Tybalt Capulet

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Character
Name: Tybalt
Occupation: Veronese nobleman
Relationships: Member of the Capulet family and cousin of Juliet
Fandom: Romeo and Juliet, Romeo et Juliette, Veronaville, and others
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Tybalt is a character created by William Shakespeare who appears in Romeo and Juliet and in many of its adaptations, such as Romeo and Juliet: the Musical. He is especially popular in the musical fandom.

In Canon

In Shakespeare

Tybalt is Juliet's hot-headed cousin and a staunch hater of the Montagues. He is known for his swordfighting prowess, which leads Mercutio to call him "more than the Prince of Cats". During a ball near the start of the play, he furiously unmasks Romeo as a Montague, but Lord Capulet gives Romeo mercy. Later in the play, Tybalt wants to fight Romeo; however, Romeo, who has just married Juliet, wants peace, so Mercutio takes up Tybalt's challenge instead and is killed by him. To avenge Mercutio, Romeo kills Tybalt.

In Musical Adaptations

In Romeo et Juliette, Tybalt's role is expanded upon somewhat. Tom Ross originally portrayed him in Roméo et Juliette: de la Haine à l'Amour as an outwardly arrogant man who refers to himself as "an excellent lover" and has such a severe "Madonna/whore" complex that the only woman he can contemplate romantic attraction to is his cousin Juliette. His original appearance included a sleeveless red leather ensemble and curly blonde hair. Tom Ross also played him in the 2010 revival, Roméo et Juliette: les enfants de Verone, but his appearance and characterization were different enough that fans refer to it as a separate Tybalt iteration. This Tybalt has shorter, highly styled brown hair with a pale streak and seems somewhat more refined.

In Rómeó és Júlia, Tybalt's characterization is expanded upon even further. He has epileptic or psychosomatic seizures, a sense of being no more than a weapon of his family, and somewhat questionable interactions with Lady Capulet. Because Szilveszter Szabó, who portrayed Tybalt during the original run, was very popular, this subfandom may be fed into by and overlap with Szabó RPF. His portrayal of the character is sometimes referred to by fans as Szpsz-Tybalt for specificity.

In the Israeli version of the musical, Tybalt, while highly theatrical, is somewhat less brooding and has no real hatred for Mercutio. After he kills Mercutio, seemingly somewhat accidentally, he is visibly devastated, and he does nothing to stop Romeo from killing him.

In Fandom

Tybalt is a popular character. In the R&J Shakespearean tag on Ao3, he is the third most tagged character, after Mercutio and Romeo. In the French and Hungarian musical subfandoms, he is the most tagged character. Because he has been played very differently by various actors, his characterization varies fairly widely. It is generally agreed that the musical versions of him have some degree of family trauma and emotional repression, but which form this takes varies somewhat.

Many headcanon him as bi, pan, or gay, though the latter contradicts most musicals' canon. He is most frequently shipped with Mercutio, followed by rare pairs with Benvolio and Romeo.

The versions of Tybalt most frequently depicted in fan art are Tybalt Capp from Veronaville in The Sims, Szpsz-Tybalt, and 2010 French Revival Tybalt. There is a significant amount of fanfic about Szpsz-Tybalt, 2010 Tybalt, and other Tybalts but very little about Tybalt Capp. Szpsz-Tybalt is sometimes headcanoned as a closeted trans woman, which is uncommon for other Tybalts. In the case of 2010 Tybalt, a fair amount of crack content mentions his unusual hair pigmentation and provides explanations for how it got that way,[1] which sometimes include it previously having been curly and blond as a reference to Tom Ross' hairstyle from when he played Tybalt in 2001. Some fics play with the idea that 2001 Tybalt reincarnated as 2010 Tybalt or is him from another universe, which can blend into the different-casts-meeting trope.

Because of the "more than the Prince of Cats" quote, fans often depict him as liking cats, having feline mannerisms, or even (jokingly) secretly wanting to be a cat. This is most common in art but also sometimes found in fic. A rare fic trope is Tybalt actually being a cat, with the joke being that his personality does not change or makes more sense that way.[2]

Fan Works

Shakespearean Fandom

Writing

Art

Miscellaneous

Musical Fandom

Writing

Art

Meta, GIFs, Memes, & Miscellaneous

Archives and Links

References

  1. ^ Do you dye your hair or were you born old with a streak in your hair? Were you struck by lightning? Tybalt I need to know (I am shaking you back and forth) ask from @saltavenegar and art by @sevenoutofseven
  2. ^ The Cat Tybalt (Romeo and Juliet) tag on Ao3 contained four works, all by different authors, as of December 2024. There are other, synonymous tags, such as Prince of cats is somehow a cat-man.
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