Mercutio

• Romeo's best friend who criticises him for believing that dreams show the future and dreams are down to a person who is asleep not the universe -> showing he is a more down-to-earth character.
• His speeches are full of word play and innuendo even when he is dying. -> "Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man" He is playing on the word 'grave' as it means both serious and where you put dead people.
• Mercutio's death is the first in the play and leaves a sombre atmosphere that is marked to 'begins the woe' of tragic events of the play.
• "A plague o' both your houses"

  reminder of how dangerous the feud is but also foreshadowing the tragic events of the play are to come. His 'curse' comes true because of his death Romeo is driven to kill Tybalt and because of that he is banished which results in his and Juliet's death.
• Shakespeare has created the character of Mercutio to be honourable because he fought Tybalt to protect his closest friend (wasn't his fight) but he died to protect Romeo. Shakespeare has done this to criticise the unimportance of the feud and how he died for nothing.