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.

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One of the protagonists of the play, along with Juliet. He is the male heir to the dynasty of House Montague, which is in a long-standing feud with House Capulet. At the start of the play, Romeo is too busy pining over his unrequited love for a young woman named Rosaline to join his kinsman in the many petty fights and brawls they engage in with members of House Capulet—Romeo would rather chase down love (or stand around sighing about how he’s failing to do so) than raise his sword against his family’s enemies. After Romeo is dragged to a masquerade at the Capulet house by Mercutio, his wild, fun-loving friend, and Benvolio, his cousin, Romeo falls in love with the beautiful Juliet—not realizing that she is a Capulet, and therefore his sworn enemy due to the feud between their families. Romeo quickly abandons his feelings for Rosaline and swears his eternal, undying love for Juliet, revealing his melodramatic and quickly changeable nature. After secretly marrying Juliet with the help of Friar Laurence, Romeo is even more resistant to being drawn into his kinsmen’s brawls. But after the hotheaded Tybalt, furious at the Montagues for crashing the Capulets’ party, kills Mercutio, Romeo takes a stand and kills Tybalt. This further confirms Romeo’s inconsistent and reactionary tendencies, and he is exiled to Mantua by Prince Escalus, where he pines for Juliet while awaiting news from Friar Laurence. Unbeknownst to Romeo, the friar helps Juliet avoid a forced marriage to the count Paris by devising a plan that will make her appear dead after she drinks a special potion. This way, she can be put to rest in her family tomb, excavated, and reunited with Romeo outside the walls of Verona. Romeo is unaware of this plan, however, and when his servant, Balthasar, brings him news that Juliet is dead, Romeo once again flies into a melodramatic rage, procuring poison from a local apothecary and rushing back to Verona—against the order of his exile—to kill himself inside Juliet’s tomb. Upon waking up from her staged death, Juliet is distraught over Romeo’s death and uses his dagger to commit suicide herself. Impulsive, dramatic, and obsessed with the pursuit of love, Romeo’s changeable, impulsive, childish personality has fascinated audiences for centuries. In popular culture, a “Romeo” is a young man so swept up in the grips of love he can focus on nothing else—in the play, Romeo’s emotions so obscure his sense of reason and calm that he takes his own life in the name of following his love interest into death.

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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.

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One of the protagonists of the play, along with Romeo. She is the female heir to the dynasty of House Capulet, which is in a long-standing feud with House Montague. At only 13, Juliet finds herself pulled from the cocoon of childhood when her mother, Lady Capulet, informs her that she’s of marriageable age and that the wealthy, handsome count Paris has set his sights on her. Juliet is reluctant to start thinking about love, and frequently clashes with her overbearing parents as they try to arrange a socially and monetarily fortuitous match for her. But when she meets Romeo, whom she does not realize is a member of House Montague, her family’s enemy, she is struck by desire. Even after she learns Romeo’s true identity, she continues pining for him, and when she realizes that he feels the same way, she demands he swear his love to her or leave her alone forever. Romeo suggests that the two of them marry hastily, and Juliet accepts his proposal—in spite of (or perhaps because of) the feud between their houses. Juliet is, throughout the play, torn between her perceived duty to her family and her love for Romeo. Her burgeoning sexuality and desire for new experiences outside of the insular world of her family’s obsession with respectability and gentility drive her into Romeo’s arms, and lead her to take serious emotional and physical risks in pursuit of a life with him. In order to avoid marrying Paris, Friar Laurence helps Juliet come up with a plan to fake her own death using a special potion so that she will be buried in her family’s tomb and then excavated to be reunited with Romeo. However, the plan goes awry when, upon seeing Juliet’s “dead” body, Romeo kills himself in her tomb. As a young woman, Juliet knows she has limited options, and her choice to take her own life at the end of the play—often attributed to her desire to follow Romeo into death—may actually have more to do with her confusion, shame, and fear about her social standing in the wake of Romeo’s demise. When Friar Laurence suggests Juliet live out the rest of her days in a nunnery, she finds herself torn between facing the chaos and destruction she’s caused through her impulsiveness by dealing with the consequences outright, or living a life of shame and obfuscation, hidden away from the only world she’s ever known. Romantic yet grounded, introspective yet impulsive, and determined to be the master of her own destiny—even if that destiny is death—Juliet tests the limits of love, fate, duty, and independence throughout the play.

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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.

