Romeo and Juliet

Plot summary

Key Characters

JULIET - 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.

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Romeo- 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.

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LORD CAPULET - The patriarch of the Capulet family, father of Juliet, husband of Lady Capulet, and enemy, for unexplained reasons, of Montague. He truly loves his daughter, though he is not well acquainted with Juliet’s thoughts or feelings, and seems to think that what is best for her is a “good” match with Paris. he commands respect, but he is liable to fly into a rage when he doesn't get it.

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LORD AND LADY MONTAGUE- Romeo’s father, the patriarch of the Montague clan and bitter enemy of Capulet. At the beginning of the play, he is chiefly concerned about Romeo’s melancholy. Romeo’s mother, Montague’s wife. She dies of grief after Romeo is exiled from Verona.

LADY CAPULET - Juliet’s mother, Capulet’s wife. A woman who herself married young (by her own estimation she gave birth to Juliet at close to the age of fourteen), she is eager to see her daughter marry Paris. She is a poor mother, relying on the Nurse for moral and realistic support.

BENVOLIO- Romeo’s cousin and thoughtful friend, he 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.

NURSE - JJuliet’s nurse, the woman who breast-fed Juliet when she was a baby and has cared for Juliet her entire life. A vulgar, long-winded, and sentimental character, the Nurse provides comic relief with her frequently inappropriate remarks and speeches. The Nurse is Juliet’s faithful confidante and helps to arrange Juliet’s marriage to Romeo. She provides a contrast with Juliet, given that her view of love is earthy and sexual, whereas Juliet is idealistic and intense. The Nurse believes in love and wants Juliet to have a nice-looking husband, but the idea that Juliet would want to sacrifice herself for love is incomprehensible to her.

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TYBALT - A Capulet, Juliet’s cousin on her mother’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. Once drawn, his sword is something to be feared. He loathes Montagues

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FRIAR LAWRENCE- 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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MERCUTIO

A kinsman to the Prince, and Romeo’s close friend. Mercutio overflows with imagination, wit, and, at times, he is a bit strange. 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.

PARIS

A kinsman of the Prince, and the suitor of Juliet most preferred by Capulet. Once Capulet has promised him he can marry Juliet, he behaves very presumptuous toward her, acting as if they are already married.

PRINCE

The Prince of Verona. A kinsman of Mercutio and Paris. As the seat of political power in Verona, he is concerned about maintaining the public peace at all costs.

APOTHECARY

An apothecary in Mantua. Had he been wealthier, he might have been able to afford to value his morals more than money, and refused to sell poison to Romeo.

Context

Context is the background to the play. It includes social and historical things that were happening at the time that the play was being written. It also includes any ideas in society that might have influenced Shakespeare's writing. Remember, this play is set in the ELIZABETHAN ERA.

Honour:

Men in Shakespeare’s time cared deeply about their honour, especially their natural honour. This was the respect with which their equals treated them – to lose your honour was to lose all respect and reputation. It also could not be regained once lost – this lead to a lot of fights (duels) over insults to your honour. It only mattered among equals – this is why Lord Capulet isn’t bothered by Romeo being at his party, while Tybalt is. Lord Capulet is socially superior to Romeo, while Tybalt and Romeo are equals socially speaking. It is why Tybalt has to fight Mercutio once Mercutio insults him (“rat catcher”) otherwise he would lose face. This is also why Lord Capulet insists Juliet marry Paris – Capulet has promised this; if he failed and was “forsworn” he would lose honour.

To us this seems perhaps over the top – to challenge somebody to a duel over an insult – but Shakespeare’s audience would have understood that the characters had little choice but to act as they do in order to preserve their honour.

Women’s honour meanwhile was dependent on their chastity – remaining a virgin until their marriage. However if a women lost her honour so would her family. As it was a patriarchal society, women had to obey the men in their lives without question. That is why Juliet's refusal to marry Paris was so unusual.

Family:

Despite there being a Queen (Elizabeth 1) on the throne when Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet, men were the masters. Their wives and children were theirs to command, their daughters in particular their property to “give” to whomever they pleased. This is called a patriarchal society. Capulet therefore seems decided liberal when he tells Paris that Juliet may have a “choice” in whom she married; he also seems perfectly normal when claimed that “she will be ruled” by him and agree to marry Paris.

Posh families also often employed a Wet Nurse to breastfeed their children – the Nurse had that role, which is why she feels like a mother to Juliet

Potions and poisons:

Elizabethan’s were superstitious people who believed in magic and witchcraft. The idea of anaesthetic as a medical procedure was unknown, so Friar Laurence’s potion would seem magical to them, evil perhaps (note how the Apothecary Romeo buys the poison takes a risk in selling it). Another reason why Friar Laurence would have come across as unnatural and untrustworthy to a Shakespearean audience.