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In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, did Mercutio's death need to happen in order for the tragedy to emerge?

Tragedy involves death.  In order for the play to be a tragedy, Romeo and Juliet really do have to die.  However, Mercutio does not have to die in order for this to happen.  Mercutio’s death led to Romeo getting banished, because it was that which encouraged him to fight Tybalt even though he did not really want to.  However, Tybalt could have done other things to get Romeo to fight.  Also, someone else other than...

Tragedy involves death.  In order for the play to be a tragedy, Romeo and Juliet really do have to die.  However, Mercutio does not have to die in order for this to happen.  Mercutio’s death led to Romeo getting banished, because it was that which encouraged him to fight Tybalt even though he did not really want to.  However, Tybalt could have done other things to get Romeo to fight.  Also, someone else other than Tybalt might have gotten Romeo to fight. 


For Romeo, banishment was a fate worse than death because it took him away from Juliet.


ROMEO


There is no world without Verona walls,
But purgatory, torture, hell itself.
Hence-banished is banish'd from the world,
And world's exile is death: then banished,
Is death mis-term'd: calling death banishment,
Thou cutt'st my head off with a golden axe,
And smilest upon the stroke that murders me. (Act 3, Scene 3)

Romeo’s banishment resulted in his suicide because Juliet faked her death.  She didn’t want to marry Paris.  If Juliet’s father had not forced her to marry, she would not have gone to Friar Lawrence to take the sleeping potion.  It was Romeo's assumption that she was “dead” that caused him to get his poison and go back to Verona to see her one last time and kill himself.  Of course, seeing Romeo dead was what caused Juliet to actually kill herself.


Thus, Romeo and Juliet were doomed not so much by Mercutio or Tybalt but by their own impulsiveness.  They believed that everything was life or death.  Tybalt was able to get Romeo to fight.  If it had not been him, it would have been someone else.  Juliet also acted hastily in faking her death and the two of them ended up dead together.

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