Is mercutio gay

Since the plays publication in , Mercutio has been reimagined countless times, from traditional portrayals to gender-flipped versions. So, is there a definitive answer to who Mercutio truly is? Not really — but one thing is certain: he’s pivotal to both the plot and to Romeo.

Since the opposite of love is not hate but indifference, Mercutio’s sensitive and defensive reaction to the accusation of homosexuality may indicate that he is gay. It could be that mercutio is in fact a homosexual but is so afraid to admit it that he plays the macho man to hide it. After tybalt makes the "thou consortst with Romeo" accusation, mercutio becomes enraged, as he is worried that tybalt (who wants nothing to do with him) is going to out him.

One of Romeo's closest friends, Mercutio entreats Romeo to forget about his unrequited love for a girl named Rosaline and come with him to a masquerade ball at Lord Capulet 's estate, through use of his Queen Mab speech. There, Mercutio and his friends become the life of the party, but Romeo is drawn to Capulet's daughter, Juliet. The relationship between Romeo and Mercutio is certainly very flirtatious in the Luhrmann film, just stopping short of romance in my opinion.

Mercutio as a character is very changeable, so. Was Shakespeare queer? What we do know is that there are at least a few queer characters in Shakespeare, although nobody can quite agree on which characters they are. Therefore, I have compiled this list, looking through characters who are often suggested to be gay or queer by scholars and fans, and put together my own opinions on them.

Now, these opinions are based on a combination of the text and whether or not the idea could be successful in performance. I discuss characters in a series of tiers, from definitely gay to definitely not gay. Here we go! The Brandeis Hoot was established in as a community newspaper written for, by and about the members of the Brandeis community.

Facebook-f Twitter Instagram. To acquire wisdom, one must observe. Rating Shakespeare characters based on how gay they are. Naomi Stephenson March 1, Arts. Let me explain. This is a man who puts down his life as collateral on a loan for a different man named Bassanio. He opens the play wondering why he is so sad, and ends the play melancholy even though he seems to have gotten everything he wanted. And he writes a full-on love letter to Bassanio, and is perfectly content to die for him.

is mercutio a montague

If Antonio is not in love with Bassano, none of his motivation makes any sense and his whole character becomes a confusing muddle. If Antonio is gay, his whole arc makes perfect sense. The homoerotic subtext is more of a bonus rather than a performance necessity. However, a performance with straight Coriolanus and Aufidius would be much harder work than just playing them as the enemies-to-lovers gay couple they clearly are.

Now, could you successfully pull this scene off without any gay subtext? However, her relationship with gender is absurdly complicated. She only has one scene presenting as a woman, and the bulk of that scene is her choosing to disguise herself. As such, I think that Viola is genderqueer in some way. Plus, Ariel has a long history of being played by and as both men and women.

But, his name is Antonio, and he is very close to a character named Sebastian, therefore the vibes are automatically gay. They could be played as gay. The vibes are kind of gay. But there is absolutely nothing in the text to go off. Now, Iago is certainly obsessed with Othello and has some sort of complex. In production, you could take some liberties and make some specific choices and have a gay Iago.

However, in the scholarly world, the idea that Iago is gay is born out of the misconception that Iago never makes his motivation for hating Othello clear, so clearly he must secretly be gay. Unfortunately, there is absolutely nothing in the text to suggest that she is gay other than the fact that she is a woman with some more masculine qualities until they are beaten out of her.

I think you could pull off a successful and powerful production with a lesbian Katherina, but it would take a lot of leg work and adding moments not in the original text.