The following pages contain extended biographical information of Shakespeare, a timeline of his life, a list of the characters in the
play, a contextual lesson of the play, and a link to a detailed summary of the play.
Each of these sections will start on a new page.
William Shakespeare Biography
At a Glance
It wasn't his training: Shakespeare left school at age 15, and his contemporary Ben Johnson said Shakespeare had “little Latin and less
Greek.” It wasn't where he was born: Stratford is still a pretty small town even today. It wasn't a long career: Shakespeare wrote all of
his great works in about a twenty-five-year span and died relatively young at 52. It wasn't even his story ideas: the Bard adapted
almost all his plots from known sources. No, what's impressive about Shakespeare is that his genius seems to have come from
nowhere except himself. He penned comedies, tragedies, and lyric poems; and his mastery of language, character psychology, and
emotion combined to make him the greatest writer in English.
A Quick Introduction to William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England, descended from tenant farmers and landed gentry.
His traditional birth date, April 23, 1564, is conjectural. Baptism was on April 26, so April 23 is a good guess—and a tidy one, since
that date is also St. George’s Day as well as the date of Shakespeare’s own death.
One of Shakespeare’s grandfathers, Richard Shakespeare of Snitterfield, rented land from the other, Robert Arden of Wilmcote.
Shakespeare’s father, John, moved to nearby Stratford-upon-Avon, became a prosperous shop owner (dealing in leather goods) and
municipal officeholder, and married his former landlord’s youngest daughter, Mary Arden. Thus Shakespeare—the third of eight
children but the first to survive infancy—was born into a solidly middle-class family in a provincial market town.
During Shakespeare’s infancy, his father was one of the town’s leading citizens. In 1557, John Shakespeare had become a member of
the town council and subsequently held such offices as constable, affeeror (a kind of assessor), and chamberlain (treasurer). In 1568,
he became bailiff (mayor) and justice of the peace. As the son of a municipal officer, the young Shakespeare was entitled to a free
education in the town’s grammar school, which he probably entered around the age of seven. The school’s main subject was Latin
studies—grammar and readings drilled into the schoolboys year after year. The Avon River, the surrounding farmlands, and the
nearby Forest of Arden offered plenty of opportunities for childhood adventures.
When Shakespeare was a teenager, his family fell on hard times. His father stopped attending town council meetings in 1577, and the
family’s fortunes began to decline. Matters were not improved in 1582 when Shakespeare, at the age of eighteen, hastily married Anne
Hathaway, the twenty-six-year-old daughter of a farmer from the nearby village of Shottery. She presented him with a daughter,
named Susanna, approximately five months later. In 1585, the couple also became the parents of twins, Hamnet and Judith. As was
then customary, the young couple probably lived in his parents’ home, which must have seemed increasingly crowded.
The next mention of Shakespeare is in 1592, when he was an actor and playwright in London. His actions during the seven-year
interim have been a matter of much curious speculation, including unproved stories of deer poaching, soldiering, and teaching. It may
have taken him those seven years simply to break into and advance in the London theater. His early connections with the theater are
unknown, although he was an actor before he became a playwright. He might have joined one of the touring companies that
occasionally performed in Stratford-upon-Avon, or he might have gone directly to London to make his fortune, in either the theater or
some other trade. Shakespeare was a venturesome and able young man who had good reasons to travel—his confining family
circumstances, tinged with just enough disgrace to qualify him to join the disreputable players. The theater was his escape to freedom;
he therefore had strong motivation to succeed.
William Shakespeare Extended Introduction
I. Introduction
Any discussion of Shakespeare's life is bound to be loaded with superlatives. In the course of a quarter century, Shakespeare wrote
some thirty-eight plays. Taken individually, several of them are among the world's finest written works; taken collectively, they
establish Shakespeare as the foremost literary talent of his own Elizabethan Age and, even more impressively, as a genius whose
creative achievement has never been surpassed in any age.