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A kindly, philosophical friar of Verona who, as his community’s spiritual and intellectual center, keeps finding himself enmeshed in the dramas of House Montague and House Capulet. Romeo and Juliet like the friar and come to him separately on several occasions for advice about love, solutions to their problems, and favors small and large. Friar Laurence is clearly uncomfortable with his role as arbiter of the young lovers’ trials and tribulations—but at the same time, he longs to bring peace to his community, and believes that in uniting Romeo and Juliet he may be able to put to rest the ancient feud between their families. He marries Romeo and Juliet in secret in hopes of bringing all of Verona together, blind to what the larger consequences of his actions may be. In spite of his occasional shortsightedness, Friar Laurence is the play’s moral compass in many ways: he calls out Romeo for his melodrama and ungratefulness, Juliet for her rash responses to anger and frustration, and Capulet for his obsession with climbing Verona’s social ladder. In spite of all Friar Laurence’s efforts to help bring Romeo and Juliet together and bridge the gap between their two families, he ultimately fails—and Prince Escalus suggests the man may even be punished for his involvement in the whole affair. Levelheaded, righteous, hopeful, and resourceful, Friar Laurence tries hard to do what’s best for everyone—even if he’s unable, in the end, to bring peace to Verona in the way he envisioned.

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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.

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Romeo’s best friend and kinsman to Prince Escalus. Mercutio is one of the play’s most dynamic and complex characters. Wild, frenetic, easygoing, and fun-loving, Mercutio’s manic energy, rambling stories, and razor-sharp wit masks a much darker core. Mercutio is quick with words and is one of the play’s most skilled masters of puns and wordplay—he is always ready with a scandalous joke or a bawdy tale, but deep down, the play suggests that Mercutio is long past tired of his role as Romeo’s jester. Mercutio’s quickness to fight rivals Tybalt’s hotheaded rage, and Mercutio often involves himself in brawls that shouldn’t concern him, always fighting on behalf of the Montagues. When once such fight with Tybalt ends with Tybalt fatally stabbing Mercutio, he attempts to play the wound off as a “scratch”—but as he succumbs to his wounds, he rails against the forces that have killed him, wishing “a plague [on] both [the] houses” of Montague and Capulet and revealing in his dying moments his deep contempt, frustration, and anger for the petty, ancient feud between them.

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Is Mercutio Gay?

Due to the 1996 version of the story, many students label Mercutio as homosexual. However, it is not as straightforward in the text. He never overtly states any interests in the same sex, other than to fire off a series of lewd statements and gestures about pricks and fiddlesticks and cases and visages. He’s terribly misogynistic—but while it’s one thing to say “I hate women”, it doesn’t automatically mean “I want men”. The only overt statement inferring any homosexual nature comes from Tybalt when he says, “Mercutio! Thou consortest with Romeo!”

“Consort with”, as in, “have sex with”. Tybalt’s opening line in that scene is equivalent to a bully walking through the door, seeing his target, and yelling, obscenities about his sexuality. Considering the source, bullies aren’t often known for being right—they’re better known for being loud. So one could take it with a grain of salt that Tybalt’s claim is little more than bluster meant to incite anger (which, by the way, it does).

Mercutio can be played with shades of homosexuality. He could be outwardly flamboyant, as in the performance Harold Perrineau Jr. performance in Baz Luhrmann’s “Romeo + Juliet”. He could be extremely moody, as John McEnery’s turn in Franco Zefirelli’s much lauded film version. He could be overly obsessed with sex, as per Jesse Borrego’s turn in the 2001 staging at the Ahmanson Theater in L.A. But it’s entirely on the actor/director to make the call. It's therefore also dependent on the student as to their interpretation of his actions and characters. 

Montague’s nephew, Romeo’s cousin and thoughtful friend. Benvolio 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.

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Capulet’s nephew and Juliet’s cousin. Tybalt is a duelist whose skills with a rapier have gained him widespread renown—and whose temper is equally as famous as his talent. Hotheaded, brash, and devoutly loyal to his house, Tybalt hates all Montagues and longs to kill them on sight. His vitriol towards the Montague clan leads him to fight with Mercutio and Romeo—though he slays the former, the latter ends his life.

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The Prince of Verona. An imposing man who nonetheless struggles to control the violent, unruly members of House Montague and House Capulet as they feud and brawl endlessly in Verona’s streets, spilling blood and disturbing the peace. Prince Escalus warns both houses several times of the punishments they’ll endure if they continue fighting. In the end, however, when Romeo and Juliet are found dead, the prince concedes that “all are punished”—no one has been spared from the senseless grief that the two warring houses have perpetuated. Level-headed and fair, the prince is concerned with keeping Verona safe for all its citizens.

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In Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet, Count Paris is a young nobleman. We encounter him as he visits Verona to negotiate with wealthy businessman and community leader, Capulet, on an important matter – his proposed marriage to Capulet’s thirteen – almost fourteen – year-old daughter, Juliet.

