Characters in Romeo and Juliet
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The following is a list of characters in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, sorted by family allegiance, and alphabetically by first name where applicable.
Contents |
[edit] Overview of characters
The ruling house of Verona
- Prince Escalus: Prince of Verona
- Count Paris: Kinsman of Prince Escalus; desires to marry Juliet.
- Mercutio: Another kinsman of Prince Escalus; a friend of Romeo.
The Capulets
- Lord Capulet: Patriarch of the house of Capulet.
- Lady Capulet: Matriarch of the house of Capulet; wishes Juliet to marry Paris.
- Juliet: Daughter of the Capulets; the female protagonist.
- Tybalt: Cousin of Juliet, nephew of Lord Capulet.
Capulet Servants
- Nurse: Juliet's personal attendant and confidante.
- Peter: Capulet servant, assistant to the nurse.
- Gregory and Samson: Capulet servants.
The Montagues
- Lord Montague: Patriarch of the house of Montague.
- Lady Montague: Matriarch of the house of Montague
- Romeo: Son of the Montagues; the male protagonist.
- Benvolio: Cousin and friend of Romeo.
Montague Servants
Others
- Friar Lawrence (Friar Laurence): a Franciscan friar and Romeo's confidant.
- Rosaline, an unseen character with whom Romeo briefly falls in love before meeting Juliet.
- Chorus, who gives the opening prologue and one other speech, both in the form of a Shakespearean sonnet.
- Friar John: Another friar who is sent to deliver Friar Lawrence's letter to Romeo.
- Apothecary: Pharmacist/druggist who reluctantly sells Romeo poison.
[edit] Capulets
The name of the Capulet family (in Italian, the Capelletti) was an actual political faction of the thirteenth century.[1]
[edit] Anthony, Potpan (and two other Capulet servants)
Anthony, Potpan and two other servants to the Capulet family play out a short comic scene in act one, scene five, arguing over the preparations for Lord Capulet's feast. Capulet's servants are referenced again in act four, scene one; Lord Capulet orders them to begin preparations for another party, which is the wedding of Juliet and Paris.
[edit] Gregory and Sampson
Gregory and Sampson are the Capulet servants who incite the brawl in act one, scene one. Gregory is originally hesitant to start a fight. Sampson, however, actively searches for a quarrel, biting his thumb at Abram, "Which is a disgrace to them, if they bear it." Gregory then, upon being called a coward by Sampson and the entrance of Tybalt, a Capulet, shows his temper and threatens the Montagues. Sampson, in particular suggests that, after they kill the Montague men, they rape the women. Both appear to be good friends with Tybalt, one of their masters, as they are seen with Tybalt in act three, scene one.[2]
In the opening scene, the two engage in a dialogue full of puns on "coal" and "eye", each intending to outdo the other and get each other ready to fight Montagues. The rhetorical form is called stychomythia, wherein characters participate in a short, quick exchanges of one-upmanship. Their discussion and brawl in this scene set the stage for the rivalry and hatred which fills the rest of the play.[2]
[edit] Lady Capulet
Lady Capulet, or Angelica, plays a larger role than Lady Montague, appearing in several scenes. In act one, scene three, she refuses to talk to her daughter about marriage, as she feels uncomfortable about it. When Tybalt is killed in act three, she expresses extreme grief and expresses strong desires for revenge on Romeo, the killer. A few scholars have seen this as stemming from a romantic relationship with Tybalt. In act four, she becomes very angry with Juliet for refusing to marry Count Paris. By the final act, she is nearly overcome by the tragic events of the play.[3]
[edit] Old Capulet (or Cousin Capulet)
Old Capulet is present at Lord Capulet's feast in act one, scene five. He is Lord Capulet's cousin, and approximately the same age.
[edit] Peter
Peter is the personal servant of The Nurse. He appears to be a loyal servant, always quick to obey the Nurse. He is chastised for not fighting Mercutio for the Nurse's honor, but insists that he "saw no man use you a pleasure; if I had, / my weapon should quickly have been out." He appears again in act five, scene three in a brief comic relief scene with a number of musicians. Shakespeare may have intended him to be the same character as an illiterate servant who appears in the first act.
