References to Pride & Honour in Romeo & Juliet

Tybalt, the cousin of Juliet, has a quick temper and frequently acts on impulse. When he first appears, he arrives at the brink of a street fight, and when Benvolio tries to calm him down he gets riled up and says, “What, drawn and talk of peace? I hate the word/ As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee./ Have at thee, coward!” (1:1, 71-73) When Prince Escalus arrives to see this fight, he raises the consequences on the warring families. He will no longer stand by without doing something and threatens, “If ever you disturb our streets again,/ Your lives shall pay the the forfeit of the peace” (1:1, 98-99). The stakes of the family feud have been taken to a new level, whereas before the Prince was just mad but didn’t act on that anger, now the families are threatened with death if they act out again, all because Tybalt and some Capulet servants jumped into a fight. Even after the Prince’s threats, of which Tybalt knows the stakes, Tybalt comes to fight Romeo the next day but instead finds Benvolio and

In the beginning of the story, the Montagues and Capulets break out fighting in the middle of the street and they are told to stop their fighting or the punishment will be death. Soon after the fight, Capulet

Tybalt is a very vengeful character. When tybalt and Mercutio fight, Mercutio gets stabbed and dies which will cause Romeo go crazy. “Why the devil come you between us? I was hurt under your arm.”(3.1.70) with these words, Romeo feels guilty about his best friend's death, that was mainly caused because Romeo denied fighting Tybalt.

Moments before, Romeo thinks that he could never harm Tybalt, as he has married Juliet, Tybalt now his kin. Romeo states that he “love[s] [Tybalt] better than [Tybalt] canst devise” (3.1.70). But by the death of his dear friend, instead of his love for Tybalt, his heart now despises him. His anger is shown when “for Mercutio’s soul is but a little way above [their] heads,” as his hate is born towards Tybalt, whom he had just moments before loved, stating that “[his] name [he] tender as dearly” as his own (3.1.72-73,131-132). His hate turns murderous as he tells Tybalt that Mercutio is “staying for thine to keep him company” (3.1.133). As Romeo states that “thou or I, or both, must go with him” (3.1.134), the duel breaks out, leaving Tybalt slain, his kinsmen now his foe. The hate and revenge that Romeo felt caused love to turn to zeal for Tybalt's blood. His belief that he must not hurt his kinsmen but love him, the reminder that fights were not allowed by the prince, ended with the spilled blood of Mercutio. The death of his friend turned love to hate, the hate that killed

Romeo wants revenge and fights with Tybalt. In this fight, Romeo kills Tybalt. When Romeo realizes the consequences of his actions, he says that he is “Fortune’s fool” (3.1.142). He believes that he has no control over the killings of Mercutio and Tybalt. However, these events are caused by his own rashness. Romeo chooses to fight with Tybalt and even starts the fight. Romeo fights to avenge his friend’s death. Romeo’s actions are rash because he does not consider the results of his actions. Romeo could resolve the conflict in some nonviolent way, but his mind is fixed on killing Tybalt. Romeo is exiled from Verona because he kills Tybalt. His rashness causes problems for his own family as well as for the Capulets and for the Prince. Romeo’s rashness in killing Tybalt leads to his killing himself.

meeting at the dinner, we see how driven by passion Romeo is. After leaving the Capulet's

This example only gives the audience a teasing taste for what is about to happen as a result of Tybalt’s short temper. Fast forwarding to act three, Tybalt’s impulsive behavior is far more drastic and impactful to the play this time around. At the town square of Verona, Tybalt and his compatriots run into Mercutio and Romeo. Still infuriated by Romeo’s presence at his family’s ball, Tybalt decides to vent his anger by challenging Romeo to battle him. When Romeo backs away, Mercutio steps in and fights with Tybalt. After a while of fighting, the distressed Romeo steps in to break it up, but, “Tybalt, reaching under Romeo’s arm, stabs Mercutio and flees” (3.1.82). Mercutio announces that, “I am hurt” (3.1.83), and eventually dies. After witnessing his friend be slaughtered, Romeo seeks revenge on Tybalt, and subsequently slays the murderer of his best friend. As a result of Romeo’s actions, the inamorato is banished to Mantua. When putting the pieces together, the audience watching the play can see how Tybalt, and not Romeo, is responsible for the banishment. Romeo was simply seeking to avenge the life of his friend, while Tybalt’s actions were a direct result of violent thinking. Tybalt’s choice to fight and kill one of the play’s main characters highlights the high degree of his vicious personality. Tybalt’s actions end up dooming the peaceful partnership of Romeo and Juliet and thus the outcome of the play takes a turn for the

Mercutio is mocking Benvolio at the opening of this scene. What is he saying and how do we know he is teasing?

