Mercutio
The speech, which Mercutio gives to Romeo, in which he speaks of Queen Mab and her antics, is given on the way to the party thrown by the Capulets. Romeo has, thus far, simply been the picture of the wounded lover. He has moped about and proclaimed that he is burdened by love and that he can't escape it, although it is apparent that thus far, the love of which he speaks is more physical and shallow than true love. Mercutio proceeds to tell him that he is just in love with love, allowing love-supposedly a tender thing-to overburden him and to treat him roughly. Mercutio also tells him that he should be rough in return and "prick love for pricking, and... beat love down." (Act I, scene IV, lines 27-28). Mercutio has been telling Romeo for the entire play thus far that he is a lover (Act I, scene IV, line 17), and that he is simply playing
He rambles on and on about minute details until finally, Romeo asks him to stop, telling him that he is speaking of nothing, whereupon Mercutio replies, "True, I talk of dreams. It is also apparent from the content of the speech that Mercutio must be a wealthy personage, as he must have been well-read and well-educated to know so much detail of a fictional character as Queen Mab of the fairies. He is telling Romeo that no matter how real a dream may seem, that they end when one wakes up and that they should not invade or influence your life. Romeo tells Mercutio that he has had a dream-speaking of love-and Mercutio replies that he did too and that dreamers lie, whereupon Romeo twists his words, saying "In bed asleep, while they do dream things true. He shows depth through his use of a complex explanation to make such a simple point-that "dreamers often lie" (Act I, scene IV, line 51), though they may think that the dreams are true. The main point of the passage is that the dreams Queen Mab brings are directly related to the person who dreams them-lovers dream of love, soldiers of war, etc. But in the process of making this rather prosaic point Mercutio falls into a sort of wild bitterness in which he seems to see dreams as destructive and delusional. The complexity of the speech reflects the complexity of Mercutio's character. Once again, Mercutio is telling Romeo that he is a dreamer and a lover and that he needs to "wake up" from his dream world and recognize dreams for what they are. This leads Mercutio into the speech. In other words, Mercutio is saying that he has made his point: that dreams are just that and are as full of substance as the air and are made up of nothing more than mere fantasy. One can see that Mercutio is full of good, sound common sense and that he is close enough to Romeo to be able to rebuke him thus, and still be on friendly terms.
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