[edit] Servant to Capulet
A Servant to Lord Capulet is sent to deliver party invitations to a number of nobles and friends to Lord Capulet. While walking, he comes upon Romeo and Benvolio and asks them to read the list for him, as he cannot read. As a thank you, he invites the boys to "come and crush a cup of wine," not realizing that they are Montagues.
[edit] Montagues
The Montague family name (in Italian, the Montecchi) was an actual political faction of the thirteenth century.[1]
[edit] Abram
Abram - sometimes referred to as Abraham - is a servant of the Montague house. Most notably, he delivers the now famous line, "Do you bite your thumb at me, sir?" while passing the Capulet servants Sampson and Gregory on the street in act one, scene one. He proceeds to fight with the Capulets for the honor of the Montague family. Following the initial quarrel, however, Abraham disappears from the text.
[edit] Balthasar
Balthasar is Romeo's servant and trusted friend. While he is not directly referenced in the first scene of the play, the directions call for two Montague servants to quarrel against Sampson and Gregory, and he and Abraham are the only servants mentioned by name in Shakespeare's character list. He appears again in act five, scene one to inform Romeo of Juliet's apparent death. Romeo orders Balthasar to give up his "mattock and wrenching iron" so that he may enter Juliet's tomb, and later warns the Friar of Romeo's intentions. He returns with the Friar to the tomb, but is too late.
[edit] Benvolio
Benvolio is a nephew to Lord Montague, and thus cousin to Romeo. He is also an ally of Mercutio. He attempts to break up the initial street brawl, coming into conflict with Tybalt, and sympathises with Lord and Lady Montague as to Romeo's courtly love for Rosaline, though he proves unable to convince Romeo out of it. He is present with Romeo and Mercutio at the Capulets' ball, and at the duels where Mercutio and Tybalt are killed, which he attempts to prevent. He then tells the Prince of the course of the duels, and plays no further part in the narrative (though, as a Montague, he may implicitly be included in the stage direction in the final scene "Enter Lord Montague and others").
[edit] Lady Montague
Lady Montague is the wife of Lord Montague, mother of Romeo, and aunt of Benvolio. She appears twice within the play: in act one, scene one she first restrains Lord Montague from entering the quarrel himself, and later speaks with Benvolio about the same quarrel. She returns with her husband and the Prince in act three, scene one to see what the trouble is, and is there informed of Romeo's banishment. She dies of grief offstage soon after (mentioned in act five). She is very protective of her son Romeo and is very happy when Benvolio tells her that Romeo was not involved in the brawl that happened between the Capulets and Montagues.
[edit] Lord Montague
Lord Montague is the husband of Lady Montague, and thus the father of Romeo and uncle to Benvolio. He worries over Romeo's relationship with Rosaline (whom Romeo was in love with at the beginning of the story), but cannot get through to his son. He later pleads with the Prince to prevent his son from being executed, and gets his wish when the Prince lowers Romeo's punishment to banishment.
[edit] Other characters
[edit] Apothecary
The Apothecary is a poor potion maker of Mantua. The Apothecary was also the one who sold Romeo the elixir of death. The Apothecary is hanged for this crime
[edit] Chorus
The Chorus is an omniscient character. It appears at the top of the play to fill the audience in on the ancient quarrel between the, "Two houses, both alike in dignity / In fair Verona, where we lay our scene." It returns as a prologue to act two to foreshadow the tragic turn of events about to befall the new romance between the title characters.
[edit] Citizens of Verona
A number of citizens emerge to break apart the fight in act one, scene one and again to discover the slain body of Tybalt in act three, scene one. In the latter incidence, they place Benvolio under citizen's arrest until the Prince's swift entrance.
[edit] Friar John
Friar John is a fellow Franciscan and good friend to Friar Laurence. John is the messenger sent to deliver a letter to Romeo in Mantua explaining that Juliet is not actually deceased. However, is met by a friend on the way in a town being plagued by the pestilence. The two are walled up in a house, as the villagers fear infection, and he cannot find a replacement messenger. He returns the message to Laurence, unaware of its dire importance. Scholars have pointed out that the vagueness with which Friar John is described makes his delay conveniently believable. As a monk, walking would have been his mode of transport, in contrast with Balthazar, who reaches Romeo first, possibly on horseback, with news of Juliet's apparent death. This makes the plague and quarantine unnecessary to the plot. Walpole in particular considers the plague an extemporaneous element in the play, and overly dramatic, whereas more detail on Friar John's journey would have explained the delay in a more effective way.[4]
[edit] Musicians
Three musicians appear in act four, scene five in a brief comic scene, refusing to play a song called "Heart's ease" for Peter. They are referred to by the names of Simon Catling, Hugh Rebeck, and James Soundpost.
