Romeo and Juliet

William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet is full of different characters, and each plays a different role to make for a complete work. Mercutio is an essential force in the play by serving as a colorful character and comic relief against the more serious and emotional characters such as Romeo and Juliet. He demonstrates himself as a colorful character through his figurative language. Additionally, he portrays himself as a comic relief when he adds humor to intense situations, and when he mocks the Nurse and Romeo. The combination of Mercutio’s clever tongue and flamboyant actions with other character earn him the label of a comic relief and brilliant supporting character, which is needed to keep the play entertaining. One of the primary ways Mercutio demonstrates himself as a colorful character is through his vivid use of figurative language. In Mercutio’s famous Queen Mab Speech he uses creative and unexpected imagery as he describes “Her wagon spokes made of long spinners’ legs, The cover of wings of grasshoppers, Her traces of the smallest spider web, Her collars of the moonshine’s wat’ry beams, Her whip of cricket’s bone” (Act I Scene IV 64-68). Another example of Mercutio’s clever tongue is seen in his puns, which is also a characteristic of a colorful character. Before the Capulet party, Romeo and Mercutio are discussing the dreams they had the previous night. Mercutio sums up his view of dreamers and dreams in one brilliant pun: “That dreamers often lie” (Act I Scene IV 56). In this statement, Mercutio is playing off of the double meaning of the word “lie”. The word lie in this context can be interpreted as in lying down, or as in saying something dishonest. A colorful character also has the unique skill to make a statement interesting through the double meaning of words. This consistent us of clever language is a key aspect of the role he plays Mercutio demonstrates his role as a comic relief when he incorporates humor during serious points