#cyrilvolio

pictures if you forgot whos who

^ bruce robinson benvolio

^ cyril niccolai benvolio (right)

The thing is. From the beginning of act one we see that Benvolio is a pretty gentle guy who mostly only cares for his friends right? And if we're talking about the musical, Benvolio has the line "impossible de vivre sans elles et encore moinsc sans mes amis" which to translate it

"impossible to live without them, but then again without my friends as well" so practically, no matter where

you look, Benvolio is always portrayed as this kind of glue, especially when it's with Mercutio.

Like the two of them obviously love

Romeo but Romeo is always off with a girl because hes a hopeless romantic, and it's always

Mercutio&Benvolio. (i do not have this saved in my notes na ah)

When Tybalt goes to threaten

Benvolio, its Mercutio who goes to defend him. Etc etc, so like anything we see of him highlights how great of a friend he is and how close he is to them. So... when Romeo goes and falls in love with Juliet (which let me just say is so stupid cus a)

Mercutio and Benvolio always joke that Romeo falls in love every two weeks b) Juliet is fucking 13 and Romeo 16) but anyway he does and

Tybalt, who's genuine only purpose in life is to kill montagues (because

Tybalt is a twat) so when this twat finds out and goes to kill Romeo...

obviously Benvolio and Mercutio will protect him, especially Mercutio as he is the loudest and most careless.

Also in his dream monolouge many suspect he's referring to some trauma by the end of it and honestly it would make sense. So Mercutio, the selfless fool that he is dies for Romeo and then Romeo is banished for avenging his death (also something | dint quiet understand as the Prince is literally the uncle of

Mercutio so like...shouldnt he be happy his nephew was avenged?)

so Romeo is set to leave and he doesnt even have it in him to say goodbye to Benvolio when all he has been is a great friend. And can you imagine? You lose the closest person to you and the second closest is banished and wont even say goodbye to you?

Like Benvolio was left all alone in Verona to mourn (also a movement I really love in the musical, just some brief scenes of him mourning but its so so powerful) and then comes the next task that he had to face which is that he is the one who has to telk Romeo that the girl, whom he 'loved so much' that it was worth Mercutio dying and getting himsekf banished...is now dead (because of course Benvolio doesnt know of the trick) and then Romeo as well fucking died and now he truly is all alone and won't be ever able to seek any of his friends out whilst being a loyal friend is like kind of his biggest personality trait (as well as being contained and gentle) so he is all alone and it all happened so fast and can you imagine how lost that makes you feel?

And so there comes his song, Comment lui dire, How to tell him, right? The choreography is so interesting here because figures keep crawling after him and try to catch him but he just pushes past them and goes to dance with death herself, which is a movement we only see with characters who will die. Romeo in his song J’ai peur (I’m scared) or even Mercutio as death always stood in the distance of his. Which is what makes me think that as Benvolio loses his sense of self, being the people around him, he loses his will to live and eventually commits suicide post play. He is an orphan, the only people he had are dead so it is as he sings “voila moi tout seul et perdu” “here’s me all alone and lost”

Now this is only from his character’s point of view. Then there comes the queer subtext between him and Mercutio. Being the two who are closest and go everywhere together, their interactions are always kind of separate from everyone else? Like they’re joint. Even when talking with Romeo, if it is the two of them, they have their own bubble and only reflect a fraction of it to Romeo as well. Back to the dream monologue, right? Whilst Romeo says Mercutio’s talking of nonsense, Benvolio replies :

This wind, you talk of, blows us from ourselves;

which shows a certain understanding of what Mercutio hid with metaphores there. And when Mercutio dies, it is Benvolio who rushes with him, which is yet another thing we see in Hamlet as well, where the potential relationship between Horatio and Hamlet is talked of similarly, and the common denominator is that Mercutio and Hamlet both die in the others’ arms.

Then arrives Escalus, who questions Benvolio first. It is him he chooses to confide with, even though his family like should suggest he’d bend the truth (which the capulets do bitch about ofc) . Doubtless it can be also because Benvolio is kind of a pacifist persona so he is trustworthy for the Prince, but also, it could be that being Mercutio’s lover, he’s got a certain knowing of him which would lead him to turn to him first hand.

Case closed, they’re together.

So his beloved is dead, and his sacrifice turns out to be for nothing. His best friend/cousin is dead and he threw away his beloved’s sacrifice. Is there anything left for him?