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Lord and Lady Capulet Lord and Lady Capulet are the leaders of the Capulet family and the mortal enemies of the House of Montague, and Juliet’s parents. Their relationships with each other and their daughter are distant and detached. Lord Capulet appears apathetic to his wife, and at times cruel to his daughter. This especially comes out when Juliet begs for her father to push back her wedding to Paris, and instead of listening to his daughter he tells her that if she does not marry Paris he will disown her forever;. We see the physical aggression most prominently in the big, confrontational scene with Juliet over whether or not she will marry Paris. When Juliet refuses, Capulet screams, "Out you baggage, / you tallow face" (3.5.3) and says, "My fingers itch" when Juliet stands up, which may suggest that he's prone to physical violence (3.5.4). Juliet’s mother throughout the play seems to want to connect with her daughter but it is obvious that the Nurse is the mother figure to Juliet. Her true colors come out when she refuses to back up or listen to Juliet’s pleas for a delayed marriage, also telling Juliet that she wants no more to do with the situation; "Talk not to me, for I'll not say a word / Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee" (3.5.15)”.
After he kills Mercutioin a street brawl, Romeo mortally stabs him, which causes Romeo to be banished from Verona. You don't have to look far for Tybalt's motivation: testosterone. He's not deep, but he sure is handy with a sword. Mercutio, who hates Tybalt, gives him the "catty" nickname the "Prince of Cats”. Tybalttends to stalk around proudly attacking anyone who strokes his fur wrong. We get just a hint of that when his uncle Capulet prevents him from beating up Romeo for crashing the Capulet's masked ball, and he promises to kill Romeo at a later date: "I will withdraw but this intrusion shall / Now seeming sweet, convert to bitt'rest gall" (1.5.6). Notice that Tybalt likes to speak in rhymed couplets ("shall" and "gall" rhyme here), which could sound kind of ridiculous—but here just sound menacing. Aside from the vendetta between the Capulets and Montagues, there's no real explanation for Tybalt's aggressive behavior. It seems possible that he's eager to fight because he wants to defend his reputation as the toughest of the Capulets. It's also likely that Tybalt just likes to fight, which brings us to our next point: If there's a personification of hate in the play, it's Tybalt.
Paris Paris is a single wealthy and older man seeking Juliet’s hand in marriage. At first Juliet’s father refuses, explaining that she is too young, however, after hounding Lord Capulet for a while, Paris wins Juliet’s hand. His purpose in the play is as a foil character for Romeo and he does a great job. Paris stands for the stiff, passionless fiancé, where Romeo is the passion filled lover. Because this is Paris’s role, he can be played in many ways and it is entirely dependent on the director as to how Paris come across. He can be the hopeless fool who just happens to choose Juliet and is clueless as to her love for Romeo, or he can come across as the jerk trying to marry a young girl.
Nurse Juliet’s nurse is the real mother figure of the play. Her personal relationship with Juliet shows that she obviously was the main person to raise Juliet, and thus understands the young girl better than anyone. The Nurse’s character is an intersting one. She starts out the play as the comic relief, the lower class nurse who is able to joke about anything. She is the one who helps Juliet and Romeo meet and then marry. Then her character takes an interesting turn. She goes from one of the only people on the young couple’s side, to telling Juliet to forget about Romeo and marry Paris. As the audience we are never really told why Nurse has a sudden change of heart, whether it is that she believes Romeo and Juliet’s love to be childish or she is on Lord and Lady Capulet’s side, either way this is the point in the play where Nurse shifts against the couple.
Juliet Juliet Capulet is the only daughter of Lord and Lady Capulet and the leading lady of one of Shakespeare’s greatest works. She is smart, determined, witty, and hopelessly in love with a forbidden boy. She starts off the play as a naïve young girl, but quickly grows up through love and loss. She declares her independence by proposing to Romeo; "If that thy bent of love be honourable, / Thy purpose marriage, send me word tomorrow” (2.2.17), and then standing up to her father and refusing to marry Paris. All of this decision making and standing up for herself becomes even more impressive when we remember that she is only 13 years old. After seeking aid from the priest who married her and Romeo, she wakes up in the tomb to find Romeo dead. Heartbroken she takes his dagger and ends the play.
Lord and Lady Montague Lord and Lady Montague are the leaders of the Montague family and the sworn enemies of the Capulet family. The audience is never told why the two families don’t get along, but we do know that their feud is public, bloody, and a major problem in Verona. Unlike their Capulet mirrors, Lord and Lady Montague seem to have a love for each other and definitely for their son.
Romeo “O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” The other side of the star crossed couple, Romeo is the most classic example of a romantic boyfriend there is. The only downside to his passionate love, is his seemingly fickle heart. When we are first introduced to Romeo, we meet a young boy (17 years old) pining over his lost love, Rosaline who decided to become a nun and does not love him back. His friends convince him to crash the Capulet party where he suddenly falls in love again, with Juliet: “Oh she doth teach the torches to burn bright!...Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I never saw true beauty till this night” (1.5). Romeo shows his devotion to Juliet however, by marrying her, and then refusing to fight her cousin Tybalt. This choice end with the death of Romeo’s best friend, Mercutio, and Romeo’s revenge killing of Tybalt. This brawl between Capulet and Montague ends with Romeo’s banishment and sets into motion the tragic end of these star crossed lovers
Mercutio is Romeo's sword-fight loving best friend, and you probably won't be surprised to find out that his name sounds a lot like the word "mercurial," i.e. "volatile," i.e. "touchy." He never backs down from a duel and, although he's neither a Montague nor a Capulet, he gets involved in the long-standing family feud on the side of the Montagues. That turns out to be a mistake on his part: Tybalt kills him when he steps in place of Romeo. Mercutio is technically a minor character, but his personality has such a disproportionate impact that maybe he has to die or he would take over the play. In fact, English poet John Dryden said that Shakespeare himself admitted that he had to kill Mercutio—or else, he said, Mercutio would have killed him.True? Probably not. But it helps us get an idea of just how flashy Mercutio is.
Benvolio, whose name literally means "good will," is a classic nice guy: stuck playing the straight man to Mercutio and the non-romantic-idiot to Romeo, constantly telling everyone else to chill and stop fighting and "keep the peace" (I.1.61), and being asked to spy on his friends. What? That's right: Romeo's parents (his aunt and uncle) turn to him when their son is acting strange, and the Prince always asks him to explain what went down in the most recent public brawl.
Friar Laurence A mentor to both Romeo and Juliet, Friar Laurence constantly advises them to act with more caution and moderation, even though he doesn't wait too long before agreeing to marry off these two crazy kids. It does seem like the Friar might be running a little too fast in his haste to use these teenagers to patch up a hopeless family feud. The audience does question whether Friar Laurence is to blame for the two lovers death. He is the one that came up with the plan for Juliet to take the sleeping potion that caused Romeo to kill himself that led to Juliet killing herself. Whether it was his fault or not, he succeeded in ending the feud.
The Prince The Prince of Verona wants peace, but he can't restrain the violence between the Montagues and the Capulets. If the Prince can't do anything about the feud, it means that the law (which the Prince embodies) is powerless against the passions of hate and of love.But at the end, he comes back on stage and sorts everything out: "Some shall be pardon'd, and some punished" (5.3.307). We're slightly hopeful that, from now on, the rule of law will be able to keep these people in line—and that maybe we'll move on from the feudingfor justice to an actual system of law-and-order.
