Essay | Act III, Scene I: the Pivotal Scene in Romeo and Juliet

Since life is too complex to be classified into a single category, then why should a play imitating life be confined to a single genre? In the classic tale of two "star cross'd lovers", Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare dabbles with both the comic and tragic genres (Prologue, Line 6). The play starts in the traditional comic form but undergoes a transformation in Act III, Scene I. In this scene, the death of Mercutio, and consequential death of Tybalt, transform the play into a tragedy. With each death comes a change that alters the course of the rest of the play. Mercutio's death results in an inversion of the play's genre. Traditional comic elements are lifted only to be replaced by tragedy. The death of Tybalt constitutes another radical change in the play - this time in the plot. Before Tybalt's death, the ongoing feud between the Montagues and Capulets was...
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