Mercutio’s violent death in Act 3 Sc1 of Romeo and Juliet is dramatically necessary, for his death precipitates a chain of ill-considered events, culminating in the tragic double-suicide of Romeo and Juliet. Mercutio’s death is the direct result of Romeo’s apparently conciliatory behaviour towards Tybalt, who has purposely insulted him to incite a duel. Romeo’s attempt at peace with Tybalt is fuelled by his secret marriage to Tybalt’s cousin , Juliet, and this secret is ironically known by the audience, but not by Mercutio. Unsurprisingly, Mercutio feels bewildered by his friend Romeo’s reluctance to duel with Tybalt, despite ample provocation, through the pointed, ‘villain’ insult. Mercutio’s typically bold and hot-headed decision to duel Tybalt, as a sort of ‘surrogate’ Romeo, is compromised by Romeo’s well meaning, but ill-judged interference in the duel.
When Romeo physically attempts to come between Tybalt and Mercutio, the unscrupulous Tybalt stabs Mercutio, exploiting the protective shield of Romeo’s interposed body. A student insightfully argued that Tybalt does not injure Romeo when the latter is in his way, in order to make Romeo feel intensely guilty about Mercutio. The fatally wounded Mercutio cries, ‘A plague o’ both your houses!’ This cry is uttered three times by Mercutio, emphasizing his exasperation with the manner of his death, as a needless sacrifice caught between the feuding families. The ‘plague’ suggests the metaphorical contamination and ‘curse’ of the ancient feud. The dramatic irony is of course, that Mercutio belongs to neither family and he has no knowledge of the love between Romeo and Juliet either.
Maybe the rather practical, earthy outlook Mercutio has revealed in his conversations about romance, have rendered him an outsider to Romeo’s ecstatic mindset, and this lack of privileged, romantic information kills him. Mercutio’s curse, ‘a plague o’ both your houses’, also foreshadow the tragic deaths of Romeo and Juliet by the end of the play, where the innocent are caught between the older, more culpable members of both families.
Mercutio, thus dies for a romantic cause he knows nothing about, for a type of romance even he knows nothing of, and so the secrecy continues, guaranteeing a tragic conclusion to the drama. Perhaps Mercutio dies also out of a dramatic necessity, because his charisma and banter, threaten to dominate the play and could detract from the audience’s interest in the plight of Romeo and Juliet too. Afterall, it is their play, not his! (Edmund’s situation in King Lear bears interesting comparisons too. Remember that Edmund is never on stage at the same time as King Lear, because the former’s dominance would diminish Lear’s presence and tragic effect.)
