A public place — Mercutio dies, Tybalt dies, Romeo is banished
A hot afternoon, an unrefused challenge, two corpses in the street. The pivot of the play.
Summary
A public place in Verona, an hour or two after the wedding. Mercutio and Benvolio walk the square in the heat. Benvolio wants to go inside — the Capulets are out, "and if we meet, we shall not 'scape a brawl, / for now, these hot days, is the mad blood stirring." Tybalt arrives, looking for Romeo, with a small armed group of Capulet kinsmen. Romeo, freshly married to Tybalt's cousin, enters the square. Tybalt insults him directly: "thou art a villain." Romeo, unable to fight him and unable to explain why, answers in a register no one on stage can read — "villain am I none; / therefore farewell. I see thou knowest me not."
Mercutio cannot bear it. Romeo's gentleness sounds, to him, like cowardice. He draws his own rapier on Tybalt: "Tybalt, you ratcatcher, will you walk?" They fence. Romeo, frantic, steps between them and tries to push Mercutio's arm down. Tybalt thrusts under that arm and runs Mercutio through, then flees with his men. Mercutio at first makes light of the wound: "a scratch, a scratch — marry, 'tis enough." Then he calls down the play's pivot: "a plague o' both your houses!" He repeats it three times. He dies in Benvolio's arms.
Romeo, holding the body, breaks. "O sweet Juliet, / thy beauty hath made me effeminate." Tybalt returns. The two fight in the same square, ten lines after Mercutio's last breath, and Romeo kills him. Benvolio shouts at him to flee — citizens are coming, the Prince will sentence him to death. "I am fortune's fool!" Romeo cries, and runs. The Prince arrives, hears Benvolio's account, hears Lady Capulet's furious demand for Romeo's blood. He pronounces sentence: not death, but exile. Romeo is banished from Verona on pain of death. The wedding has lasted four hours.
- Scene 1The Chorus opens the play with a single sonnet — fourteen lines — that lays out the entire story in advance. Two households alike...
- Scene 2A public place in Verona, Sunday morning. Two Capulet servants pick a fight with two Montagues to be picking a fight. Benvolio...
- Scene 3A young nobleman named Count Paris asks Capulet for Juliet's hand. Capulet says she is too young at thirteen — let two more...
- Scene 4A room in Capulet's house. Lady Capulet calls her thirteen-year-old daughter in and asks how she feels about marriage. The Nurse...
- Scene 5Romeo, Mercutio, and Benvolio walk in masks through the Verona night toward the Capulet feast. Romeo, reluctant, confesses a...
- Scene 6The Capulet ball, the dance floor full. Romeo sees Juliet across the room and forgets Rosaline within a single line: "for I ne'er...
- Scene 7Outside the Capulet wall, late after the feast. Mercutio and Benvolio have lost Romeo on the way home and call for him through the...
- Scene 8The Capulet orchard. Romeo, hidden, sees Juliet on her balcony speaking aloud of his name and what it costs them. He answers; she...
- Scene 9Dawn at Friar Laurence's cell. The Friar enters with a basket of herbs and reads moral lessons in their double properties — within...
- Scene 10Late morning, a street in Verona. Mercutio and Benvolio discuss Tybalt's challenge and worry that Romeo, in his current state...
- Scene 11Noon at Capulet's garden. Juliet, alone, paces and counts the minutes — the Nurse left at nine; it is past twelve; love's heralds...
- Scene 12Romeo at the Friar's cell, waiting. The Friar warns him again: "these violent delights have violent ends, and in their triumph...
- Scene 13The pivot of the play. A hot afternoon in the public square. Tybalt arrives looking for Romeo and forces a duel; Romeo, freshly...
- Scene 14Juliet's chamber, the same afternoon. Alone, she calls on the night to come quickly: "gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds." It...
- Scene 15Romeo, on the floor of the Friar's cell, hears his sentence. Banishment is worse than death, he insists — and at the Nurse's news...
- Scene 16Late Monday night, a room in Capulet's house. Paris is at the door, paying his respects after Tybalt's death and on the point of...
- Scene 17The longest scene of Act 3. Romeo and Juliet stand at the window at dawn — "it was the nightingale, and not the lark" — and part....
- Scene 18Juliet at Friar Laurence's cell. Paris is there finalizing the wedding order; she answers his courtship with the precise minimum...
- Scene 19Tuesday afternoon, the Capulet house. The household is in motion preparing for Thursday's wedding. Juliet returns from the Friar...
- Scene 20Late Tuesday night, Juliet's chamber. The wedding is at dawn. Alone, with Romeo's dagger laid on the table in case the vial fails...
- Scene 21A short, brisk scene of preparation, set just before dawn on Wednesday. The household has been up all night finishing the wedding...
- Scene 22The Nurse climbs the stairs, pulls back the bed-curtain, and finds Juliet cold. The wedding music outside is still playing. Lady...
- Scene 23Mantua, Thursday morning. Romeo, who has had no word from the Friar yet, is unusually cheerful — he has dreamed Juliet found him...
- Scene 24Late Thursday afternoon, the Friar's cell. Friar John returns from his errand to Mantua with the letter still in his hand. He...
- Scene 25The end at the vault. Paris arrives first to mourn Juliet; Romeo arrives with a crowbar; Paris challenges him; Romeo kills him and...