As opposed to dynamic characters who experience some important change over the course of a piece of literature, static characters don't change. Mercutio and Tybalt could definitely be considered static. They are true to their personalities up to their violent deaths in Act III, Scene 1. They neither hesitate in acting out nor do they demonstrate any regret or contemplation of their actions.
Tybalt is arrogant, belligerent and deaf to reason. Twice before Act III,...
As opposed to dynamic characters who experience some important change over the course of a piece of literature, static characters don't change. Mercutio and Tybalt could definitely be considered static. They are true to their personalities up to their violent deaths in Act III, Scene 1. They neither hesitate in acting out nor do they demonstrate any regret or contemplation of their actions.
Tybalt is arrogant, belligerent and deaf to reason. Twice before Act III, he is told to keep himself under control, yet refuses and acts on his anger. He is faithful to the feud and will not tolerate any insult from the Montagues. He announces his intolerance in Act I, Scene 1 as he challenges Benvolio after the Montague has urged restraint in the initial street fight. He tells Benvolio,
What, drawn and talk of peace? I hate the word
As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee.
At Capulet's party Tybalt is once again warned about his temper when he insists on fighting Romeo. It takes an equally angry Capulet, who doesn't want his festivities interrupted, to eventually dissuade Tybalt from going after Romeo. This, however, only proves to make Tybalt more incensed as he promises to take up the matter at a different time. In an aside in Act I, Scene 5 he says,
Patience perforce with willful choler meeting
Makes my flesh tremble in their different greeting.
I will withdraw, but this intrusion shall,
Now seeming sweet, convert to bitt’rest gall.
Tybalt does indeed seek revenge for the "intrusion" and is looking for Romeo in Act III, Scene 1. Despite Romeo's claims that he actually loves Tybalt, because he has secretly married Juliet, Tybalt's cousin, it does no good. Tybalt will not listen and demands satisfaction. He says,
Boy, this shall not excuse the injuries
That thou hast done me. Therefore turn and draw.
His haughty nature and lack of restraint leads to his death as he refuses to either run away or back down to Romeo after Mercutio dies. He comes back to fight Romeo because he simply cannot resist a conflict. Like Tybalt, Mercutio lacks growth over the course of the play and is also unable to resist a fight.
Mercutio is ever the long winded storyteller and joker. He craves attention and his jokes often hinge on insults or sexual innuendo. When the audience first meets him In Act I, Scene 4 he is chiding Romeo over his friend's unrequited love for Rosaline. After Romeo has broken away from Mercutio and Benvolio to go over the orchard wall in Act II, Scene 1, and doesn't respond to their calls, Mercutio uses a sexual reference to continue his verbal assault on Romeo. He says,
I conjure thee by Rosaline’s bright eyes,
By her high forehead, and her scarlet lip,
By her fine foot, straight leg, and quivering thigh,
And the demesnes that there adjacent lie,
That in thy likeness thou appear to us.
His use of sexual innuendo continues later in the Act when he uses terms such as "pump," "pink flower," "tale" and "toy," all with direct sexually tinged implications. He even berates the Nurse with innuendo. When she asks for the time, he says,
’Tis no less, I tell you, for the bawdy hand of
the dial is now upon the prick of noon.
Mercutio's tone is often mocking and insulting. In Act III, Scene 1 when Benvolio urges him to get off the street, he accuses Benvolio of actually being the one who likes to fight. He produces a litany of ways that Benvolio could be prompted to fight. He says,
Thou—why, thou wilt quarrel with a man that
hath a hair more or a hair less in his beard than
thou hast.
Of course the audience knows this to be hyperbole as Mercutio is rarely serious about what he says. In fact, at one point Romeo refers to him as a man "that loves to hear himself talk." His response to the exchange between Romeo and Tybalt is typical. When Tybalt walks away from him and challenges Romeo, his anger is more about being ignored than it is out of any concern for his friend. He cannot help but demand to be the center of attention. Even after he is stabbed and dying, he has to get the last word in as he puns on the word grave and curses the families:
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. I
am peppered, I warrant, for this world. A plague o’
both your houses!
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