Explore the ways that Shakespeare presents Benvolio in “Romeo and Juliet”
“Part, fools! Put up your swords; you know not what you do!” Benvolio is trying to stop a mortal fight between the servants of two aristocratic families: Capulet and Montague. It would have been finished and forgotten forever if not one coincidence but there is no such thing as accident. It is only fate, which is written in the stars and which is pointless to argue with. Benvolio is an unsuccessful peacemaker, even though he is mature enough to try and prevent useless fighting against each other. But what makes Benvolio himself? How does Shakespeare show him in the play? Let’s look at it closer.
Benvolio is a minor character in this play. He is loyal mature and thoughtful character. He is a static character as he doesn’t change throughout the story at all. There was an expectation of sudden change in Benvolio’s when Mercutio died, Benvolio would get enraged and would attack Tybalt. Unfortunately he remained sensible and avoided a fight against Tybalt. Also he is a round character as he plays a big role in the play and has a rather complex personality. It was Benvolio who suggested Rome to go to the Capulet’s party and it was him who persuaded Romeo to forget about Rosaline. However it was Benvolio who reported about Romeo’s crime to the Prince.
His name means "good will," he is a classic nice guy: stuck playing the straight man to Mercutio-his best friend and a foolish love adviser to Romeo, whose motto is "keep the peace" , he is also some kind of snitch for society. Don’t believe it? Lord and lady Montague ask him about weird behaviour of Romeo and even Prince Escalus is asking him about the fights between Capulet’s and Montague’s. This shows us that Benvolio is considered trustworthy and loyal to the Montague’s and lawmaker. It is proven by the fact that despite there was a lot of witnesses on the crime scene when Tybalt murdered Mercutio and got killed by Romeo, prince asks no one but Benvolio about what happened. More importantly he asked him in private. This fact shows us that prince relies on and trusts Benvolio more than lords of two families and any other person who had witnessed that fight because of his peaceful, fair and reliable personality. In addition he is a friendly and important cousin to Romeo. We can see it in the beginning of the play when Romeo tells everything about his strange behaviour to Benvolio but no one else and when Benvolio advised Romeo t forget about Rosaline, Romeo followed his advice.
Benvolio’s main characteristic is peacefulness. He is always trying to stop mortal fights between Capulet’s and Montague’s. More importantly he is trying to solve it with help of words and common sense however he hasn’t succeeded yet. He was trying to prevent many fights as the very first fight in this play between the two servants Samson and Gregory. He pronounced one of his famous phrases “Part, fools! Put up your swords; you know not what you do!” but suddenly Tybalt interrupted him and started a fight against Benvolio which grows into a massive fight between Montague’s and Capulet’s. His peacefulness is his weakness as he appears to be soft. This characteristic makes him vulnerable in preventing conflicts, because he is trying to solve it in more polite and calm way which doesn’t usually help. That makes him an unsuccessful peacemaker.
Secondly Benvolio is very sensible. He doesn’t do anything foolish and knows how to act to avoid trouble as before the fight between Mercutio and Tybalt he said: ”I pray thee, good Mercutio, let's retire:The day is hot, the Capulet's abroad” by saying this we see that Benvolio knew that the fight was not avoidable so he wanted to escape it by going home, However Mercutio didn’t listen to him so he found himself fighting Tybalt.
His personality is mainly expressed with his manner of speech. Benvolio's speech is always grammatically correct, not abusing and sensible. This shows us that Benvolio is not inclined to abuse other people and he is intelligent as he speaks in a mature way.”O noble prince, I can discover all. The unlucky manage of this fatal brawl” this quote shows us that death of Mercutio and possible death of Romeo didn't confuse him and he remained not biased. He kept talking sensible and calmly until the end of conversation.
In conclusion I will say that Benvolio is presented as a result of great upbringing and good behavior. He is shown as an example for younger generation and has a lot of good characteristic which could help him in future life. Personally I admire Benvolio and wish to become as peaceful and intelligent as Benvolio is.