In Wednesday's post, I mentioned that perhaps the best way to see characters such as Mercutio and the Nurse is to consider their function in the play. It could be argued that both are given their meaning in relation to their role vis a vis the protagonists of the title. Mercutio allows us to see the much deeper imaginative and emotional potentials in Romeo (who has been seen by some as resembling a younger version of Hamlet). His famed Queen Mab speech is probably best understood as an imitation of imagination, as he reduces the contents of dreams to desires and fears. (Sound familiar? Freud would be entirely forgotten were it not for what he learned from Shakespeare.) The Nurse serves a similar purpose in her contrast to Juliet, and her scenes (and Mercutio's as well) allow the mood to be lightened and the audience to be taken away momentarily from the lyricism and foreboding that is the central emotional state of the play. Like an experienced chef, Shakespeare uses these characters and their variety to freshen the palate of the viewer, so that when the catastrophe does arrive, it appears even darker in comparison with what could have been. It's something that became common practice in his tragedies from this point on. Another example tomorrow.