In Act II, Scene 1, Benvolio and Mercutio are looking for Romeo, but he chooses to remain hidden on the other side of the wall. Romeo has fallen even more deeply in love with Juliet than he had been with Rosaline. Evidently he cannot bear to be with his two friends at this time because he knows they will do nothing but joke about his love--which is what both Benvolio actually do throughout this short scene. At the beginning of the next scene, Romeo says quite wisely:
He jests at scars that never felt a wound.
He is referring to Mercutio in particular. Neither Benvolio nor Mercutio has ever been in love. Both of them think it is nothing but a temporary aberration or infatuation; but Romeo has become a changed man--an older, wiser man--as a result of his love for Juliet. Perhaps Romeo's relationship with his male friends will never be quite the same again. He is headed for a serious, mature relationship with a young woman which will result in marriage. He is standing inside Juliet's orchard, and he is about to risk his life by attempting to see her and perhaps talk to her on her balcony. Romeo's jumping over the wall might be intended to symbolize the young man's transition from adolescence to adulthood. Benvolio and Mercutio are making fun of him, but perhaps they both sense that they are losing their old mischievous, fun-loving companion.
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