The hopeful tone of Act II changes dramatically at the beginning of Act III as Romeo becomes embroiled in the brutal conflict between the families. The searing heat, flaring tempers, and sudden violence of this scene contrast sharply with the romantic, peaceful previous night. The play reaches a dramatic crescendo as Romeo and Juliet’s private world clashes with the public feud with tragic consequences. Mercutio’s death is the catalyst for the tragic turn the play takes from this point onward.
True to character, the hot-headed Mercutio starts a quarrel the instant Tybalt requests a word with him, by responding, “make it a word and a blow.” Tybalt at first ignores Mercutio’s insults because, ironically again, he’s saving his blade for Romeo.
Romeo, by contrast, is as passionate about love as Tybalt and Mercutio are about hostility. Romeo appears, cheerful and contented with having wed Juliet only hours before, and unaware that he’s even been challenged to a duel. Until Mercutio dies, Romeo remains emotionally distinct from the other characters in the scene. Romeo walks atop his euphoric cloud buoyed by blissful thoughts of marriage to Juliet, peace, unity, and harmony. In response to Tybalt’s attempts to initiate a fight, Romeo tells Tybalt that he loves “thee better than thou canst devise.” Ironically, Romeo’s refusal to duel with Tybalt brings about the very acceleration of violence he sought to prevent.
In Romeo’s mind, he has shed his identity as a Montague and has become one with Juliet, his wife. Romeo’s separation echoes the balcony scene where he said “Call me but love…Henceforth I never will be Romeo.” However, Tybalt seeks revenge against Romeo because a Montague appeared at a Capulet ball. While Romeo no longer labels himself Montague, Tybalt still sees Romeo as standing on the wrong side of a clear line that divides the families.
Mercutio is disgusted by Romeo’s abandonment of traditionally masculine aggression. Tybalt does not understand why Romeo will not respond to his dueling challenge—a traditional mechanism to assert and protect masculine nobility. Romeo’s separation from these typical modes of interaction is both an abandonment of traditional masculinity and a departure from the temporal and divisive perspective of the feud. Romeo and Juliet’s love embraces a transcendent, intensely unified concept of love. Their extraordinary love removes them from the animosity that drives the feud; however, that love is also flawed by Romeo acting out of anger rather than out of his love for Juliet.
Indeed, as soon as Mercutio confronts Tybalt on Romeo’s behalf, Romeo’s fall from his pinnacle of bliss seems destined. The hope that sprung from Romeo’s marriage to Juliet is dashed in a few moments of swordplay. In a moment of profound irony, Romeo’s attempt to stand between two combatants—his act of benevolent intervention—facilitates Tybalt’s fatal thrust that kills Mercutio. Thus, Romeo’s gesture of peace results in Mercutio’s death and Romeo’s becoming ensnared in the family conflict after all.
Mercutio’s final speeches reflect a mixture of anger and disbelief that he has been fatally injured as a result of the “ancient grudge” between the Montagues and the Capulets; he repeatedly curses, “A plague o’ both your houses.” Even his characteristic wit turns bitter as Mercutio treats the subject of his own death with humorous wordplay: “Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man.” In the final irony of this scene, Mercutio never learns for what cause he was wounded. He believes he is wounded for a fight, not for a love. In shocked disbelief, he asks Romeo “Why the devil / came you between us? I was hurt under your arm.”
Romeo blames himself for Mercutio’s death because he placed his love for Juliet before consideration of his friend. Romeo thus attacks Tybalt to assuage his guilt. However, by doing so, he disregards any effect that his choice may have on Juliet. His action is impulsive and reckless. Romeo’s rage overpowers his sensibility, and his fortunes are sealed. By attacking Tybalt in a blind fury, he has become one with fiery Tybalt; one with quick-tempered Mercutio, and one with the embittered patriarchs who originated the feud.
Tybalt’s death brings Romeo a moment of clarity as he realizes that he is the helpless victim of fate: “O, I am fortune’s fool!” he cries, struck deeply by a sense of anger, injustice, and futility. The speed with which Mercutio and Tybalt’s deaths occur, together with Romeo’s marriage and subsequent banishment, all contribute to a sense of inevitability—that a chain of events has been set in motion over which the protagonists have no control. Mercutio’s dying curse upon the houses resonates as the voice of fate itself.