Mercutio Humor

Romeo and Juliet is one of Shakespeare's most well known plays. One could speculate the reasons for this plays timeless qualities, but one of these reasons would undoubtedly be the uncanny use of classic humor that Shakespeare utilizes to cut the tension in between dramatic scenes and appeal to the humor of the Elizabethan audience from the most unsophisticated peasant to the most proper and formal noble of the era.

Humour has a very important role in Romeo and Juliet as it creates a vast array of emotions and prepares the audience/reader for more serious and less humorous events to come later on in the play. The most obvious form of humour that is evident in the play is the use of puns, jokes and ironic comments. These forms of humor are
Mercutio is a very important character because he is the only obvious comedic force in the play. When Mercutio is making a joke the audience knows it, and usually laughs at his quick witted sense of humor. His sense of humor revolves mostly around punning on playing with words. The puns and jokes are usually sexually driven and very vulgar for the time period in which this play takes place. Two of the most notable instances of Mercutio's humor is when he meets the nurse and when he is trying to make Romeo angry by making fun of him over his infatuation with Rosaline after Romeo had met Juliet and had forgotten about Rosaline.
Mercutio's character is completely built up around his humor and it is clear that Shakespeare wanted the audience to love his character and become attached to him which creates a rather large shock factor when Shakespeare kills off his character so early in the play. A major example of Meructio's unending sense of humor is evident as he is cracking jokes even as he is dying. "No, ‘tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church-door, but ‘tis enough, ‘twill serve. Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man." This statement is typical of him and is true to his character in the