After they leave the Capulets' party, Romeo abandons his friends to climb the wall into Juliet's garden and, he hopes, to see her again. Benvolio and Mercutio call to him, though Benvolio is more concerned about him while Mercutio just teases him. They do not know that he has fallen in love with Juliet and they believe that he is still lusting after Rosaline. Mercutio tells Benvolio,
If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark.
Now will he sit under a medlar tree,
And wish his mistress were that kind of fruit
As maids call medlars, when they laugh alone. (2.1.33-36)
Literally, he means that if love is blind--as Benvolio has said--then it cannot hit its target. For him, and because he believes Romeo is still pining for Rosaline, who has declared that she will not have sex with Romeo, Mercutio really means "lust" when he says "love," and the target of lust is sex. Mercutio doesn't realize that Romeo loves Juliet and doesn't just lust after her, and so Mercutio describes what he believes to be Romeo's desire for a mistress who would be free with her sexual favors.
The entire line (2.1.33) reads: "If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark." Mercutio is being bawdy here. A "mark" was considered a woman who might provide sexual gratification. If one is blinded by higher notions of "love", he might miss a chance for sex.
Further support for this argument is found in the lines that follow: "Now he will sit under a medlar tree/And wish his mistress were that kind of fruit/as maids call medlars when they laugh alone." Shakespeare scholar Brian Gibbons says that proverbially, fruit was "never good until they be rotten," ie, a woman who has surrendered her virginity. Additionally, "medlars" are a type of fruit thought to look like female genitalia.
InRomeo and Juliet, Mercutio's words in Act II on the blindness of love take on a contradictory meaning when juxtaposed with the words of Romeo from Act I:
Alas that love, whose view is muffled still,/Should without eyes see pathways to his will! (I,i,169-170)
For, the meaning of Romeo's words are that love, whose eyes are blindfolded, can still see ways to have his will done. In Act II, Scene 1, when Mercutio uses the words blind he first refers to Cupid, the "purblind son of Venus," who still "shot the arrow so well"; this statement concurs with that of Romeo. However, Mercutio's comments on Romeo that "If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark," indicate Mercutio's judgment of Romeo's inability to find the spot for his love.
Benvolio dismisses Romeo as having a liason with the moody night--"Blind is his love, and best befits the dark" (II,i,34), so indications are that the friends do not want to bother with their friend as they think his actions are frivolous and will come to nothing. It is, ironic, then, that Romeo in Act I has spoken the truth in his remark on the blindness of love, and Mercutio has also...
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"hit the mark" with his first comment about Cupid finding his mark though blind, but misses the seriousness of the situation as he makes his second remark on blind love, just as he misjudges Tybalt in Act III.
Benvolio preceded those words of Mercutio's with these:
Come, he hath hid himself among these trees,To be consorted with the humorous night:Blind is his love and best befits the dark.
The guys are looking for Romeo who is not wanting to be found. Benvolio is making fun of him because Romeo's "love" for Rosaline has blinded him from the reality that she doesn't want him.
Little do Mercutio and Benvolio know that Romeo is really in love with Juliet, eyes wide open, making this statement ironic.
When Mercutio then talks about blind love not being able to hit the mark, it's another slam on the same topic essentially saying, "Romeo, you're not going to get her even though you're out there trying right now!!!"
I assume that you are talking about the part in Act II, Scene 1 where Mercutio talks some about love. In this case, he is talking to Benvolio. They are talking about Romeo.
What he actually says to Benvolio is that blind love cannot "hit the mark." When he says this, it is part of a whole bunch of relatively silly things that Mercutio says about love and Romeo and Romeo's new girlfriend (they don't know who it is).
Most people believe that much of the rest of the stuff that Mercutio says here has double meanings that are somewhat sexual.
In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, what does Mercutio say about "blind love"?
Deej, I would add to Ms. Charleston-Yawp's excellent and thorough exposition by encouraging you to also look at Act 2, scene 4 and his reference to the "blind bow-boy." Mercutio's criticism of Romeo's lovesick nature continues there and Meructio's ongoing argument that love gets in the way of good, ribald fun.
Deej, question for you: who does Mercutio turn his attention to next, after going off on love? Who or what does he go off on next? (See the links below.)
My question gets to blindness as an overall theme, which connects to the motifs of light and dark. People act blindly in love, and Mercutio means romantic love when he criticizes, but they also act blindly where else? Out of what kind of love, and out of what other kinds of emotions? Answers are found in this scene and in Act 3 where blindness drives the actions of the crisis scene. Ironically, these blind actions and choices take place in the hot, uncompromising light of the afternoon, and Romeo must flee into darkness for it.
You can argue that many are blind with love in this play. Is Mercutio's characterization that "if love be blind, love cannot hit the mark" true for all types of love in this play? Romantic, platonic, a father's love, and so forth? There's an interesting spiritual reference in Mercutio's line, since sin literally means, "missing the mark." Interesting! What's love's greatest sin in this play? Its blindness?
I hope our comments lead you to some deeper questioning and analysis. You probably know that you can search the text for the word "blind" and see how often and where it surfaces, so you can gather all the quotes you can for your interpretation.
In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, what does Mercutio say about "blind love"?
Mercutio comments briefly about love being blind at the very beginning of Act II of Romeo and Juliet. Mercutio and Benvolio are searching for Romeo after the Capulets' party. (Romeo, of course, ditches his friends to find Juliet.) As they call for Romeo, Benvolio has an idea that Romeo has hidden himself among a forest of trees to "consort" with the "humorous night," because "blind is his love and best befits the dark" (2.1.32-34). Since Benvolio has brought up the subject, Mercutio comments upon it by saying, "If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark" (2.1.35). This comment can be taken in a number of ways, the least controversial being that if love is blind then love can never make a lover truly happy. The most controversial meaning could literally be about the logistics of having sex in the dark. In my opinion, and in knowing Mercutio rather well, I would venture to say that Mercutio probably wanted both meanings considered in regards to his statement. The reader has to remember that Mercutio has spent all of his screen time so far trying to get Romeo to forget about his mournful love, Rosaline, or at least to be less melodramatic about it. Why? Because Romeo's melodrama is cutting down on Mercutio's fun. In regards to the more controversial meaning, one has to remember the context of the scene: two friends throwing sexual insults at an invisible Romeo. No matter what, it is interesting to consider the truth behind Mercutio's words today as well as whether they are true by the end of the play (especially considering what eventually happens to Romeo and Juliet).