In light of Shakespeare's stature and the passage of nearly four centuries since his death, it is not surprising that hundreds of
Shakespeare biographies have been written in all of the world's major languages. Scanning this panorama, most accounts of the Bard's
life (and certainly the majority of modern studies) are contextual in the sense that they place the figure of Shakespeare against the rich
tapestry of his "Age" or "Times" or "Society." This characteristic approach to Shakespeare biography is actually a matter of necessity,
for without such fleshing out into historical, social, and literary settings, the skeletal character of what we know about Shakespeare
from primary sources would make for slim and, ironically, boring books. As part of this embellishment process, serious scholars
continue to mine for hard facts about the nature of Shakespeare's world. The interpretation of their meaning necessarily varies, often
according to the particular school or ideology of the author.
Whatever the differences of opinion, valid or at least plausible views about Shakespeare, his character and his personal experience
continue to be advanced. Yet even among modern Shakespeare biographies, in addition to outlandish interpretations of the available
facts, there persists (and grows) a body of traditions about such matters as Shakespeare's marriage, his move to London, the
circumstances of his death and the like. The result of all this is that there is now a huge tapestry of descriptive, critical, and analytical
work about Shakespeare in existence, much of it reasonable, some of it outlandish, and some of it hogwash.
II. Three important points about Shakespeare
In examining Shakespeare's life, three broad points should be kept in mind from the start. First, despite the frustration of Shakespeare
biographers with the absence of a primary source of information written during (or even shortly after) his death on 23 April 1616 (his
fifty-second birthday), Shakespeare's life is not obscure. In fact, we know more about Shakespeare's life, its main events and contours,
than we know about most famous Elizabethans outside of the royal court itself.
Shakespeare's life is unusually well-documented: there are well over 100 references to Shakespeare and his immediate family in local
parish, municipal, and commercial archives and we also have at least fifty observations about Shakespeare's plays (and through them,
his life) from his contemporaries. The structure of Shakespeare's life is remarkably sound; it is the flesh of his personal experience, his
motives, and the like that have no firm basis and it is, of course, this descriptive content in which we are most interested.
Second, the appeal of seeing an autobiographical basis in Shakespeare's plays and poetry must be tempered by what the bulk of the
evidence has to say about him. Although there are fanciful stories about Shakespeare, many centering upon his romantic affairs,
connections between them and the events or characters of his plays are flimsy, and they generally disregard our overall impression of
the Bard. In his personal life, Shakespeare was, in fact, an exceedingly practical individual, undoubtedly a jack of many useful trades,
and a shrewd businessman in theatrical, commercial and real estate circles.
Third, the notion that plays ascribed to Shakespeare were actually written by others (Sir Francis Bacon, the poet Phillip Sidney among
the candidates) has become even weaker over time. The current strong consensus is that while Shakespeare may have collaborated
with another Elizabethan playwright in at least one instance (probably with John Fletcher on The Two Noble Kinsman), and that one or
two of his plays were completed by someone else (possibly Fletcher on an original or revised version of Henry VIII), the works
ascribed to Shakespeare are his.
III. Birth and Early Life
Parish records establish that William Shakespeare was baptized on 26 April, 1564. Simply counting backwards the three customary
days between birth and baptism in Anglican custom, most reckon that the Bard of Avon was born on 23 April, 1564. This is, indeed,
Shakespeare's official birthday in England, and, it is also the traditional birth date of St. George, the patron saint of England. The exact
date and the precise cause of Shakespeare's death are unknown: one local tradition asserts that the Bard died on 23 April, 1616, of a
chill caught after a night of drinking with fellow playwrights Ben Jonson and Michael Drayton. Shakespeare was, in fact, buried three
days later, exactly 52 years after his baptism.
Shakespeare was born and raised in the picturesque Tudor market town of Stratford-on-Avon, a local government and commercial
center within a larger rural setting, and it is likely that the surrounding woodlands of his boyhood were reflected in the play As You
Like It, with its Forest of Arden. Shakespeare's mother Mary Arden was a daughter of the local gentry, holding extensive properties
around Stratford-on-Avon in his name. In marrying Shakespeare's father, the glover and tenant farmer John Shakespeare, Mary Arden
took a step down the social ladder of the Elizabethan Age, for her husband was of the yeoman class, a notch or two below the gentry.