In The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, Tybalt was the enforcer of the story and always tried to stir up more chaos in the feud between the Montagues and Capulets. An example of this can be found in Act 1, when the Capulet’s party is going on, when Tybalt senses Romeo, he ends up getting very defensive and angry, “This, by his voice, should be a Montague, / Fetch me my rapier, boy. . . Now, by the stock and honor of my kin, / To strike him dead I hold it not a sin” (5.52-57). Tybalt’s quick and unthoughtful actions make him a hot-headed character who is very easy to dislike. With Tybalt’s previous actions, the story leaned toward the idea that he was going to cause a damaging and lethal event to happen, which he indeed did. After spotting Romeo at the Capulet party, Tybalt felt disrespected and was livid, due to this, he challenged Romeo to a duel. When they both meet up on the street, Romeo attempts to make peace with Tybalt and to end all disagreements between the two. However, Tybalt is there to cause drama and he declines, stating that Romeo’s request “shall not excuse the injuries / that thou hast done to me” (3.1.61-62). Tybalt’s rejection of Romeo’s request led to his own death as well as Mercutio’s. Another consequence of these actions was Romeo’s banishment from Verona, which ended up

Mercutio and Tybalt are very different in some ways and in others, they are very alike. Socially they are extremely different, Mercutio is always trying to have fun and crack jokes and enjoy his life while Tybalt, is very straight laced and serious in his manner. From a modern standpoint, we would say that Mercutio is the life and soul of the party and all of his friends like to be around him but when it comes to Tybalt, we see him as the guy nobody likes because he is too serious and is always looking to start a quarrel. Whereas, from an old fashioned religious point of view, Mercutio would be seen as a hell raiser and a trouble maker and

Ironically, he fears punishments for his sins in eternal suffering ('I hate hell') and is a man without religion safe for his creed of hate: he says in Act 1, Scene 5 (in relation to Romeo) " To strike him dead I hold it not a sin." We meet Tybalt again in Act 1, Scene 5, at the Capulet's masked ball. Tybalt recognises Romeo as a Montague and his feelings of hatred rekindle: "What dares the slave come hither?" (Act 1, Scene 5, line 56).

Tybalt wants to settle the score, and to repair his pride, he writes a letter to Romeo, challenging him to a duel. Tybalt becomes enraged, he feels disrespected, and treated as a fool when his challenge goes unanswered. He goes in person to confront Romeo in a duel of sword and whit to repair his

Mercutio’s various characteristics and actions also make Verona a darker place plagued by endless hate. Mercutio is known to be witty and is effectively using his humor to mask his umbrageousness. He mocks Tybalt after running into him by saying to “make [their conversation] a word and a blow” (3.1.41). This instance shows that Mercutio would rather sit behind a ‘shield’ of emotions instead of facing the incoming problem himself. Just like Tybalt, Mercutio does not help reduce the strife between the two families. His more indirect responses make the Capulets more infuriated because he avoids to directly respond to the proposals of the Capulets. However, Mercutio shows his umbrageousness in multiple occasions. His character hides his umbrageousnes frequently even though he may not seem to be that sort of character, but this is achieved because of his humorous traits. Mercutio can be seen as a hot headed character as shown in this quote by Benvolio where he pleads to Mercutio, “I pray to thee, good Mercutio, let’s retire/The day is hot and the Capels abroad” (3.1.1-2). Benvolio is a character that often tries to stop conflict between others so he knows that Mercutio can erupt into an angry character. However, his own umbrageousness shields him again because he purposely goes out to become intimidated by others himself to make them look inferior. Although Tybalt goes out to approach the Montagues, Mercutio lets himself be approached so he can act in a defensive matter against the Capulets because it triggers an aggressive response. Mercutio’s umbrageousness also slowly destroys the world of

Romeo struggles between his dedication to love and his dedication to honor throughout Romeo and Juliet as well as staying true to his family's side in the feud. Although in the beginning Romeo seemed to only "falls in love" with girls because of their looks, but, after being with Juliet, Romeo showed readers that with her it was more than just her beauty that he was in love with. Along with Romeo made sure to stick with Juliet all the way through until he found out that Juliet died and not fighting Tybalt because they were related after Romeo got married to Juliet until after he had good reason to fight. Romeo disregards the families feud after he finds out that Juliet is a capulet and even goes as far as trying to mend the families feud by

Especially, since Tybalt is from the opposite family of Romeo, he begins to seek vengeance.