Characters “Romeo and Juliet”
Escalus, Prince of Verona:
He is the symbol of law and order and justice in Verona. He threatens Capulet and Montague
with death if Verona’s peace is ever again disturbed; unfortunately, he tempers his threat. The
fact that the Prince must intervene is especially significant to this play because it serves to lift the
action out of the realm of a domestic tragedy—that is, the feud has reached the stage where the
issue is of public import.
Paris:
A kinsman of the Prince. He is handsome and courteous, and he hopes to marry Juliet. He duels
with Romeo in the Capulet tomb, mistakenly believing that Romeo has come to desecrate the
bodies of Juliet and Tybalt.
Montague:
As the father of Romeo, he is worried about his son’s disturbed emotional state. After Romeo’s
death, Montague promises Capulet to honor Juliet with a golden statue.
Lady Montague:
She abhors the violence of the opening quarrel and is much relieved to learn that Romeo was not
involved. Later, we learn that she has died, grieving for her son. Hers is yet another life
sacrificed to the old, bitter feud.
Romeo:
As the son of Montague, he is well spoken of in Verona. We first see him as a Petrarchan lover:
he is amusing, and he uses language in an artificial and witty manner; he is consciously “love
sick.” Love for Juliet transforms him: his declarations of love are lyric and vivid, and he is
defiant and passionate. His love for her is desperate and impulsive; his death also. He dies
triumphant, believing that he has defied fate and has rejoined Juliet.
Balthasar:
Servant to Romeo.
Mercutio:
He is a satirist whose devastating wit remains with him to the end. He is a cynic but attractive;
the bitter tang of his sophistication is a refreshing accompaniment to Romeo’s dark Petrarchan
misery. For Mercutio, love is often fraudulent. His tongue is, as his name suggests, mercurial.
His Queen of Mab speech is a fantasy of impromptu invention; his bawdy exchanges with Juliet’s
Nurse have become memorable. Some critics say Shakespeare killed off Mercutio because he
began to emerge as a vitally interesting character, one so well developed that his continued
presence might have diminished the importance of Romeo and even Juliet.
Benvolio:
He is Romeo’s companion who attempts to soften Mercutio’s jests and to bring Romeo out of his
gloom. It is he who explains to the Prince the circumstances of Tybalt’s death; thereafter, he
vanishes from the plot.
Capulet:
Juliet’s father is on stage much more than Montague. He is very likeable in the ball scene as he
reminisces with an old kinsman while watching the young people dance, and later when he is
defending Romeo and upbraiding Tybalt. But his moods can undergo immediate change, as when
he feels crossed by Juliet.
Lady Capulet:
The rather young wife of Capulet, she has a nasty temper. After she learns that her nephew
Tybalt has been killed, she demands that the Prince execute Romeo. The Prince wisely punishes
him, however, according to the circumstances and not according to Lady Capulet’s desire for
revenge. Ultimately, she is humbled when she is brought in to see her daughter dead, with
Romeo’s dagger in her breast.
Juliet:
To many critics, the play, for all purposes, is hers—a thirteen-year-old girl, discovering love,
being loved, then abruptly being, according to her Nurse, as good as widowed; throughout, there
is an interplay of her happy, romantic youth and the responsibility of her new womanhood. It
should be noted that she has far more control of her emotions than Romeo; never does she
dissolve in hysterics.
The Nurse:
Shakespeare created one of his immortal comic figures in Juliet’s Nurse. Life is for living; to
love means to make love—her philosophy is that basic. She is a realist, a woman who
compromises easily, and is a coarse talker, fond of joking, of anecdotes, of sentimentalizing, and
of intrigue. She has reared Juliet and seems at times fonder of her than is Juliet’s own mother.
Peter:
Servant to Juliet’s Nurse.
Tybalt:
He is hot tempered and quick to anger. He immediately swears revenge when he discovers
Romeo at the Capulets’ ball. Mercutio describes him as shallow and affected, though he does
admit that he is a fierce and skilled fencer. Tybalt is killed by Romeo.
Samson and Gregory:
Servants to Capulet.
The Apothecary:
A shabby shopkeeper whose poverty forces him to (illegally) sell poison to Romeo.
Friar Laurence:
Trying only to bring peace to Verona, he agrees to help Romeo and Juliet, but he quickly finds
himself more and more entangled in new complications. Unfortunately, his well-laid plans
depend on chance. The Friar is a good man, and as the Prince recognizes in the final scene, a
man of good intentions.
Friar John:
A Franciscan, he is sent to Mantua by Friar Laurence to deliver a letter to Romeo, explaining the
Friar’s plan for the lovers.