Yet long before his son's fame as a playwright fell to his good fortune, John Shakespeare's talents enabled him to rise modestly on his
own accord as he became a burgess member of the town council. Despite evidence of a family financial setback when William was
fifteen, Shakespeare's family was comfortable, if not privileged. Shakespeare's eventual fame and success spilled over to his parents in
the form of both money and title, and on the eve of his death in 1601, Queen Elizabeth granted the Bard's father a "gentleman's"
family coat-of-arms.
We have good cause to believe that Shakespeare attended Stratford Grammar School where he would have received a tuition-free
education as the son of a burgess father. There young William was exposed to a standard Elizabethan curriculum strong on Greek and
Latin literature (including the playwrights Plautus and Seneca, and the amorous poet Ovid), rhetoric (including that of the ancient
Roman orator Cicero), and Christian ethics (including a working knowledge of the Holy Bible). These influences are pervasive in
Shakespeare's works, and it is also apparent that Shakespeare cultivated a knowledge of English history through chronicles written
shortly before and during his adolescence. Shakespeare left school in 1579 at the age of fifteen, possibly as the result of a family
financial problem. Shakespeare did not pursue formal education any further: he never attended a university and was not considered to
be a truly learned man.
There is a period in Shakespeare's life of some seven years (1585 to 1592) from which we have absolutely no primary source materials
about him. We do know that in November of 1582, at the age of eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway (a woman eight years his
senior), and that she gave birth to a daughter, Susanna, six months later. Two years after that, the Shakespeares had twins: Hamnet and
Judith. Hamnet, Shakespeare's only son, would die at the age of eleven. Speculation has it that Shakespeare was not happy in his
marriage, and that this may have played a role in his decision to move to London's theater scene. In fact, during the late 1580s and
early 1590s, Shakespeare traveled back and forth between London and Stratford-on-Avon, but by this time, the momentum of
Shakespeare's life was toward his career and away from family, hearth, and home. Although we lack hard facts, we may surmise that
before he took up a career as a playwright, Shakespeare engaged in a variety of occupations, probably working with his father in
commercial trades (leathers and grains), probably working as a law clerk, and possibly serving as a soldier or sailor for an England
threatened by Spain. Shakespeare displays a command of the argot and the practices of many such crafts, as in his portrayal of the law
profession in trial scenes of The Merchant of Venice.
IV. The Playwright
Between the early 1590s (The Comedy of Errors) and the second decade of the seventeenth century (The Tempest written in 1611),
Shakespeare composed the most extraordinary body of works in the history of world drama. His works are often divided into periods,
moving roughly from comedies to histories to tragedies and then to his final romances capped by a farewell to the stage in The
Tempest. The question of how and whether the Bard's career should be divided into periods aside, we do know that Shakespeare
received a major boost in 1592 (the earliest review of his work that we have), when playwright-critic Robert Greene condemned the
future Bard as an impudent "upstart" beneath the notice of established literary men or University Wits. Greene's critical diatribe was
soon retracted by his editor as a number of leading Elizabethan literary figures expressed their admiration for his early plays.
Retreating from London in the plague years of 1592 through 1594, Shakespeare briefly left playwriting aside to compose long poems
like Venus and Adonis and at least some of his sonnets. But during this period, Shakespeare garnered the support of his first major
sponsor, the Earl of Southampton. Soon, as a leading figure in the Chamberlain's Men company he would garner even greater
patronage from the courts of Queen Elizabeth and her successor, King James.
Just as the rise of Shakespeare's success, popularity, and fame began to accelerate, he experienced a personal tragedy when his son
Hamnet died in 1596. Shakespeare undoubtedly returned to Stratford for Hamnet's funeral and this event may have prompted him to
spend more time with his wife and daughters. In 1597, Shakespeare purchased a splendid Tudor Mansion in his hometown known as
the New Place. During the period between 1597 and 1611, Shakespeare apparently spent most of his time in London during the
theatrical season, but was active in Stratford as well, particularly as an investor in grain dealings. Shakespeare also purchased real
estate in the countryside and in London as well, the latter including Blackfriar's Gatehouse which he bought in 1613. In 1612, four
years before his death, Shakespeare went into semi-retirement at the relatively young age of forty-eight. He died on or about 23 April
of 1616 of unknown causes.
