Romeo and Juliet Group

Question:

season
season
Student
High School - 9th Grade

Why does Benvolio wish to retire at the beinning of Romeo and Juliet, Act 3?

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Posted by season on Thursday March 19, 2009 at 6:24 PM and tagged with benvolio, brawl, capulet, characters, foreshadowing, mercutio, montague, romeo and juliet, shakespeare, tybalt.

Answers:

  1. ms-charleston-yawp
    ms-charleston-yawp Teacher
    High School - 11th Grade

    eNotes Editor

    Benvolio wishes to retire at the beginning of Act 3 in order to avoid a fight.  Smart guy!  The time of Mercutio's and Tybalt's murder draws near, and one wonders if Benvolio has an uncanny sense of this impending doom when he speaks his first line in the act:

    I pray thee, good Mercutio, let's retire. / The day is hot, the Capulet's abroad, / And if we meet, we shall not scape a brawl, / For now, these hot days, is the mad blood stirring. (3.1.1-4).

    In other words, the heat of the day seems to be stirring up the desire to fight among both the Montagues and the Cauplets.  Benvolio wants nothing but to escape.  Quite honestly, whether Benvolio knows it or not, Shakespeare is using the character of Benvolio to foreshadow the fateful happenings later in the act:  the death of Mercutio and Tybalt.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/romeo/act-iii-scenes-1-2-summary-an...
    http://www.enotes.com/romeo/benvolio-character-analysis

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    Posted by ms-charleston-yawp on Thursday March 19, 2009 at 7:17 PM