That was a normal type of transaction in medieval and Renaissance times. One of the things a wealthy citizen could do with his money was buy an aristocratic connection for his family in the form of an arranged marriage. Aristocrats did not engage in business and depended on their land and other traditional means of making ends meet. In many cases they were hard up and so the best thing a young nobleman of meager means could do for himself was find a wealthy man prepared to exchange his daughter and a huge dowry for an aristocratic connection, which would result in grandchildren with their own aristocratic connections. It was a good deal for both parties.

Paris is handsome and gracious – a good catch for the Capulets. Naturally, there would be no problem regarding Juliet because it was taken for granted that consultation with her wasn’t even necessary. Like all daughters, she was raised to be obedient, and so she would do as she was told. In any case, many daughters were forced to marry men twice their age and even older, so this was a good deal for Juliet too. Although Paris pushes it and Capulet expresses the thought that she may be a little too young, the two men end their negotiations with satisfaction on both sides and Capulet throws a party to bring the two together and to show Paris off to his extended family and a great number of friends.

Paris is not exactly a “real” character in the play. He is a device Shakespeare uses to create the tragic situation. All the characters in all of Shakespeare’s plays are dramatic devices but almost all of them, even some having only a very few lines, are characterised, in the sense that something central about their personalities is brought out in those few lines. That isn’t the case with Paris apart from a few platitudes he utters, which say more about his social class than his personality. So he appears as formal, polite and lacking in personality.

In the closing moments of the play he appears at the tomb where Juliet is lying, presumed dead, and challenges Romeo. That interaction is more about painting Romeo’s personality than displaying anything about Paris, though. In this confrontation, in which Romeo kills Paris almost like he may kill an irritating fly, he addresses Paris as ‘boy,’ suggesting that the impetuous, immature boy that we see at the beginning of the play, has grown into the man who can regard the mature nobleman as a boy.

So we don’t know anything about Paris – whether he’s stupid or intelligent, good or bad, funny or morose. What we find is a formal young man in a formal situation. Shakespeare is not interested in what kind of person he is, only in that he is a nobleman with a mandate to marry Juliet. He could be anyone. Making him young and handsome, though, creates a comparison with Romeo, who is also young and handsome but exciting, adventurous, affectionate, funny, and more. We don’t find any of that in Paris. All we have is a man in an aristocrat’s costume. This is not a role that actors aspire to, who would be very disappointed at being offered after auditioning for the role of Romeo!

Juliet knows why he is in Verona but when the party starts she doesn’t know that the deal has already been sewn up. As far as she knows this is her opportunity to sum him up and provide feedback about him. She knows that at some stage in the near future she is going to be married off but she also expects to have a say, even though it may not be taken into account. In this case it would be just a formality as she would be relieved that her husband-to-be wasn’t an old man, who would undoubtedly be hideous, as all old men are to teenage girls. But then, as we know, when her father tells her she is to be married to Paris she is already married to Romeo, and she refuses.

And now the party has begun and the guests are arriving. Almost everyone in Verona has been invited – everyone who is not a Montague: the ancient feud between the Montagues and Capulets forbids that they be present. Romeo, the son of the Montague patriarch, hears about the party and, thinking that a girl he fancies will be there, gatecrashes the party with his friends, all wearing masks, which was normal party mode for young people. There follows the definitive ‘falling in love’ moment – the best depiction of two people falling in love in all literature. That moment pushes Paris right out of the picture as the two teenagers fall in love. By the end of the evening, they have agreed to be married the next day.

The story takes off, working itself inexorably towards its tragic end. They marry, Romeo is banished after killing Tybalt in a fight, he goes to Padua, fails to receive the message that Juliet is in unconscious but alive in the Capulet tomb, goes there, finds her apparently dead, kills himself before she wakes up and Juliet, finding him dead, kills herself. All that happens because of Capulet’s insistence that she marry Paris, and her refusal to do so.

Paris plays no part in any of that, although he does appear at Friar Lawrence’s cell when Juliet goes to him for help after Romeo’s banishment. Paris has no idea of what the situation has become and speaks the kind of platitudes that an aristocratic bridegroom would utter if he had no emotions about his forthcoming marriage: “Happily met, my lady and my wife,” and noticing that she’s been crying, a statement of ownership: “Thy face is mine, and thou hast slandered it.” He kisses her cheek – a cold kiss – and calls it “a holy kiss.” After that encounter, during which Juliet, Friar Lawrence, and the audience are all cringing, we forget about him until he appears at the tomb, guarding it, when Romeo arrives. And when Romeo kills him the audience has no feelings about his death.

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