William Shakespeare's family lineage came to an end two generations after his death. His two daughters followed different paths in
their father's eyes. His older daughter, Susanna, married a prominent local doctor, John Hall, in 1607 and there are indications that a
close friendship developed between Hall and his renowned father-in-law. Susanna gave Shakespeare his only grandchild, Elizabeth
Hall in 1608. Although she inherited the family estate and was married twice (her first husband dying) Elizabeth had no children of
her own. Shakespeare's other daughter, Judith married Thomas Quiney, a tavern owner and reputed rake given to pre-marital and
extramarital affairs and the fathering of illegitimate children. They had three legitimate sons, all of whom died young.
V. Shakespeare's World
Most of Shakespeare's career unfolded during the monarchy of Elizabeth I, the Great Virgin Queen from whom the historical period of
the Bard's life takes its name as the Elizabethan Age. Elizabeth came to the throne under turbulent circumstances in 1558 (before
Shakespeare was born) and ruled until 1603. Under her reign, not only did England prosper as a rising commercial power at the
expense of Catholic Spain, Shakespeare's homeland undertook an enormous expansion into the New World and laid the foundations of
what would become the British Empire. This ascendance came in the wake of the Renaissance and the Reformation, the former
regaining Greek and Roman classics and stimulating an outburst of creative endeavor throughout Europe, the latter transforming
England into a Protestant/Anglican state, and generating continuing religious strife, especially during the civil wars of Elizabeth's
Catholic sister, Queen Margaret or "Bloody Mary."
The Elizabethan Age, then, was an Age of Discovery, of the pursuit of scientific knowledge, and the exploration of human nature
itself. The basic assumptions underpinning feudalism/Scholasticism were openly challenged with the support of Elizabeth and, equally
so, by her successor on the throne, James I. There was in all this an optimism about humanity and its future and an even greater
optimism about the destiny of England in the world at large. Nevertheless, the Elizabethans also recognized that the course of history
is problematic, that Fortune can undo even the greatest and most promising, as Shakespeare reveals in such plays as Antony &
Cleopatra. More specifically, Shakespeare and his audiences were keenly aware of the prior century's prolonged bloodshed during the
War of the Roses between the houses of Lancaster and York. Many Elizabethans, particularly the prosperous, feared the prospect of
civil insurrection and the destruction of the commonwealth, whether as a result of an uprising from below or of usurpation at the top.
Thus, whether or not we consider Shakespeare to have been a political conservative, his histories, tragedies and even his romances and
comedies are slanted toward the restoration or maintenance of civil harmony and the status quo of legitimate rule.
William Shakespeare Shakespeare Chronology
1564:
William Shakespeare is born in Stratford-upon-Avon. His notice of baptism is entered in the parish register at Holy Trinity
Church on April 26th. While the actual date of his birth is not known, it is traditionally celebrated on April 23rd.
1571:
Shakespeare probably enters grammar school, seven years being the usual age for admission.
1575:
Queen Elizabeth visits Kenilworth Castle, near Stratford. Popular legend holds that the eleven-year-old William Shakespeare
witnessed the pageantry attendant on the royal progress and later recreated it in his dramatic works.
1582:
Shakespeare marries Anne Hathaway of Shottery. The eighteen-year-old Shakespeare and twenty-six-year-old Hathaway are
married on November 27th at Temple Grafton, a village about five miles from Stratford.
1583:
Susanna, the first child of William and Anne Shakespeare, is born. Susanna's birth occurs five months after Shakespeare and
Hathaway wed. Susanna dies in 1649.
1585:
Shakespeare leaves Stratford between 1585 and 1592, and joins a company of actors as a performer and playwright.
1585:
Twins Hamnet and Judith Shakespeare born. Hamnet dies in 1596. Judith dies in 1662.
1589-90: Shakespeare probably writes Henry VI, Part One.
The dates given for the composition of Shakespeare's plays, though based
in scholarship, are somewhat conjectural.
1590-91: Shakespeare probably writes Henry VI, Part Two and Henry VI, Part Three.
1592:
Shakespeare was known in London as an actor and playwright by this time as evidenced by his being mentioned in Robert
Greene's pamphlet A Groats-worth of Wit. In this pamphlet (published this year), Greene chides Shakespeare as an "upstart
crow" on the theater scene. Greene charges that Shakespeare is an unschooled player and writer who "borrows" material from
his well-educated betters for his own productions.
