Dear Romeo

Dear Romeo,

            My good friend, I write to you with advice. You cannot get hung up on such silly things as love. There is so much more to life! Love is a dream, and you cannot catch it until you stop searching for it. Love works in strange ways. But friendship is simple, easy, carefree, not like love or dreams. Dreams are for fools...they are false fantasies that the mind creates to tantalize you, tempt you, until you leap for them and find yourself falling into an abyss of disappointment. Dreams are not the key. Love is not the key. You are young. Those minor details of life will add themselves to your picture later, without you even realizing it.
           I thought myself in love once. I thought she was the most beautiful thing I'd ever laid eyes on. But she turned out to be just another dream. I used to be like you, before I cast off my heavy shell of ignorance. And I am a better man for it, for now I walk with confidence and self-respect. You, sagging under your cloak of insubstantial dreams, cannot yet see how abandoning a fantasy could ever improve life. But you will one day see, I hope, that true life is so wonderful you need no other fantasy. So come, join me in manhood, in throwing away pointless dreams and building our future which promises to be very, very real indeed.
          Take my advice, friend, and you will find yourself thanking that part of you that realized I was right. Rosaline is but one maiden of millions. You will find yours--and one less close-minded. You say you love her; how many conversations have you two ever shared? It is illogical to focus on one woman, when there are so many other wonderful ones out there. You must experience the world, taste all that is sweet and bitter too! Kiss the mountain tops and graze sea floors. Adventures will open your mind. You shall see. Good luck, Romeo.

                                                                               Mercutio



         I decided to write a letter to Romeo from the perspective of Mercutio because I think Mercutio actually has a lot to say about the subject of love and dreams, but he's not a very big character and doesn't get to express all of it. Mercutio is a cynnical character--he believes that dreams and imagination are for the distracted minds of useless people. I decided that I wanted to give Mercutio a background story, so I invented that he had once loved a girl who broke his heart, and that this is when he changed.
         I think that Mercutio is almost a brother figure to Romeo, who actually has none. He is his friend, but also who he goes to for advice, and his protector. He's like an older brother who's always there at the right time and has his own opinions. I hope this letter accurately portrayed Mercutio...he's definitely difficult to figure out.