Romeo And Juliet - Characters

Question 1

Mercutio as a comedic character

Answer 1

• one of romeos bestfriends
• not afraid to tease people, like when he called tybalt the ‘king of cats’, even during the turning point of the play during the fight between tybalt and mercutio, he is playing on tybalts words by saying romeo wouldnt wear the ‘livery’ (uniform) of capulets slave, when tybalt referred to romeo as ‘man’
• thinks romeos attitudes to love are ridiculous, mocking by saying ‘love’ and ‘dove’, both cliched hymes in poetry - suggests romeo is a cliched overdramatic lover
• he speaks in prose to sound informal, reflecting he is teasing a friend, or in prose when he is making jokes or to show intense emotion

Question 2

Tybalt and benvolio

Answer 2

• contrasting characters, tybalt if violent and ‘fiery’ while benvolio literally means peacemaker
• benvolios relationshipwith romeo is strong, he tries to cheer romeo up in his heartbreak by saying ‘examine other beauties’ and encourages him to go to the party where romeo meets juliet, he is also loyal, when romeo killed tybalt he told him to ‘be gone’ and speaks in his defence
• although a fiery character tybalt is shown to be positive when the nurse and juliet mourn his death, he is described as ‘honest’ and ‘courteous’

Question 3

The montagues (lady montague)

Answer 3

• the montagues are less involved in romeos life, but they are good to him, in act 1 if he knew where romeos ‘sorrows’ came from he would ‘willingly give cure’ - show concern not control
• lady montagues death emphasises how people get caught up in the feud even if they are not violent, she spoke 2 lines in the play, makes play more tragic - also provides contrast to lady capulet who says ‘romeo must not live’ after killing tybalt, she is peaceful

Question 4

The capulets - capulets behaviour towards julet

Answer 4

• his behaviour changes , he threatens to disown her, however when she says he will marry paris he is civil again
• he becomes more peaceful towards montagues, in the beginning he wants to fight but by the end he calls them ‘brother montague’
• bothlady capulet and capulet are controlling towards juliet, deciding who she will marry and giving her overall less freedom

Question 5

Nurse

Answer 5

• juliets maternal figure, trusted to tell about romeo and helped plan the wedding, they are close enough to make sexual jokes together, unlike lady capulet here it is very formal
• however the nurse is unreliable at the most important time, leading juliet to take the poison alone after consulting with friar lawrence

Question 6

Friar lawrence

Answer 6

• religious man - romeos father figure, he is intelligent and this is shown in his first speech where he knows ‘true qualities’ of herbs - foreshadowing the death as a poison he gave juliet killed her in the end

Question 7

Paris, prince and others

Answer 7

• chorus set the scene and tell audience where play is heading, foreshadowing is then more affective
• paris is honourable - asks fathers permission before he ‘woos’ juliet, and after her death says he will visit her ‘nightly’
• feud causes minor characters to fight in the street, this shows how the feud causes trouble in all parts of society, not just the high ranking figures