[edit] Page to Mercutio
A Page is present for Mercutio's fight with Tybalt. Before he dies, Mercutio angrily calls for his Page to "fetch a surgeon!"
[edit] Page to Paris
Another Page accompanies Paris to the Capulet's monument to Juliet. He stands guard as Paris enters, ordered to "whistle then to me, / As signal that thou hear'st something approach." When Romeo and Paris break into a brawl, he runs away to call the Watch. He returns with the Watch too late to stop the fray, and later testifies to the Prince of Paris' intentions.
[edit] The Watch
The Watch of Verona takes the form of three watchmen. The First Watch appears to be the constable, giving orders to the Second and Third to "search about the churchyard!" Unusual for a Shakespearean watch group, they appear to be a relatively intelligent unit, managing to capture and detain Balthasar and Friar Laurence in the churchyard. They then testify to the Prince to their role in the murder and suicide scene.
[edit] Unseen and ghost characters
[edit] Petruchio
Petruchio is a guest at the Capulet feast. He is notable only in that he is the only ghost character confirmed by Shakespeare to be present. When the party comes to a close and Juliet inquires towards Romeo's identity, the Nurse attempts to avoid the subject by answering that Juliet is pointing at "the young Petruchio." Petruchio is also a major character in Shakespeare's earlier work, The Taming of the Shrew.
[edit] Rosaline
Rosaline is an unseen character and niece of Lord Capulet. Although silent, her role is important: her lover, Romeo, first spots Juliet while trying to catch a glimpse of Rosaline at a Capulet gathering. Scholars generally compare Romeo's short-lived love of Rosaline with his later love of Juliet. The poetry he writes for Rosaline is much weaker than that for Juliet. Scholars believe his early experience with Rosaline prepares him for his relationship with Juliet. Later performances of Romeo and Juliet have painted different pictures of Romeo and Rosaline's relationship, as filmmakers have experimented with making Rosaline a more visible character.
[edit] Valentine
Valentine is Mercutio's brother, briefly mentioned as a guest at the Capulet feast where Romeo and Juliet meet. He is a ghost character with no speaking parts, and his only possible appearance is at the Capulet feast among the guests. "Valentine" has been taken to mean "lover" or "brother", and is associated with these attributes in several stories and histories. Scholars have pointed out that Valentine is more strongly connected to major character than other ghosts, as he is given a direct connection to his brother. Although his role is very small in Shakespeare's play, earlier versions of the story gave him no role or mention at all. In fact, they gave even Mercutio a very minor role. Shakespeare was the first English dramatist to use the name "Valentine" on stage, in his earlier plays, Titus Andronicus and Two Gentlemen of Verona. In Titus, Valentine plays a very minor role, but in Two Gentlemen, he is one of the title characters. Incidentally, the Valentine of Two Gentlemen borrows heavily from Arthur Brooke's Romeus in The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet, which Shakespeare later used to create Romeo and Juliet. Brooke's version made Mercutio a rival for Juliet's love. Shakespeare's addition of Valentine as Mercutio's brother diffuses this rivalry. Thus, because the first time we hear of Mercutio he is associated with Valentine, rather than Juliet, he is changed from a rival to a friend and brotherly figure of Romeo.[5]
[edit] References
- ^ a b Moore, Olin H. (July 1930). "The Origins of the Legend of Romeo and Juliet in Italy". Speculum 5 (3): 264-277.
- ^ a b Hager, Alan. Understanding Romeo and Juliet. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1999. pgs. 17-20. ISBN 0313296162
- ^ Halio, Jay. Romeo and Juliet. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1998. pg. 1 ISBN 0-313-30089-5
- ^ Walpole, V. "The Plague in 'Romeo and Juliet'." The Modern Language Review. (Apr 1928) 23.2 pgs. 213-215
- ^ Porter, Joseph A. "Mercutio's Brother." South Atlantic Review. (Nov 1984) 49.4 pgs. 31-41
