Essay Database

The speech, which Mercutio gives to Romeo, in which he speaks of Queen Mab and her antics, is given on the way to the party thrown by the Capulets. Romeo has, thus far, simply been the picture of the wounded lover. He has moped about and proclaimed that he is burdened by love and that he can’t escape it, although it is apparent that thus far, the love of which he speaks is more …

…well-educated to know so much detail of a fictional character as Queen Mab of the fairies. The main point of the passage is that the dreams Queen Mab brings are directly related to the person who dreams them—lovers dream of love, soldiers of war, etc. But in the process of making this rather prosaic point Mercutio falls into a sort of wild bitterness in which he seems to see dreams as destructive and delusional.