How Are Pride And Honour Shown In Act 3 Essay

Submitted By Hannoss
Words: 610
Pages: 3

How are Pride and Honour shown in Act 3 Scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet?
Pride and honour are shown in many different scenes of Romeo and Juliet, especially Act 3 Scene 1. Pride is ‘a feeling of deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one’s own achievements, a close one’s achievements, or from qualities or possessions which are widely admired.’ Honour is ‘high ‘respect’; a great esteem.’ During the scene we see three different characters show pride and honour. They are Romeo, Mercutio, and Tybalt.
Firstly, Romeo. Romeo is known as a mature, loving, and compassionate person. He is insulted by Tybalt, ‘No better term than this: thou art a villain.’ He refuses to fight because he now is related to Tybalt through Juliet. This shows that he honours Juliet. Mercutio however is disgusted by Romeo’s reluctance and fights on his behalf. Romeo tries to stop the battle, ‘Hold, Tybalt! Good Mercutio!’ but Tybalt ends up killing Mercutio underneath Romeo’s arm. Romeo is furious and upset about Mercutio’s death, and kills Tybalt. We see how much Romeo cares about his friend, ‘Either thou or I, or both, must go with him.’ However, this affects the love between Romeo and Juliet as he has killed a member of Juliet’s family. Romeo blames himself for the death of Mercutio and Tybalt because he didn’t want to fight Tybalt for Juliet’s sake, but he ended up killing his best friend as well as Juliet’s cousin. Romeo lost some pride and honour in this situation.
Secondly, Mercutio. Mercutio is one of the most prideful characters in the play. He has many different qualities. He is humorous; when he starts talking about Queen Mab, ‘O then I see Queen Mab hath been with you,’ yet he is also very arrogant and stubborn. Therefore he is prideful. We see this when Tybalt wants to fight Romeo, but backs away. Mercutio starts a fight the second Tybalt asks to have a word with him; he says ‘make it a word and a blow.’ Then he gets involved and starts calling Tybalt names. Tybalt doesn’t react well. Tybalt strongly hurts Mercutio’s pride when he says, ‘Thou consortest with Romeo.’ Another quality is devotion. Mercutio is Romeo’s best friend, and he helps him through