controlled assesment

Act 3 scene 1 is a very important part of the whole Romeo and Juliet play. There are various mixed emotions the audience will endure throughout the scene and horrific blows are struck within this particular scene.

After reading the scene, we are immediately drawn into one of the main themes of the play, Disorder'. The other themes covered in the play includes: Love versus hate, Disorder, Fate, Friendship and Revenge.

The scene takes place at Verona', a Public place'. A sort of setting where we expect to see laugh and a joke and the development of characters and their feelings towards others, but remembering that Shakespeare is writing this play, we can expect anything to happen.

We are then introduced to the characters with great friendship, Mercutio and Benvolio. Shakespeare has carefully selected these two characters to create impact inside of this particular scene. Without these two characters, the scene would definitely not be the same. The scene starts off with Mercutio and Benvolio are talking to each other. It is a very hot day and Benvolio is somewhat more worried than Mercutio. ‘The day is hot, the Capulets are abroad, And if we meet we shall not escape a brawl'. Here we are introduced into Benvolio's character a slightly more worried/concerned person than Mercutio. A hot day can get a lot of people bothered; here Benvolio has explained to Mercutio that he feels that it would be wise to leave early before any sort of trouble kicks off, and us knowing that they are in a Public place which is probably the heart of an area if someone's looking for trouble.

Benvolio then goes on to say that he is feeling a tension in the atmosphere and that something bad is going to happen. ‘For now, these hot days, is the mad blood stirring'. On hot days, it is quite common for young men to lose control as Benvolio quite rightly says here.Mercutio is a complex character in the play of William Shakespeare play of Romeo and Juliet because he has many different aspects to his character. This is demonstrated particularly in Act3 Scene1.

In the William Shakespeare version of the play, Mercutio does not care about the Capulets when they arrive to duel with Romeo. This is shown when Mercutio expresses his opinion saying “by my heel I care not” .This displays that his heel indicates that the Capulets are low priority to him, Mercutio also demonstrates some stubbornness about the fact that the Capulets have just arrived .However, in Baz Luhrmann’s version of the play when he says “by my heel I care not” Mercutio has a relaxed attitude, in a sitting position not a fighting pose, He also smiling widely and looks mischievous as if trouble would be fun.

Another similar occasion on stage Mercutio makes is when he declares “o’ calm dishonorable vile submission” .This debates the fact that in the first point I viewed he didn’t seem to care about the Capulets but suddenly his mood changes to when Romeo is being beaten up by Tybalt. In Shakespeare’s version Mercutio acts as if Romeo is dishonoring the family name and is disgusted that Romeo gave in to Tybalt and surrendered to the Capulets. In Luhrmann’s version of this scene Mercutio’s facial expression suggests that he is disgusted with the fact that Romeo gave in and surrendered to Tybalt, this occurred when Romeo was brutally beaten up by Tybalt.

When Tybalt switches Mercutio on when Tybalt says “Mercutio, thou consortest with Romeo” . When Tybalt says that, Mercutio responds to him in an aggressive manor preaching “here’s my fiddle stick here’s that shall make you dance zounds consort”. In the Shakespeare version this may suggest that Mercutio might be antagonistic by nature and it also shows us that Mercutio is quiet self assured that that he can defeat Tybalt easily. However in the Luhrmann film, Mercutio points to his gun (sword) and his shirt is wide open which makes him someone who isn’t worried about how he appears when Mercutio expresses his opinion whilst saying that he shows anger because he acts as if Tybalt cursed him and Tybalt keps running away when Mercutio approaches him.