Romeo | In love with Juliet. The son of Lord and Lady Montague. About 16 years old. His tragic flaw is haste and anger. He gets banished because he killed Tybalt. |
Juleit | In love with Romeo. Daughter of Lord and Lady Capulet. 13 years old. Her tragic flaw is haste. She is betrothed to Paris, yet she marries Romeo. |
Lord Capulet | Juliet’s father. He is the enemy of the Montague’s. He loves his daughter. He thinks Juliet should marry Paris. Husband of Lady Capulet. He can fly off into blind rage. |
Lady Capulet | Juliet’s mother. She and her daughter are not close. She wants Juliet to marry (Paris). |
Lord Montague | Romeo’s father. The patriarch of the Montague’s. Enemy of the Capulet’s. At the beginning of the play, he is chiefly concerned about Romeo’s melancholy. |
Lady Montague | Rome’s mother. Montague’s wife. She dies of grief after Romeo is exiled from Verona. |
Nurse | The woman who has cared for Juliet since she was a little girl. She is a friend and confidante of Juliet. She keeps Juliet and Romeo’s marriage a secret. |
Benvolio | Montague’s nephew, Romeo’s cousin and friend. He tries to defuse violent scenes in public places. He spends his days trying to get Romeo to forget about Rosaline, even after Romeo falls in love with Juliet. |
Mercutio | Kinsman of prince and friend of Romeo. Overflows with imagination, wit and occasionally, a strange, biting satire and brooding fervor. He loves wordplay. He’s hotheaded. He hates people who are obsessed with the latest fashions. He doesn’t like Romeo’s love and tries to convince him to view love as an appetite of lust. |
Friar Lawrence | Friend of Romeo and Juliet. King, civic-minded/ A proponent of moderation. Always ready with a plan. Marries Romeo nad Juliet secretly in hopes that the union will end the fued. Expert in use of seeminly mystical potion and herbs |
Tybalt | Juliet’s cousin on Lady Capulet’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. He loathes the Montague’s. He and Juliet’s mother have a little romance, or so it is said. |
Prince Escalus | Prince of Verona. Kinsman of Mercutio and Paris. He is concerned about maintaining the public peace at all costs. |
Paris | Kinsman of Prince. Suitor of Juliet. Most preferred by Capulet’s. Once Capulet has promised him he can marry Juliet, he behaves very presumptuous toward acting as if they’re already married. |
Friar John | Charged by Friar Lawrence with taking the news of Juliet false death to Romeo in Mantua. He is held up in the quarantined house, and the message never reaches Romeo. |
Balthasar | Romeo’s dedicated servant. He brings Romeo the news of Juliet’s death, unaware that Juliet’s death is a muse. |
Sampson | Servant of the Capulet’s, and hates Montague’s. At the outset of the play, he successfully provokes some Montague men into a fight, while he was with Gregory. |
Gregory | Servant of the Capulet’s, and hates Montague’s. At the outset of the play, he successfully provokes some Montague men into a fight, while he was with Sampson. |
Abram | Montague’s servant, who fights with Sampson and Gregory in the first scene of the play. |
The Apthecary | In Mantua. Had he been wealthier, he might have been able to afford to value his morals more tan money and he would’ve refused to sell poison to Rome. |
Peter | A Capulet servant who invites guest to Capulet’s feast and escorts the Nurse to meet with Romeo. He is illiterate and a bad singer. |
Rosaline | The woman Romeo is in love with in the beginning. Never appears onstage, but is said she is very beautiful and has sworn to live to a life of chastity. |
The Chorus | Is a single character who functions a s a narrator offering commentary on the play’s plot and themes. |
Romeo and Juliet Characters by AC (THESE DEFINITIONS ARE FROM NO FEAR SHAKESPEARE)
July 17, 2019