Question

Read the excerpt from Act III, scene i of Romeo and Juliet.

Mercutio: No, ’tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door; but ’tis enough, ’twill serve: ask for me to-morrow, and you shall find me a grave man. I am peppered, I warrant, for this world. A plague o’ both your houses! ’Zounds, a dog, a rat, a mouse, a cat, to scratch a man to death! a braggart, a rogue, a villain, that fights by the book of arithmetic! Why the devil came you between us? I was hurt under your arm.

What is foreshadowed by Mercutio’s statement that tomorrow "you shall find me a grave man”?

Answer 1

Mercutio foreshadows his death after being wounded within his challenge with Tybalt. Mercutio classifies his future self as a “grave man,” ultimately referring to himself as a dead man or a man in his grave. A “grave man” is also classified as someone who is serious and/or sober, therefore adding a double meaning to Mercutios words resulting in his last words being said in a jokingly manner which fits his characterization.