to marry Romeo and Juliet? Why does Romeo fight Tybalt? Is there a villain in the play, and, if so, who is it? Why does the Prince exile Romeo? How is Mercutio like this?

Evidence Analysis Witty Mercutio makes fun of Romeo when he declares he feels sick because of the love he has for Rosaline. Mercutio ridicules Romeo's 'love' for Rosaline claiming it is false. Mercutio understands that Romeo's love for Rosaline isn't true and ridicules him for it, saying openly that Romeo, being the dreamer, can often lie. Loyal Mercutio is loyal when Romeo refuses to fight Tybalt, as he decides to fight Tybalt instead. This is because he cannot stand to see Romeo's honour jeopardised in the face of his enemy.

Make haste. Mercutio is an anti-romantic character who, like Juliet 's Nurse, regards love as an exclusively physical pursuit. He advocates an adversarial concept of love that contrasts sharply with Romeo's idealized notion of romantic union. In Act I, Scene 4, when Romeo describes his love for Rosaline using the image of love as a rose with thorns, Mercutio mocks this conventional device by punning bawdily:.

If love be rough with you, be rough with love; Prick love for pricking and you beat love down. The Queen Mab speech in Act I, Scene 4, displays Mercutio's eloquence and vivid imagination, while illustrating his cynical side.

Mercutio, unlike Romeo, doesn't believe that dreams can act as portents. Fairies predominate in the dream world Mercutio presents, and dreams are merely the result of the anxieties and desires of those who sleep. Mercutio's speech, while building tension for Romeo's first meeting with Juliet at the Capulet ball, indicates that although Mercutio is Romeo's friend, he can never be his confidant.

Other interpretations put a psychological spin on Mercutio's strange, imaginative rants. Take his Queen Mab speech, which starts off as a bizarre rant about the mythological fairy Queen Mab and ends up talking about of course sex:. This is that very Mab that plats the manes of horses in the night And bakes the elflocks in foul sluttish hairs, Which once untangled, much misfortune bodes.

This is the had, when maids lie on their backs, That presses them and learns them first to bear, Making them women of good carriage. The backstory here is that episodes of sleep paralysis were often explained as a demon or succubus sitting on the sufferer's chest—and possibly having sex with him or her. Here, Mercutio says that women who are "hag-ridden" by Queen Mab are just learning how to "bear"—i. The take-home point, we think, is that for Mercutio, sex is always a little gross and dirty—and always a little crazy.

Parents Home Homeschool College Resources. Study Guide. By William Shakespeare.