Shakespeare is arguably the greatest writer of all time. Some people love his work and some people really dislike it. In the end though it’s impossible to say, no matter what side you agree with, that some parts of his story’s are perfectly written. One of these instances is the topic of today’s post. The contrast between to prominent characters in the famous story of Romeo and Juliet, Tybalt and Benvolio. These two characters are nearly polar opposites of each other. But it’s easiest to see if we first talk about what makes them unique and then compare them.

Benvolio is part of the Montague house, and is Romeos cousin in the play. The way he is introduced is a very key moment because it shows one of the main contrasts between the two characters. A brawl at the beginning of the play is forming between the two rival houses. Benvolio enters the scene telling the boys “part fools! Put up your swords. You know not what you do”. This shows that Benvolio is mature enough to understand that fighting each other in the streets of the city should be avoided if possible. It also shows a key part of his character, that he is generally calming and level headed. Later in this same scene, after being mocked by Tybalt, Benvolio still try’s to keep the peace. Further convincing us that he is mature. This is generally what we see from Benvolio in the rest of the play and specifically in act 1.

Benvolio as seen in the 1964 Romeo and Juliet.

Tybalt is definitely very different. As Benvolio try’s to keep peace, Tybalt try’s to make war in a sense. He is extremely rude to Benvolio and obviously wishes to anger him into fighting. This gives us a great insight into the personality of Tybalt. He is a hot headed, quickly angered and not very honourable young man. We see more of this later in act one, when Romeo is seen by Tybalt at the dance held by lord Capulet. As Romeo is a Montague and Tybalt is a Capulet he is enraged and immediately try’s to fight, and we assume he would try to kill Romeo. Luckily lord Capulet stops him or we wouldn’t have much of a story to read about Romeo. This again shows us that Tybalt is very brash, especially after he try’s to talk back to lord Capulet. This also tells us that he isn’t very respectful or mature like Benvolio as he can’t even respect the head of his own house.

Tybalt as seen in the same 1964 production.

As you can see there are many aspects that contrast Benvolio and Tybalt. You might still have trouble visualizing this so I will show you in the simplest way by selecting five words for each of them that really represent them. Some of these words are directly from there dialogue, others are general ideas I got from their behaviour throughout the play.

My words for Benvolio are honourable, kind, peace, mature, wise.

I chose honourable because Benvolio defends his kin, but also thinks about others. I chose kind because Benvolio is nice and polite to many, even his enemy’s. I chose peace because throughout the play he try’s to find ways to keep the peace and avoid conflict. I chose mature because Benvolio doesn’t act like most teenage boys, he thinks about what he does before he does it. Wise is an interesting chose, Benvolio isn’t wise in the sense that he is a wise old elder, but the decisions he makes seem like they are based of what he has learned form the mistakes he has made in the past.

My words for Tybalt are hate, heartless, brash, fiery, misunderstood.

I chose hate because Tybalt uses this word throughout the entire play extensively, he seems to hate a lot. Heartless because Tybalt never seems to truly care about his friends or foe. Brash because Tybalt makes many decisions without thinking about consequences. Tybalt is never calm or level headed so fiery seems like a perfect word to describe that. I chose misunderstood because I believe that Tybalt thinks he is standing up for his house and doing the right thing.

Here’s the video clip where I selected most of the words I have assigned to the characters, especially for Tybalt. see if you can hear the words I selected.

These words should already be helping you see the vast contrasts between these two characters. To help some of you visual learners here’s a collage of symbols I’ve made that embodies the five words for each of them.

On the blue side is where we see several symbols for Benvolio. a dove for peace, shaking hands for kindness, the Japanese symbol for honour and the owl for wisdom and calm.

On the red side we see another group of symbols this time intended for Tybalt. A broken heart to represent being heartless, The Japanese symbol for hate and a red skull to represent the potential consequences of being brash and fiery.

Hopefully seeing this visual and being able to focus on just five key words has helped you understand better one of the key contrasts in Romeo and Juliet. The differences between these too characters are prominent throughout the rest of the play and they both have major roles yet to fulfill.

The final product!