Tybalt

• Tybalt


  • Values his family's honor
  • Sees violence as the primary way to uphold it
  • Cares about societal expectations and fashions
  • Quick to start a fight
  • Has honed his talent for swordsmanship
  • Cares more about image than tradition
  • Upholds his family's honor by focusing on their immediate social status and image, rather than appealing to their historical standing or considering future ramifications of his actions
• Tybalt recognizes Romeo at the Capulet ball


  Takes it as a slight against his family
• Tybalt's idea of honor


  Tybalt sees himself as the arbiter of honor, even though he is not the master of the house
• Capulet reprimands Tybalt for causing a scene


  Lord Capulet is offended at Tybalt's anger
• The Prince's ban on violence does not hold Tybalt back because he does not feel rule-following is as important as his family's reputation
• Tybalt does not take his own victory as satisfaction of Romeo's offense, he slays Mercutio, leaves, then comes back to fight Romeo again
• Tybalt's dogged persistence against the Montagues keeps him from seeing the danger he puts himself in by continuing to provoke Romeo after killing his friend
• Capulets


  • Hold Tybalt in high regard
  • Defend him after death to the point of convincing the Prince to banish Romeo
  • Know Tybalt's tendency to overreact with aggression, but refuse to take Benvolio's word when it makes Tybalt look dishonorable
  • Convinced Tybalt's death is enough to send Juliet into a period of intense grief and depression
• Juliet's initial, albeit short-lived, reaction upon hearing of Tybalt's death is to rebuke Romeo for killing him
• Tybalt's obsession with image may get him into trouble, but it also gives him the desired effect of holding his family's honor
• Tybalt Capulet


  A character in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet who dies in the middle of the play but has an important dramatic function in the development of the tragedy
• Verona


  • A divided city with an ongoing ancient feud between the two leading families, the Montagues and the Capulets
  • No-one knows how the feud began and it is no longer raging, but it is always there just beneath the surface of Verona's life
  • The young male servants of both families goad each other when they meet in the streets and that occasionally leads to an incident
  • The families themselves just ignore each other and move in different circles
  • Intermarriage between the two families is taboo
• Romeo


  The teenage son of the head of the Montague family
• Juliet


  The fourteen year-old daughter of the head of the Capulet family
• Tybalt


  • Romeo's nephew, the only member of either family to show any real anger against the opposing family
  • A fiery, impetuous youth of about seventeen or eighteen, full of physical and emotional energy
  • Enjoys confrontation and is reckless, not being afraid of the consequences of any action he may take in pursuing that
  • His level of passion is a matter of personality rather than of devotion to the feud
• Capulet


  • A wealthy Renaissance merchant who is keen to marry his daughter Juliet into an aristocratic family
  • Holds a party and invites most of Verona society, apart from the Montagues
• Violence breaks out on the streets among the servants of the two families

  The Prince of Verona appears and tells those gathered in the square that he is sick and tired of this feud and that the next person who starts a fight will be sentenced to death
• Romeo

  Suffering from lovesickness, has fallen in love with a girl he has never spoken to
• Romeo and his friends gatecrash the Capulet party


  1. Disguising themselves with masks

  2. Romeo first sets eyes on Juliet and falls instantly in love with her

  3. Juliet falls in love with him too
• Tybalt recognises Romeo at the party

  Anger boils up in him, but he contains his rage at the request of Capulet
• Romeo and Juliet decide to get married in secret


  With the help of Juliet's nurse and Friar Lawrence
• Tybalt appears in the square, looking for Romeo and itching for a quarrel


  Mercutio begins to make fun of Tybalt, who points an accusatory finger at Mercutio and says 'Thou consort'st with Romeo'
• Mercutio and Tybalt engage in a pretend duel

  1. Romeo appears and attempts to intervene, getting between them

  2. In the confusion, Tybalt stabs Mercutio under Romeo's arm
• Mercutio drops dead at his friends' feet


  Romeo turns and runs after Tybalt
• Romeo catches up with Tybalt


  The two engage in a vicious fight, and Romeo kills Tybalt
• Tybalt's impetuous, reckless personality

  • A major factor in the play
  • It has an important dramatic function in that it is Tybalt's anger and his acting on it that changes the direction of the play and the relentless path to its tragic climax begins
• Tybalt: 'What, art thou drawn among these heartless hinds?<|>Turn thee, Benvolio, look upon thy death.<|>What, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the word, As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee:<|>This, by his voice, should be a Montague.— Fetch me my rapier, boy!<|>Uncle, this is a Montague, our foe, A villain that is hither come in spite To scorn at our solemnity this night.<|>What dares the slave Come hither covered with an antic face To fleer and scorn at our solemnity? Now, by the stock and honor of my kin, To strike him dead I hold it not a sin.<|>Mercutio, thou consort'st with Romeo<|>Romeo, the love I bear thee can afford No better term than this: thou art a villain.'