Tybalt: The Feud Made Flesh
First appears: Act 1, Scene 1
Tybalt is the feud. Where Romeo wants to transcend the conflict and Lord Capulet at moments tries to contain it, Tybalt feeds on it. He recognises Romeo at the Capulet party in Act 1, Scene 5 and wants to fight immediately, stopped only by Lord Capulet's direct order, which he obeys with visible rage.
He sends Romeo a challenge the morning after the party and presses for a duel in Act 3, Scene 1. When Romeo refuses to fight (because he has just secretly married Juliet and Tybalt is now his kinsman), Tybalt reads the refusal as cowardice. He kills Mercutio. Romeo kills him.
His death is the catastrophe the play has been building toward. Everything that follows (Romeo's banishment, the forced marriage to Paris, the desperate plan with the potion) flows from this single fight. Tybalt does not cause these events through malice. He causes them through a complete inability to imagine any response to insult other than violence.
Key Scenes
Famous Quotes
“Romeo, the love I bear thee can afford no better term than this: thou art a villain.”
Tybalt — Act 3, Scene 1
“What, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the word, as I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee.”
Tybalt — Act 1, Scene 1
Themes
Other Characters in Romeo and Juliet
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