Selflessness In Romeo And Juliet

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True love is often viewed as always thinking about the other person in a relationship no matter what the situation is. Thinking about the other person in a relationship and not focusing on personal emotions is demonstrating true selflessness. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, he argues that when it comes to love, people should not be distracted by their emotions and focus on selflessness.This is shown through the words and actions of Romeo, Juliet, and Mercutio. Romeo shows true love by not focusing on his personal emotions but rather on people besides himself, such as Juliet and Mercutio. A fight between Tybalt and Mercutio begins to rise because of Tybalt being upset about the marriage between Romeo and Juliet. Mercutio however did not …show more content…
He conveys this through his actions between a fight about Romeo’s marriage that he did not want to be apart of with Tybalt. Mercutio decides to offer to fight Tybalt instead of Romeo fighting him. Mercutio mentions to Tybalt, “O calm dishonourable, vile submission!/ Alla stoccata carries it away./ Tybalt, you ratcatcher, will you walk “ (3.1.74-75)? The words “vile dishonorable” relates to the theme of selflessness because Mercutio’s tone is upset that Tybalt wants to fight Romeo about marriage Mercutio did not even know about. Mercutio shows his support towards his close friend, Romeo by fighting for him. Mercutio is not focusing on his emotions about not knowing about the marriage between Romeo and Juliet. The author specifically uses the words “alla stoccata” because Mercutio is ready to fight and having a sword fight with Tybalt will end the disagreement about Romeo marrying Juliet. Additionally Mercutio demonstrates his selflessness towards his close friend, by fighting for him until death. Tybalt and Mercutio were fighting until Romeo steps between the two to try to break it up. Tybalt intentionally reaches under Romeo’s arm and stabs him. Mercutio says to Romeo, “No, ’tis not so deep as a well nor so wide/ as a church-door, but ’tis enough, ’twill serve. Ask/ for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man./ Why the devil came you between us?/ I was hurt under your/ arm.” (3.1.97-105). The words “but ‘tis enough” relates to the theme of selflessness because Mercutio is foreshadowing that the scratch is enough to kill him. When the author writes the words “and you shall find me a grave man” he illustrates that Mercutio is an example of selflessness because Mercutio has just fought to the death over Romeo’s marriage with Juliet for Romeo. Consequently Mercutio is a example of selflessness based on his actions to fight Tybalt to

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