1. Mercutio’s Character

2. Roles Adam: Character Outline – IT Expert
David: Visual Techniques – Team Leader
Sam G: Character Relationships – Time Keep

3. Character Outline
By Adam

4. Appearance
Mercutio is an African-American, which contrasts the rest of the characters in the movie because they are all Caucasians, which is a direct link to being an outsider.
He is of a medium-build, which is no different from anyone else which shows that he is equal to everyone else.
He wears white, which contrasts to everyone else who wears all sorts of different colours. This relates to the idea that Mercutio doesn’t belong to any of the houses but still has a deep belief in religion just like the people of the houses.
We also see Mercutio wearing women's clothes, which re-enforces the idea of Mercutio being an outsider and his personality of being really immature.

5. Personality
Mercutio is an outsider, not belonging to any of the houses, so he feels he should be different.
He is a bit of a comedian, all ways mocking someone or something. Like he dressed up as a Drag Queen and he was being highly sarcastic when he was pretending to be scared of Tybalt.
He has a different idea on love from Romeo, he doesn’t really believe in the idea of love, he thinks women just really serve him for sex. Unlike Romeo and his romanticism idea’s on love.

6. Key Scenes & Events
When we first meet Mercutio, Romeo’s best friend, we see his character of a joker straight away as he is dressed up as a Drag Queen.
Not too long after we first meet Mercutio we hear his speech about his idea on love and how he doesn’t really believe in it.
When he dies, trying to save Romeo’s Honour by fighting Tybalt for him which is important because we see him doing one of the most noble things he could do for his friend which shows how loyal he is to Romeo.

7. Strengths & Weaknesses
Mercutio’s main strength is that he doesn’t really care about what other people think so he is mentally free to do whatever he wants. This gives Mercutio has an advantage over the members of the houses because he doesn’t have to impress anyone or up hold any honour.
His main weakness, as we can see because it gets him killed, is when his friends get insulted, he can’t control himself, he is so loyal that he will do anything to defend them. This shows that even though that he doesn’t belong to their family, he still puts his life on the line to save them.

8. Changes
Mercutio is more of a static character and doesn’t really change at all. He is more of a contrast to everyone else because the other people make changes because of him.
He doesn’t change because of his personality and his philosophy on life, like all he really needs is his friends and that’s it.

9. Helps to teach us
Don’t purposefully leave your gun behind when going to fight someone.
That you don’t have to belong to a family to have a good reputation, as we see he is friends with a lot of the Montague’s and must be friends with the Capulet’s as well if he was to be invited to go to their party.

10. Character Relationships
By Sam G

11. Relationship with Romeo
Romeo and Mercutio are best friends.
The power is neutral in the relationship because Mercutio chooses to be and they both equally lead each other neither of them is the most powerful
The relationship changes because Mercutio was Romeos best friend then he curses both of the fighting families “Plague be on both your families”
This relationship helps us understand that the two families fighting can cause innocent civilians harm and in this case death.
This relationship is shown by the close ups on the eyes of the two characters when Mercutio dies, it is also shown when Mercutio is first seen in the film and he makes Romeo laugh, also at the start the writing on the screen shows they are best friends.

12. Relationship with Benvolio
Mercutio holds the power in this relationship because Mercutio is the strong guy that isn’t afraid of a fight and Benvolio is scared at any chance of a fight.
This relationship doesn’t change other than the fact that Mercutio dies because Benvolio wasn’t very sad when Mercutio dies.
This relationship shows us that people outside the Montague family can still join the family and be seen as more important than Montagues.
Luhrmann shows this relationship by the way Benvolio backs away from a brawl and Mercutio embraces the oppourtunity.

13. Relationship with Tybalt
The power in this relationship is Neutral because Tybalt and Mercutio aren’t friends or enemies they just live in the same town as each other.
This relationship doesn’t change. Mercutio is killed but Tybalt didn’t kill him for hate but for love. Tybalt loves his sister but hates her husband and Mercutio attacks Tybalt to defend his friend.
This relationship shows us that people can kill others that they aren't mad at because they are mad at someone else and the person killed is just there at the time.
Luhrmann shows us this relationship by how angry Tybalt was at Romeo he also shows that Mercutio doesn’t want to kill Tybalt because Mercutio drops his gun , also before Romeo arrived Tybalt didn’t start fighting showing his target war Romeo

14. Visual Techniques
By David

15. Costume
Costume: Mercutio’s costume shows us who he his in relation to the other characters in the film.
For example when Mercutio turns up to the Capulet Party he is wearing high heels, shiny mini skirt, woman's makeup and a skimpy top: all women's clothing.
This shows us that he is an outsider and stuck between the two groups.
It is also shown when in the opening scene

16. Colour
Mercutio also contrasts to the rest of Mercutio boys because of his skin colour and the different clothes that he wears compared to the rest of the group. The rest of the boys are Caucasian whereas Mercutio is African-American. This contrast directly shows him as an outsider.

17. Camera Shots & techniques
When the Montague boys are together there are lots of med shots of the whole group with extreme close ups of Romeo but there is also extreme close ups of Mercutio.
This shows us that Mercutio and Romeo are close friends, but also contrasts to the fact that Mercutio is an outsider because he relates well with the “Boys” and isn’t thought of as an outsider within there little group.

18. Casual Clothes
Mercutio doesn’t wear the colourful beach shits with flowery prints like Benvolio and the other boys ,he wears a clean white throughout the film but still wears the clothes in the same way reinforcing the fact the he is different but still part of the group and perhaps has different beliefs in life.