London theaters are closed due to plague.
1592-93: Shakespeare probably writes Venus and Adonis, Richard III, and The Two Gentlemen of Verona.
1592-94: Shakespeare probably writes The Comedy of Errors.
1593:
Shakespeare probably begins composing his sonnets. He will eventually write 154 sonnets.
Shakespeare's narrative poem Venus and Adonis is published.
1593-94: Shakespeare probably writes The Rape of Lucrece, Titus Andronicus, and The Taming of the Shrew.
1594:
Shakespeare performs with the theater troupe the Lord Chamberlain's Men. The group includes leading actor Richard
Burbage and noted comic performer Will Kempe.
1594-95: Shakespeare probably writes Love's Labour's Lost.
1594-96: Shakespeare probably writes King John.
1595:
Shakespeare probably writes Richard II. The play is first performed the same year.
Shakespeare probably writes A Midsummer Night's Dream. The play is probably composed for performance at a wedding.
Shakespeare probably writes Romeo and Juliet.
1596:
Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon, Lord Chamberlain, and patron of the Lord Chamberlain's Men, dies.
Shakespeare's company comes under the patronage of George Carey, second Lord Hunsdon.
Shakespeare probably writes The Merry Wives of Windsor. The play was performed before the Queen during the Christmas
revels.
1596-97: Shakespeare probably writes The Merchant of Venice, and Henry IV, Part One.
1597:
Shakespeare purchases New Place and the grounds surrounding the spacious Stratford home.
1598:
Shakespeare appears in a performance of Ben Jonson's Every Man in His Humour, and is listed as a principal actor in the
London performance.
Shakespeare probably writes Henry IV, Part Two.
1598-99: Shakespeare probably writes Much Ado About Nothing.
1599:
Shakespeare probably writes Julius Caesar, Henry V, and As You Like It.
The Lord Chamberlain's Men lease land for the Globe Theatre. Nicholas Brend leases the land to leading shareholders in the
Lord Chamberlain's Men, including Shakespeare. Later this year, the Globe Theatre opens.
Earliest known performance of Julius Caesar. Thomas Platter, a German traveler, mentions the production at the Globe
Theatre on September 21st in his diary.
John Weever publishes the poem "Ad Guglielmum Shakespeare," in which he praises Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis, The
Rape of Lucrece, Romeo and Juliet, and other works.
1600-01: Shakespeare probably writes Hamlet.
1601:
Shakespeare probably writes the narrative poem The Phoenix and Turtle.
1601-02: Shakespeare probably writes Twelfth Night; or, What You Will and Troilus and Cressida.
Shakespeare probably writes All's Well That Ends Well.
1603:
A Midsummer Night's Dream is performed before the Queen at Hampton Court.
Queen Elizabeth dies. The new king, James I (James VI of Scotland), arrives in London a month later, and proves to be a
generous patron of the theater and of acting troupes.
King James grants a patent, or license, to Shakespeare's acting troupe, the Lord Chamberlain's Men. The patent is required for
the troupe to perform. They take the name the King's Men to honor the new king.
The King's Men enact a play, probably As You Like It, before King James at Wilton.
Shakespeare appears in a performance of Ben Jonson's Sejanus. This is the last recorded occasion of Shakespeare appearing
in a theatrical production.
An epidemic of the Black Death kills at least 33,000 in London. This is the worst outbreak of disease in London until the
plague recurs in 1608.
1604:
Shakespeare probably writes Measure for Measure. The play is staged at court before King James.
Shakespeare probably writes Othello. The play is first performed at Whitehall on November 1st.
1605:
Shakespeare probably writes King Lear.
The Merchant of Venice is performed at court. The play is performed twice and is commended by the king.
Shakespeare probably writes Macbeth. This play's Scottish background was almost certainly intended to celebrate the new
king's ancestry.
1606:
Shakespeare probably writes Antony and Cleopatra.
1607:
Hamlet and Richard III are performed. The plays are acted aboard the British ship Dragon at Sierra Leone.
1607-1608: Shakespeare probably writes Coriolanus, Timon of Athens, and Pericles.
