Objectives:
• To understand how plays were
performed in Shakespearian times.
• To understand the importance of
Mercutio’s character.
• To understand and analyse Mercutio’s
role in Act 1, Scene 4
Character and Plot Link
Can you remember all the
characters and the main events of
the play?
Read aloud the character or event you’ve been given,
if you have that answer read it aloud, then read your
clue for the next person to read their description
and so on.
What were theatres like in Shakespeare’s Elizabethan times?
• It cost 1 pence to stand
and between 2-6 pence to
sit in the balconies,
depending on where you
were in relation to the
stage.
• Young boys whose voices
haven’t broken yet (pre
pubescent) played the
female parts.
• People loved the theatre,
it was crowded, hot,
sweaty and people booed,
cheered and threw rotten
vegetables if they didn’t
like the performance.
• There were no toilets so
people went in buckets or
where they were stood –
it was smelly and infested
with rats.
The Source of the Play
Fill in the gaps on the sheet about
where the play originates and the
sequence of events.
Copy the below spider diagram, sideways in your A4
books, leave spaces round the 5 spokes.
Mercurial
Violent
Mercutio
Comedic
Views love as
solely physical
(sex)
Loyal friend
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4Km_MLCsgs
Different images of Mercutio
Which if these is closest to what you
imagined him to be like? Why?
Why is Mercutio an
important character in
the play?
* He provides comic relief.
* He acts as a contrast from
Romeo.
* His death is a turning point
in the play from romance and
comedy to tragedy
What does this picture suggest about the scene?
Use arrows to match
the terms to the
definitions
Read Act 1, Scene 4
> This is the audience’s first view of Mercutio.
- What impression does he give about
himself?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsRQSazjl
4U
• What is Mercutio suggesting in this
speech?
• What does this scene tell us about his
personality?
Make notes on this scene
on your script.
Line 12 : Romeo shows signs
of a Petrarchan lover
(unrequited love)
Line 13 : Complimenting
him to persuade him.
Line 17: Speaks
metaphorically, taking the
mickey out of him moping
around.
Line 23 : Double entendre –
overpowering a woman
sexually.
Line 26 : simile
Line 27 : Personification
and double entendre
sexual references and
makes rude gestures.
Line 39 : done = don’t want to be involved.
Line 40 : puns - dun = brown, the colour of
a mouse – saying he is as timid as a mouse.
Line 41: dun = gloomy
metaphorical : mud (mire) represents the
problems of being in love and stuck inside
a woman.
Line 42-43 Romeo’s stuck in love but
according to Mercutio, wants to be
getting stuck into a woman / having sex.
Line 45: He’s annoyed by Romeo
Line 53: pun – lie down and tell
untruths.
Line 54: Queen and Mab are both words
used to mean prostitutes / promiscuous
women (sluts) and mab can also mean a
woman who dresses sloppily, suggesting
she might let a man into her clothes
easily.
55: Fairies’ midwife assists people to
give birth to dreams of fantasy.
Line 72 -98 The speech gets more sinister and
twisted as it goes on, suggesting that what you
dream will come true after, (not as Romeo
thinks can predict the future), it connotes that
Mercutio is disgusted with mankind / humanity.
It shows he can get carried away and enjoys
being the centre of attention.
Lines 72, 73, 76, 77, 81, 86 , 96
Lists contrasting jobs –
juxtaposing them to show love
and hate / idealism and cynicism.
Line 98 :’good carriage = being
able to take the weight of a
man on top of them.
Lines 98 / 99: Personification –
dreams can’t have children. He
doesn’t believe that dreams can
predict the future as Romeo does.
Sees dreams / love as ‘vain
fantasy’ self centred silliness.
Line 100 : simile – flimsy
and worth nothing
Lines 107-114
Romeo has a premonition that
something bad will happen ( a sense
of foreboding) from what will happen
tonight – this could foreshadow
Mercutio’s death as well as his own.
Read Act 1, Scene 4
Answer the following questions
in PEE paragraphs
1. What is Mercutio’s relationship with Romeo
like?
2. How is what Mercutio says funny and rude?
3. What is suggested about his personality from
what he says?
How is Mercutio’s
character represented in
Act 1, Scene 4?
Make statements and then use
a quote as proof.