Mercutio is neither a Montague or a Capulet why might this be significant

Mercutio is Romeo's sword-fight loving BFF, and you probably won't be surprised to find out that his name sounds a lot like the word "mercurial," i.e. "volatile," i.e. "touchy." He never backs down from a duel and, although he's neither a Montague nor a Capulet, he gets involved in the long-standing family feud on the side of the Montagues. That turns out to be a mistake on his part: Tybalt kills him in Act 3, Scene 1.

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Mercutio is a showstopper. He's dirty, funny, out of control, and—we'll say it—compared to him, Romeo and Juliet can seem whiny and repetitive. Mercutio is technically a minor character, but his personality has such a disproportionate impact that maybe he has to die or he would take over the play. In fact, English poet John Dryden said that Shakespeare himself admitted that he had to kill Mercutio—or else, he said, Mercutio would have killed him.

True? Probably not. But it helps us get an idea of just how flashy Mercutio is. Just take his entry into the play. He's needling Romeo about not wanting to dance, and basically the first thing he says is "Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down" (1.4.28). In other words—the best way to cure a broken heart is to have sex. 

Welp.

Mercutio and Love

It's not surprising that, with this attitude toward love and sex, Mercutio comes across as opposed to the whole idea of love between a man and a woman. When Romeo complains about the heartache of his unrequited love for Rosaline, Mercutio tells him to get over it already:

If love be rough with you, be rough with love.
Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down. (1.4.27-28)

It's not just "love" that Mercutio has a problem with. He's also pretty hostile toward women and female sexuality in general. The clearest example of this is when he lists Rosaline's body parts in a crude monologue that makes fun of Romeo and a popular poetic convention (the "blazon," a poetic technique that catalogues a woman's body parts and compares them to things in nature):

I must conjure him.
I conjure thee by Rosaline's bright eyes,
By her high forehead and her scarlet lip,
By her fine foot, straight leg, and quivering thigh,
And the demesnes that there adjacent lie,
That in thy likeness thou appear to us! (2.1.19-24)

So, is Mercutio's hostility toward women and heterosexual love an indication that he's more interested in the guys? Maybe. He does make a lot of jokes about penises, and Tybalt does claim that Mercutio "consortest with Romeo" (3.1.46). On the other hand, maybe it doesn't make much sense to apply 21st century categories of sexual desire to a 16th century play. One thing is certain: Shakespeare's work is full of men who value male friendship and comradery over male-female relationships.

Mercutio's Queen Mab

Other interpretations put a psychological spin on Mercutio's strange, imaginative rants. Take his Queen Mab speech, which starts off as a bizarre rant about the mythological fairy Queen Mab and ends up talking about (of course) sex:

This is that very Mab
that plats the manes of horses in the night
And bakes the elflocks in foul sluttish hairs,
Which once untangled, much misfortune bodes.
This is the had, when maids lie on their backs,
That presses them and learns them first to bear,
Making them women of good carriage. (1.4.93-99)

The backstory here is that episodes of sleep paralysis were often explained as a demon or succubus sitting on the sufferer's chest—and possibly having sex with him or her. Here, Mercutio says that women who are "hag-ridden" by Queen Mab are just learning how to "bear"—i.e., bear the weight of a man on top of them and, by extension, bear children. The take-home point, we think, is that for Mercutio, sex is always a little gross and dirty—and always a little crazy.

Romeo and Juliet is about two lovers whose families are at war and how

the two overcome the family feud for their love for each other.

Mercutio is one of the central characters in the play; he is one of

the prince's kinsmen and is best friend to Romeo of the Montague

household. The name Mercutio is derived for the word mercurial which

means eloquent, active and changeable; Mercutio is all three because

through out the play he changes his mood from a light-hearted joking

to fiery insults in a short time. Mercutio is very persistent and is

always ready to do things which again show the relevance of his name

because of his activity. Mercutio is also very eloquent using a very

good choice of words to humiliate the target for instance he uses an

oxymoron to insult Tybalt by calling him "the very butcher of a silk

button", when saying this Mercutio uses the vicious word "butcher" and

then contradicts it with a very delicate and soft word of "silk

button" thus suggesting he is very effeminate and that he is better at

sewing than fighting. Mercutio has many major impacts on the play and

the characters, for example, Mercutio influences Romeo greatly and in

many ways, he also provides a lot of drama and humour to the play.

Mercutio in addition provides an alternative view of love to Romeo's

very thoughtful view, Mercutio illustrates all of the main themes of

the play as well and Mercutio is the catalyst of all of the tragic

events in the whole play. It will be those affects that I shall be

looking on.

Mercutio is a significant influence over Romeo. The most obvious

eff...

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...ect on Romeo's choice to commit suicide because with the apparent

death of Juliet at that point and the death of his best friend Romeo

would have had very few people to speak to about the deaths and to

console him. I think Mercutio is quite successful when showing the

themes of the play, like the theme of tragedy and fate are shown very

well with his death, and the theme of tragic love is made known in two

scenes, his speech about the great ancient beauties and his own death

with Romeo's reaction and sorrow. These all help predict the biggest

part of the play, the deaths of Romeo and Juliet because after

Mercutio's death the play gets darker and introduces more sorrow, such

as Romeo's exile then Juliet's marriage announcement and the loss of

the message to Romeo about Juliet's fake death and finally the double

suicide.

Is Mercutio a Capulet or Montague?

Why was Mercutio important?

Who was neither a Capulet or Montague?

What does Mercutio symbolize in Romeo and Juliet?