1608:
The King's Men lease the Blackfriars Theatre. The Blackfriars was the first permanent enclosed theater in London.
Shakespeare, Richard Burbage, Cuthbert Burbage, Thomas Evans, John Hemminges, Henry Condell, and William Sly lease
the theatre for a period of twenty-one years. Stage directions indicate that Shakespeare wrote The Tempest with specific
features of the new playhouse in mind.
London theaters are closed due to plague. This is one of the longest periods of theater closure due to plague: the playhouses
are shut from spring 1608 throughout 1609.
1609:
Shakespeare's sonnets are published. This publication of Shakespeare's sonnets is unauthorized.
1609-10: Shakespeare probably writes Cymbeline.
1610:
The King's Men perform Othello at Oxford College during the summer touring season. An Oxford don records his
impressions of the play in Latin, finding the spectacle of Desdemona's death, in particular, deeply moving.
1610-11: Shakespeare probably writes The Winter's Tale.
1611:
Shakespeare probably writes The Tempest.
1612-13: Frederick V, the elector platine and future king of Bohemia, arrives in England to marry Elizabeth, King James's
daughter. The King's Men perform several plays, including Othello and Julius Caesar.
Shakespeare probably writes Henry VIII, most likely collaborating with John Fletcher, another highly reputed dramatist, on
this history play.
Shakespeare probably writes Cardenio, the only play of Shakespeare's that has been completely lost.
1613:
Shakespeare probably writes The Two Noble Kinsmen. An entry in the Stationer's Register for 1634 indicates that this play
was jointly written by Shakespeare and John Fletcher.
The Globe Theatre burns down.
1614:
The Globe Theatre reopens on the opposite bank of the Thames.
1616:
Shakespeare dies on April 23rd. His burial is recorded in the register of Stratford's Holy Trinity Church on April 25th.
1619:
Hamlet and several other of Shakespeare's plays are performed at court as part of the Christmas festivities.
1623:
Anne Hathaway Shakespeare dies.
Shakespeare's fellow actors, John Hemminges and Henry Condell, compile and publish thirty-six of the dramatist's works.
This collection is known as the First Folio.
Character List for Romeo and Juliet
Romeo
The son and heir of Montague and Lady Montague. A young man of about sixteen, Romeo is handsome, intelligent, and sensitive.
Though impulsive and immature, his idealism and passion make him an extremely likable character. He lives in the middle of a
violent feud between his family and the Capulets, but he is not at all interested in violence. His only interest is love. At the beginning
of the play he is madly in love with a woman named Rosaline, but the instant he lays eyes on Juliet, he falls in love with her and
forgets Rosaline. Thus, Shakespeare gives us every reason to question how real Romeo’s new love is, but Romeo goes to extremes to
prove the seriousness of his feelings. He secretly marries Juliet, the daughter of his father’s worst enemy; he happily takes abuse from
Tybalt; and he would rather die than live without his beloved. Romeo is also an affectionate and devoted friend to his relative
Benvolio, Mercutio, and Friar Lawrence.
Juliet
The daughter of Capulet and Lady Capulet. A beautiful thirteen-year-old girl, Juliet begins the play as a naïve child who has thought
little about love and marriage, but she grows up quickly upon falling in love with Romeo, the son of her family’s great enemy.
Because she is a girl in an aristocratic family, she has none of the freedom Romeo has to roam around the city, climb over walls in the
middle of the night, or get into swordfights. Nevertheless, she shows amazing courage in trusting her entire life and future to Romeo,
even refusing to believe the worst reports about him after he gets involved in a fight with her cousin. Juliet’s closest friend and
confidant is her nurse, though she’s willing to shut the Nurse out of her life the moment the Nurse turns against Romeo.
Friar Lawrence
A Franciscan friar, friend to both Romeo and Juliet. Kind, civic-minded, a proponent of moderation, and always ready with a plan,
Friar Lawrence secretly marries the impassioned lovers in hopes that the union might eventually bring peace to Verona. As well as
being a Catholic holy man, Friar Lawrence is also an expert in the use of seemingly mystical potions and herbs.
