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William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet, set in Verona, Italy, features the eponymous protagonists Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet. The cast of characters also includes members of their respective families and households; Prince Escalus, the city's ruler, and his kinsman, Count Paris; and various unaffiliated characters such as Friar Laurence and the Chorus. In addition, the play contains two ghost characters (Petruchio and Valentine) and an unseen character (Rosaline). House of Escalus Prince Escalus Prince Escalus, the Prince of Verona, is the desperate resolver of the feuding families. He is based on the actual Scaliger family which ruled Verona, possibly on Bartolomeo I. Escalus is the voice of authority in Verona. He appears only three times within the text and only to administer justice following major events in the feud between the Capulet and Montague families. He first punishes Capulet and Montague for the quarrel between Tybalt, Benvolio, and a handful of servants. He returns too late to stop the fatal brawls between Tybalt and Mercutio and, subsequently, Tybalt and Romeo. Escalus is prepared to execute Romeo for his offence—Romeo's killing of Tybalt—but lightens the sentence to lifetime banishment from Verona, when Benvolio insists that Tybalt started the quarrel by murdering Mercutio, a kinsman to the prince. He yells at Lord Montague for engaging in the feud, which really is the root cause that led to Romeo killing Tybalt. Prince Escalus returns in the final scene—V.iii—following the double suicide of Romeo and Juliet, and at last declares Lord Montague and Lord Capulet guilty of Romeo and Juliet's deaths. Escalus angrily berates them that their violent and useless feud resulted in the deaths of not only their own loved ones (Lady Montague, Romeo, Juliet, and Tybalt), but also in the deaths of his loved ones (Mercutio and Paris). He pardons Friar Lawrence for his role in Juliet's death. He curses the feud that kills Romeo and Juliet just before the Lords come to peace with each other. In the end, Prince Escalus becomes very happy that the feud has finally ended, even if with a heavy price. Count Paris Count Paris is a kinsman of Prince Escalus and seeks to marry Juliet. He is described as handsome, somewhat self-absorbed, and very wealthy. Paris makes his first appearance in Act I, Scene II, where he expresses his wish to make Juliet his wife and the mother of his children. Mercutio Mercutio is the cousin of Prince Escalus and Count Paris, and is a close friend of Romeo and his cousin Benvolio. He supports and fights on the Montague side of the feud, and just like a Montague, hates the Capulet family. The invitation to the Capulet's party reveals that he has a brother named Valentine. Mercutio is apt to make long, drawn out speeches (the most famous of which is the Queen Mab speech), and is generally thought to be reckless, a jester, and a free spirit. Due to his reckless and flamboyant personality, Mercutio is one of Shakespeare's most popular characters. Mercutio is the instigator of many fights with his rather mean spirited humor, and often insults Tybalt, a renowned swordsman. It is Tybalt's temper that leads to Mercutio's death, and Romeo's banishment and the tragedy that follows. After Romeo receives a death threat from Tybalt, Mercutio expects Romeo to engage Tybalt in a duel. However, Romeo refuses to fight Tybalt, as Tybalt is Juliet's cousin and therefore his kinsman. Not knowing this, Mercutio is incensed, and decides to fight Tybalt himself. Romeo, not wanting his best friend or his relative to get hurt, intervenes, causing Mercutio to be killed by Tybalt stabbing under Romeo's arm. Before he dies, Mercutio casts "a plague o' both your houses!" He makes one final pun before he dies: "Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man". In revenge for the murder of his best friend, Romeo slays Tybalt, thus leading to Romeo's banishment from Verona and the increasingly tragic turn of events that follows. House of Capulet The Capulet family (Italian: Capuleti or Cappelletti) in the play was named after an actual political faction of the 13th century. Notably, the Capulet family is often portrayed as the more aggressive family, as much of the conflict is caused by them. They are also more developed, since more attention is given to their family life. Lord Capulet Lord Capulet is the patriarch of the Capulet family, the father of Juliet, and uncle of Tybalt. He is very wealthy. He is sometimes commanding but also convivial, as at the ball: when Tybalt tries to duel with Romeo, Capulet tries to calm him and then threatens to throw him out of the family if he does not control his temper; he does the same to his daughter later in the play. Capulet believes he knows what is best for Juliet. He says his consent to the marriage depends upon what she wants and tells Count Paris that if he wants to marry Juliet he should wait a while then ask her. Later, however, when Juliet is grieving over Romeo's departure, Capulet thinks her sorrow is due to Tybalt's death, and in a misguided attempt to cheer her up, he wants to surprise her by arranging a marriage between her and Count Paris. The catch is that she has to be "ruled" by her father and to accept the proposal. When she refuses to become Paris' "joyful bride", saying that she can "never be proud of what she hates", Capulet becomes furious; threatens to make her a street urchin; calls her a "hilding" , "unworthy", "young baggage", a "disobedient wretch", a "green-sickness carrion", and "tallow-face"; and says God's giving Juliet to them was a "curse" and he now realizes he and his wife had one child too many when Juliet was born (in the earlier poem The Tragic History of Romeus and Juliet). In addition to threatening to turn her out, he threatens to sentence her to rot away in prison if she does not obey her parents' orders. He then storms away, and his wife also rejects Juliet before following him. He fixes the day of the marriage for Thursday and suddenly advances it to Wednesday out of anger and impulse. His actions indicate that his daughter's wants were irrelevant all the way up to the point when he sees her unconscious on her bed (presumably dead) and later, when she is truly dead during the play's final scene. It is he who asks Lord Montague for his hand to end the feud between their families. Lady Capulet Capulet's wife is the matriarch of the house of Capulet and Juliet's mother. She plays a larger role than Montague's wife, appearing in several scenes. In Act 1, Scene 3, she speaks to Juliet about the marriage of her daughter and Paris, we see this as she compares him to a book, and Juliet is the cover. However, in Scene four, she is pleased about Count Paris' "interest" in her daughter. When Tybalt is killed in Act 3, she expresses extreme grief and a strong desire for revenge on Romeo by wishing death upon him. In Act 3, Scene 5, she becomes very angry with Juliet f.... Discover the David A Montague popular books. Find the top 100 most popular David A Montague books.