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Act 1, Scene 1
I will push Montague’s men from the wall and thrust his maids to the wall
In Act 1, Scene 1, the Capulet servant Sampson introduces the theme of the inseparability of passion and violence in Romeo and Juliet when imagines attacking the Montague men and assaulting their women with equal fervor. Passion will be paired with violence throughout the play, with passion most often being represented by the intense hostility of the men on both sides of the Montague-Capulet feud. However, even the sexual union of Romeo and Juliet, which is motivated by love rather than hate, is tinged by the violence between their families: on the same night that Romeo comes to consummate his marriage to Juliet, he kills her cousin Tybalt.
My naked weapon is out. Quarrel, I will back thee.
Later in Act 1, Scene 1, we find Sampson boasting that he is a violent man (using the phrase “naked weapon,” which is almost certainly a sexual pun). Sampson’s violently passionate hatred has been triggered by some Montague servants merely appearing on the street. This leads him to draw his sword and ask his fellow Capulet servant Gregory to start a quarrel that might lead to a street brawl. This scene establishes that Verona is a place where passions run so high that violence can break out over anything—whether there is any provocation or not.
Act 2, Scene 4
He rests his minim rests, one, two and the third in your bosom; the very butcher of a silk button, a duellist, a duellist
In Act 2, Scene 4, Mercutio mocks Tybalt’s sword fighting style. This may seem like a straightforward insult, but it represents more than that. Shakespeare has Tybalt fighting in a fencing style that had only recently been imported to England from Italy when the play was written—a style that some in England (much like Mercutio in the play) would have considered too stylized, too European, and probably too passionate compared to less prescribed fighting styles they would have been used to seeing. As we will see later, however, Mercutio’s mocking of Tybalt (perhaps the best character representation of the coupling of passion and violence) will only make him more passionate, and more deadly.
Act 3, Scene 1
They have made worms’ meat of me.
In Act 3, Scene 1, Mercutio fights Tybalt and receives a fatal wound. As he is dying, he continues to talk with his usual cynical wit. He imagines himself after his death in strictly dispassionate and very unromantic terms: as meat for worms. This marks a turning point in play. Up until now, violence has only been threatened, and for the characters and the audience alike it’s been more a source of excitement than grief. Now, one of the play’s most appealing characters is dying. From this point forward, the play’s violence will be brutal and unrelenting—showing that there can be serious and even fatal consequences resulting from characters’ passionate behavior. Tybalt will die next, then Paris, and finally Romeo and Juliet.