Mercutio
A kinsman to the Prince, and Romeo’s close friend. One of the most extraordinary characters in all of Shakespeare’s plays, Mercutio
overflows with imagination, wit, and, at times, a strange, biting satire and brooding fervor. Mercutio loves wordplay, especially sexual
double entendres. He can be quite hotheaded, and hates people who are affected, pretentious, or obsessed with the latest fashions. He
finds Romeo’s romanticized ideas about love tiresome, and tries to convince Romeo to view love as a simple matter of sexual appetite.
The Nurse
Juliet’s nurse, the woman who breast-fed Juliet when she was a baby and has cared for Juliet her entire life. A vulgar, long-winded,
and sentimental character, the Nurse provides comic relief with her frequently inappropriate remarks and speeches. But, until a
disagreement near the play’s end, the Nurse is Juliet’s faithful confidante and loyal intermediary in Juliet’s affair with Romeo. She
provides a contrast with Juliet, given that her view of love is earthy and sexual, whereas Juliet is idealistic and intense. The Nurse
believes in love and wants Juliet to have a nice-looking husband, but the idea that Juliet would want to sacrifice herself for love is
incomprehensible to her.
Tybalt
A Capulet, Juliet’s cousin on her mother’s side. Vain, fashionable, supremely aware of courtesy and the lack of it, he becomes
aggressive, violent, and quick to draw his sword when he feels his pride has been injured. Once drawn, his sword is something to be
feared. He loathes Montagues.
Capulet
The patriarch of the Capulet family, father of Juliet, husband of Lady Capulet, and enemy, for unexplained reasons, of Montague. He
truly loves his daughter, though he is not well acquainted with Juliet’s thoughts or feelings, and seems to think that what is best for her
is a “good” match with Paris. Often prudent, he commands respect and propriety, but he is liable to fly into a rage when either is
lacking.
Lady Capulet
Juliet’s mother, Capulet’s wife. A woman who herself married young (by her own estimation she gave birth to Juliet at close to the
age of fourteen), she is eager to see her daughter marry Paris. She is an ineffectual mother, relying on the Nurse for moral and
pragmatic support.
Montague
Romeo’s father, the patriarch of the Montague clan and bitter enemy of Capulet. At the beginning of the play, he is chiefly concerned
about Romeo’s melancholy.
Lady Montague
Romeo’s mother, Montague’s wife. She dies of grief after Romeo is exiled from Verona.
Paris
A kinsman of the Prince, and the suitor of Juliet most preferred by Capulet. Once Capulet has promised him he can marry Juliet, he
behaves very presumptuous toward her, acting as if they are already married.
Benvolio
Montague’s nephew, Romeo’s cousin and thoughtful friend, he makes a genuine effort to defuse violent scenes in public places,
though Mercutio accuses him of having a nasty temper in private. He spends most of the play trying to help Romeo get his mind off
Rosaline, even after Romeo has fallen in love with Juliet.
Prince Escalus
The Prince of Verona. A kinsman of Mercutio and Paris. As the seat of political power in Verona, he is concerned about maintaining
the public peace at all costs.
Friar John
A Franciscan friar charged by Friar Lawrence with taking the news of Juliet’s false death to Romeo in Mantua. Friar John is held up in
a quarantined house, and the message never reaches Romeo.
Balthasar
Romeo’s dedicated servant, who brings Romeo the news of Juliet’s death, unaware that her death is a ruse.
Sampson & Gregory - Two servants of the house of Capulet, who, like their master, hate the Montagues. At the outset of the play,
they successfully provoke some Montague men into a fight.
Abram
Montague’s servant, who fights with Sampson and Gregory in the first scene of the play.
The Apothecary
An apothecary in Mantua. Had he been wealthier, he might have been able to afford to value his morals more than money, and refused
to sell poison to Romeo.
Peter
A Capulet servant who invites guests to Capulet’s feast and escorts the Nurse to meet with Romeo. He is illiterate, and a bad singer.
Rosaline
The woman with whom Romeo is infatuated at the beginning of the play. Rosaline never appears onstage, but it is said by other
characters that she is very beautiful and has sworn to live a life of chastity.
The Chorus
The Chorus is a single character who, as developed in Greek drama, functions as a narrator offering commentary on the play’s plot
and themes.
