mercutio

Question 1

mercutios masc thesis

Answer 1

Mercutio falls into the hegemonic masculinity of many of the men of the era and in verona, he is bidden by aneed to defend his nobility and pride and shakespear presents the importance of this as it uktimately leads to his downfall and the shift into tragedy as the effects of violence and a need for defeense envelop the play

Question 2

mercutios masc paragraph

Answer 2

• Mercutio is damming and insympathetic to his friends petrachan views and adides to typical masculine stereotypes. Upon his untimely murder his wish of a ‘plauge on both your houses’ can be seen as an act of foreshadowing and a call out to the horrors of vioelcnce, but just as easily it could be interpretted as masculine cowardice as he has such high pride that he cannot accept his wrongs for perpectuating the fight even whilst on his death bed- we see this backed throguh his diminishing manner of the serverity of his injuries, brushing it off as a ‘scratch’ as any outward expression of pain wouldve been deemed effeminate
• mercutio is known as an outgoing and interesting charcater who posses a great deal of wit and character, but this is paired with a pressure to conform to the hegemonic macsculine society which means theres actually a very volatile combination that leads to his downfall. When tybult enters he is farily calm and nice to mercutio and its his nobility and strong charcater that antagonises him- calling him the prince of cats and objecting to his words as insults such as his anger over does ‘thou make us minstrels’
• we also see the effects of a need to maintain ones nobility and defnese of pride up until mercutios deathbead as he tries to deflect the blame onto anyone passing rather than admitting he was the catalyst for the duel that broke out, he tells romeo that he was ‘hurt under your arm’ a damming end to their close friendship, showing the horros of masculine pride driven battles, whilst also wishing a ‘plauge on both your houses’ this shows the futiltiy and weakness of the house debate and why violence is far more destructive than the conflcit is good, theres a sense of equality and a lack of division as he has been betrayed by all, hes also clearly deflecting blame. shakesepar is heavily criticquing masculinity here.

Question 3

mercutio as a foil thesis

Answer 3

mercutio is presented as a foil to romeo his naive petrachan friend driven by passion over reaoson, whilst though mecutio himself is not logical he is bound by a bawdy and cynical lifestyle that leads him to dismiss the ideals of human love and focus on nobility and pride

Question 4

mercutio as foil plan

Answer 4

-in act two scene one as romeo hides in the capulet household, mercutio uses a range of sexual language which subverts romeos affeminite use of petrachan sonnets- he calls to romeo by rosalines ‘red lip’ and ‘quivering thigh’ he lessens her to an object of sexual gratification, red lip is a symbol of promsicuousness- indeed it appears men do not understand the depth of human love as they cant thathom romeos naive but honest love
- if love be rough with you be rough with love- he doesnt understand the depths
- romeo seconds this with complaining how ‘jousts at scars’ when he has never felt a wound, showing how mercutio cannot relate to romeos expeirnces so should not diminsh them
- he diminshes women and does not have any understanding of his friends feeling towards them beyond the surface level of sexual gratification, he feels that roslaine can easily be replaced whilst romeo has been consumed by his love for her, he dehuamnses her in the metaphor ‘thy swan a crow’ swans are white like purity and are seen as great regal beauties, in constrast crows are common birds that are black and often very loud and unpleasent
- when romeo meets and fall very in lov with juliet he becomes to see the upside of love aside from lust wiith a mature focus on the importance of human relations, this changes his personlity from a sad oetrachan lover who claims ‘this is not romeo’ to someone whom is funny and is able to have a battle of whit with the bubbly foil n mercutio, he claims romeo is now much more ‘sociable’ and says ‘thou art romeo’
- overall the two contrast as though naive and petrachan romeo loves and values women whilst bubbly and joyous mectuio does not

Question 5

mercutios wit pargraph

Answer 5

• mercutio serves as a comedic refreshment from the rest of the characters in the play and the harsh emotions that they come with
• he is able to find sources of comedic input in times of grave seriousness, when he is on his death bed he strays from typical outputs of hurt or anguish and insteadstates part jokingly that if you were to ask for him ‘tomorrow’, youd find him a ‘grave man’- this proves his ability to seek humour even in the face of death
• he urges romeo that ‘if love b rough with you be rough with love’ this is a clever wrodplay that heightnes his comedic value to the audience, whilst also expressing how his character is unafraid to mock the serverity of love that romeo seems to feel- offering a fresh and lightneed perspective to the audience
• it is his absurdity that proves volatile in a hegemonic world- indeed his taunting of the masculine and angry tybult as the ‘prince of cats’ and asking if he ‘makes us minstrels’ serves the basis for the duel that leads to his fatal injury- suggesting that the harshness of society breeds a place impossible for joy
• his humour works well towards socieal commentry on the absurdity of the frueds in a mamsculine world- his angered ‘a plaue on both your houses’ expresses fruestration but also provides criticism for the sensless and aimless feuds
• he provides a necessary levity whilst also beng used as a vehicle to criticise and wrongs in the feuding verona through his depiction of his death

Question 6

warped understanding of love

Answer 6

-if love be w=rough w you be rough w love
- he jests at scars
- red lip quivering thigh
-thou art romeo
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Question 7

wit

Answer 7

-provides a necessary levity as the comedic staple of an otherwise inately tragic play
- ‘if love be rough w you be rough w love
- youll find me a grave man
- theyve made worms meat of me
- prince of cats/ mintrels and the volatility it causes in a hegemonic honour driven world
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