I'm writing an essay about Mercutio's character and why friendship is so important to him in Romeo and Juliet. I have a good complex thesis but I'm having trouble structuring it.
Thesis: Mercutio is extremely close with Romeo and cares very deeply about his friend's happiness and well-being, but because he is the Prince's kinsman (a neutral party), he is often caught between the rivalry between the Capulets and the Montagues. Because of his friendship with Romeo and Benvolio who are both Montagues, he sides with them because he is fiercely loyal to his friends, but he is put in this awkward position where he really doesnt want to be involved but their friendship means everything to him. As an individual, Mercutio is intelligent, witty, loyal, but below the surface he is also sensitive. He puts on a brave face and tries to cover up but mostly avoid or dance around the topic of the house rivalry (which he thinks is ridiculous and repetitive, which it is), but despite his efforts to just shake it all off, its beginning to effect him and the tension is building up and eventually Mercutio cracks (A plague on both your houses) because he just cant take it anymore. The only reason he put up with it all was because cared so deeply about his friendship with Romeo and Benvolio because essentially their companionship gives him a place to belong in an environment that he can feel safe in with people that care about him.
as you can see, all of my ideas are unstructured and unorganized. what i need help with is narrowing it down to pinpoint the main ideas, putting them in order and articulating in a way that it will explain everything that i wrote above perfectly.
Some of the sentences are so long that they become convoluted.
cant = can't
Sra