Tybalt, Mercutio, and Benvoliorepresent three diverse points along a conitnuum. Tybalt is fiery and hot-blooded, with a short temper that is prone to violence and confrontation. We see this in the opening fight scene and just prior to the death of Mercutio. Benvolio, on the other hand, is at the opposite end of this spectrum (as is Romeo, who might also be inserted here). He resists violence and confrontation and seeks peace the vast majority of the time. In the opening fight scene he resists engaging Tybalt as long as he possibly can and finally does fight only to protect himself. In fact, Benvolio opens Act III by trying to avoid confrontation:
I pray thee, good Mercutio, let's retire:
The day is hot, the Capulets abroad,
And, if we meet, we shall not scape a brawl;
For now, these hot days, is the mad blood stirring.
It is Mercutio, then, who represents a kind of middle ground between Tybalt and Benvolio. Mercutio fights when provoked and certainly doesn't shy away from engaging such situations, but it is not Mercutio who actually starts the fight. Mercutio seems to swing back and forth between the hot-headedness of Tybalt and Benvolio's desire for peace. In fact, Mercutio's name comes from the word "mercurial," meaning "characterized by rapid and unpredictable changeableness of mood; a mercurial temper."
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