Contextual Lesson of Romeo and Juliet
The most influential writer in all of English literature, William Shakespeare was born in 1564 to a successful middle-class
glove-maker in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. Shakespeare attended grammar school, but his formal education proceeded
no further. In 1582 he married an older woman, Anne Hathaway, and had three children with her. Around 1590 he left his
family behind and traveled to London to work as an actor and playwright. Public and critical success quickly followed,
and Shakespeare eventually became the most popular playwright in England and part-owner of the Globe Theater. His
career bridged the reigns of Elizabeth I (ruled 1558–1603) and James I (ruled 1603–1625), and he was a favorite of both
monarchs. Indeed, James granted Shakespeare’s company the greatest possible compliment by bestowing upon its
members the title of King’s Men. Wealthy and renowned, Shakespeare retired to Stratford and died in 1616 at the age of
fifty-two. At the time of Shakespeare’s death, literary luminaries such as Ben Jonson hailed his works as timeless.
Shakespeare’s works were collected and printed in various editions in the century following his death, and by the early
eighteenth century his reputation as the greatest poet ever to write in English was well established. The unprecedented
admiration garnered by his works led to a fierce curiosity about Shakespeare’s life, but the dearth of biographical
information has left many details of Shakespeare’s personal history shrouded in mystery. Some people have concluded
from this fact that Shakespeare’s plays were really written by someone else—Francis Bacon and the Earl of Oxford are
the two most popular candidates—but the support for this claim is overwhelmingly circumstantial, and the theory is not
taken seriously by many scholars.
In the absence of credible evidence to the contrary, Shakespeare must be viewed as the author of the thirty-seven plays
and 154 sonnets that bear his name. The legacy of this body of work is immense. A number of Shakespeare’s plays seem
to have transcended even the category of brilliance, becoming so influential as to profoundly affect the course of Western
literature and culture ever after.
Shakespeare did not invent the story of Romeo and Juliet. He did not, in fact, even introduce the story into the English
language. A poet named Arthur Brooks first brought the story of Romeus and Juliet to an English-speaking audience in a
long and plodding poem that was itself not original, but rather an adaptation of adaptations that stretched across nearly a
hundred years and two languages. Many of the details of Shakespeare’s plot are lifted directly from Brooks’s poem,
including the meeting of Romeo and Juliet at the ball, their secret marriage, Romeo’s fight with Tybalt, the sleeping
potion, and the timing of the lover’s eventual suicides. Such appropriation of other stories is characteristic of Shakespeare,
who often wrote plays based on earlier works.
Shakespeare’s use of existing material as fodder for his plays should not, however, be taken as a lack of originality.
Instead, readers should note how Shakespeare crafts his sources in new ways while displaying a remarkable understanding
of the literary tradition in which he is working. Shakespeare’s version of Romeo and Juliet is no exception. The play
distinguishes itself from its predecessors in several important aspects: the subtlety and originality of its characterization
(Shakespeare almost wholly created Mercutio); the intense pace of its action, which is compressed from nine months into
four frenetic days; a powerful enrichment of the story’s thematic aspects; and, above all, an extraordinary use of language.
Shakespeare’s play not only bears a resemblance to the works on which it is based, it is also quite similar in plot, theme,
and dramatic ending to the story of Pyramus and Thisbe, told by the great Roman poet Ovid in his Metamorphoses.
Shakespeare was well aware of this similarity; he includes a reference to Thisbe in Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare also
includes scenes from the story of Pyramus and Thisbe in the comically awful play-within-a-play put on by Bottom and his
friends in A Midsummer Night’s Dream—a play Shakespeare wrote around the same time he was composing Romeo and
Juliet. Indeed, one can look at the play-within-a-play in A Midsummer Night’s Dream as parodying the very story that
Shakespeare seeks to tell in Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet in full knowledge that the story he
was telling was old, clichéd, and an easy target for parody. In writing Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare, then, implicitly set
himself the task of telling a love story despite the considerable forces he knew were stacked against its success. Through
the incomparable intensity of his language Shakespeare succeeded in this effort, writing a play that is universally accepted
in Western culture as the preeminent, archetypal love story.
Link to a summary of the play
Sparknotes Summary of the entire play--PROLOGUE, ACTS, &SCENES