Mercutio

• gentle Romeo - superficiality of love 


  adjective 'gentle' sounds condescending which makes sense given how he is prone to jest at romeos expense - belittling Romeo who is a lover and thus love by extension
• a lover ... borrow cupids wings - superficiality of love


  tone is deterministic when he labels Romeo as a lover - sounds cynical as if people are set and have no free will to be something else - cupid was blind in roman mythology which makes arrows of love that he shoots seem random and ruled by chance (pessimistic view of something traditionally romantic) 'borrow' diminishes cupids power as we can just 'borrow' his wings, we can deduce mercutio is pessimistic about love
• when maids lie on their backs / presses them and learns them first to bear - superficiality of love


  speaks of love as a corrupting influence, slanders queen mab and turns her into a villain - sex was a taboo subject and so queen mab, who introduces 'maids' to it is villainous - mercutio speaks of cynically labelling it to be superficial and corrupting which doesn't seem to be inaccurate due to the ending
• madman, passion, lover! - superficiality of love


  grouping makes them seem like semantics - speaks as though 'madman' and 'lover' are synonymous, mocking Romeo and shows distaste for love
• speak to my gossip Venus one fair word - superficiality of love


  evokes goddess of love using personal pronoun 'my' as if he knows her personally and calls her a 'gossip' - somehow manages to diminish her power and power of love
• prick love for pricking - duality


  repitition of 'prick' reminds us that while he gives advice to Romeo, he is also using violent language to convey a deeper and more serious point that love can be violent and idyllic
• be rough with love - duality


  violent language is jovial but also has earnest undertones
• feet ... straight leg ... quivering thigh - duality


  attempts to lure Romeo out, lists only parts of her body that may be considered sexual - jests yet there is something serious about his tone in the way he paints her in a sexual light so vividly with his bawdy imagery
• raise a spirit in his mistress' circle - duality


  language boarders offensive and has melted from comical to offensive - always seems to ride the lone between humour and seriousness such as his dichotomy - perhaps Shakespeare uses him to demonstrate that humans are complex and contain multitudes and people are often not as they seem
• king of cats - rash and impulsive in violence


  labels tybalt as swift and nimble but also refers to the tybalt in 'reynard the fox' who is also quick to brawl and is impulsive compliments tybalt and also insults him, comparing him to a frequently mocked fictional character - shows mercutio to be filtered and impulsive in what he says
• could you not take some occasion without giving? - rash and impulsive in violence 


  uses provocative language to entice tybalt into a brawl - doesn't think through potential consequences but rather acts impulsively, fuelled by emotion
• I am hurt - rash and impulsive in violence


  uses simple sentence and is straight to the point - no longer using flowery descriptive language which shows that in death he has lost all character
• a scratch - rash and impulsive in violence 


  often contradicts himself which demonstrates him to be rash both in his words and actions - says and does things without thought
• a plague on both your houses - rash and impulsive in violence


  death represents his impulsivity and Shakespeare uses this quality to demonstrate consequences of folly of youth (hastiness) - Romeo and Juliet are also hasty and this leads them to their death, too