Speech Analysis
Mercutio’s Death
Mercutio fights Tybalt when Romeo refuses.
Romeo interferes, trying to stop the fight, enabling
Tybalt to stab Mercutio. Romeo’s attempt at peace
ends his own peace. This moment marks the beginning of the end for Romeo and Juliet.
Questions
MERCUTIO
I am hurt.
A plague o’ both your houses! I am sped.
Is he gone, and hath nothing?
Mercutio curses the Montague and Capulet families because their hatred lead to his death.
o’: on sped: done, speeding toward death
Is he gone: Is Tybalt gone without a scratch?
BENVOLIO
What, art thou hurt?
MERCUTIO
Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch; marry, ‘tis enough.
Where is my page? Go, villain, fetch a surgeon.
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Why does Mercutio fight Tybalt?
Why doesn’t Mercutio reveal the extent of his injuries? Why does he
continue to joke?
Why does Mercutio curse the Montagues and Capulets?
Why does Mercutio ask for Benvolio’s help instead of Romeo’s?
How is the theme of fate explored in this moment?
Who is to blame for Mercutio’s death?
What does Mercutio’s death mean for Romeo?
Mercutio is mortally wounded but deflects Benvolio, claiming to be barely hurt. Mercutio
usually reacts to events with humour. Romeo does not know how severely Mercutio has been
hurt, which is why he tells Mercutio to be a man - “Courage, man.” This is ironic because
seconds before the fight, Mercutio called Romeo out for not fighting Tybalt.
A lot of wordplay here. Mercutio is saying his wound is not that deep or wide, but it’s deep
and wide enough. He’ll be a grave man as in serious but also as in dead.
ROMEO
Courage, man; the hurt cannot be much.’
MERCUTIO
No, ‘tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a
church-door; but ‘tis enough, ‘twill serve: ask for
me to-morrow, and you shall find me a grave man. I
am peppered, I warrant, for this world. A plague o’
both your houses! ‘Zounds, a dog, a rat, a mouse, a
cat, to scratch a man to death! A braggart, a
rogue, a villain, that fights by the book of
arithmetic! Why the devil came you between us? I
was hurt under your arm.
ROMEO
I thought all for the best.
MERCUTIO
Help me into some house, Benvolio,
Or I shall faint. A plague o’ both your houses!
They have made worms’ meat of me: I have it,
And soundly too: your houses!
‘tis: it is ‘twill: it will
peppered: done – another reference to his dying warrant: guarantee
‘Zounds: Variation of ‘God’s wounds’ (similar to “Oh my God”)
braggart: one who brags and boasts.
rogue: dishonest man.
fights by the book: fights without flair. He’s insulting the way Tybalt fights. He can’t believe
that Tybalt, of all men, a dog, a rat, a cat, killed him.
Mercutio reveals Romeo’s interference allowed Tybalt to stab him.
Mercutio doesn’t want to die in the street. He is realizing that he doesn’t want to die at all.
Note that he asks Benvolio (nor Romeo) for help.
Mercutio curses the families four times. He is not joking. There is a duality here between the
way that he’s expected to act (with humour) and his true bitterness at the senselessness of
his death.
worms’ meat: worms eat corpses.
Mercutio’s last words foreshadow the end of the play. The families will indeed be cursed by
the death of their only children.
This document accompanies “Romeo and Juliet Analysis and Exercise: Part One”
Visit http://tfolk.me/rj1 for more.