Verona — a city divided between two great houses.
Romeo and Juliet has a relatively small named cast — about a dozen speaking parts plus the Watch, the musicians, the servants. The play turns on two households, the Friar's cell, and the Prince who governs them all. Almost half the named cast is dead by the final scene.
The Capulets' only child. The play states her age explicitly — "she hath not seen the change of fourteen years." Wiser of the two lovers; she questions, qualifies, anticipates. Arranges the secret marriage, drinks the friar's potion in her chamber alone, wakes in the tomb to find Romeo dead beside her, and uses his dagger on herself in three lines.
Hosts the ball at which the lovers meet. Restrains Tybalt there from attacking Romeo, recognizing the Montague heir as "a virtuous and well-governed youth." After Tybalt's death he flips: arranges Juliet's marriage to Paris for Thursday, then moves it up to Wednesday, threatens to disown her when she resists. Reconciles with Montague over their children's bodies in the final scene.
Married young; perhaps in her late twenties when the play opens. Broaches the Paris match with Juliet in Scene 4, praising the suitor's qualities in formal couplets. Refuses to intercede when her husband threatens to disown the daughter for refusing it. Mourns Juliet's apparent death; present at the tomb for the final revelations.
The Capulets' most aggressive young man. Draws his sword in the opening brawl; spots Romeo at the ball and is restrained; vows revenge. Finds Romeo in the street the next day, kills Mercutio when Romeo refuses the duel, and is killed by Romeo minutes later in fury. He is the feud personified — needs no specific grievance to fight, only the name on the other side.
Bawdy, garrulous, devoted. Carries the messages between the lovers, helps arrange the secret marriage, cheers them on. Then, after Tybalt's death, counsels Juliet to forget Romeo and marry Paris — a practical accommodation Juliet recognizes as a betrayal. The Nurse's failure is one of the quiet tragedies inside the loud one. She is also the source of the play's only sustained comic warmth.
The protagonist. Opens the play in love with a woman named Rosaline who never appears. Forgets her the instant he sees Juliet at the ball. Marries Juliet on Monday afternoon, kills Tybalt by sundown, is banished by night, spends his wedding night with her, rides to Mantua at dawn, hears of her death on Thursday, buys poison from an apothecary, returns to Verona at midnight, kills Paris at the tomb door, and drinks the poison beside her body just before she wakes.
Enters the opening street brawl calling for his sword. Worries about his son's melancholy in Scene 2 and asks Benvolio to find out what troubles him. Arrives at the tomb in the final scene to find his son dead and his wife (off-stage) dead of grief. Offers to raise a golden statue of Juliet, ending the feud.
Romeo's cousin on the Montague side; the family's most level-headed young man. Tries to stop the opening street brawl. Encourages Romeo to crash the Capulet feast to forget Rosaline. Witnesses the duel that kills Mercutio and Tybalt and gives the Prince a careful, accurate account. Vanishes from the play after Act 3; Shakespeare seems to have lost interest in him.
Neither Capulet nor Montague — kinsman to Prince Escalus, friend to Romeo personally. The play's best speaker; the Queen Mab speech in Scene 5 is his, a torrent of fairy-tale invention sliding into something darker and uncontrollable. Mocks Romeo's lovesickness, sees through romantic illusion, gets mortally wounded under Romeo's own arm in Scene 13. His death — "a plague o' both your houses" — is the play's pivot.
The civic authority. Arrives to stop the opening brawl in Scene 2 and declares the next outbreak of violence between the families punishable by death. Pronounces judgment after Tybalt's death — Romeo is banished rather than executed because Tybalt killed first. Arrives at the tomb in Scene 25, hears the Friar's confession, and brokers the peace between the families with the play's last line of judgment: "All are punish'd."
Collects herbs in his cell at dawn. Marries Romeo and Juliet in secret hoping the union will reconcile the houses. Counsels Romeo against suicide after the banishment. Devises the sleeping-potion plan in Scene 18. Sends the letter that never arrives. Arrives at the vault late and alone, panics when he hears the watch coming, abandons Juliet there to die. Confesses everything to the Prince in the final scene.
A relative of the Prince, of marriageable age and good prospects. Asks Capulet for Juliet's hand in Scene 3 and is told she is too young. After Tybalt's death the match is suddenly arranged for Thursday. Encounters Juliet at Friar Laurence's cell in Scene 18 and is gently put off. Stands watch at her tomb on Thursday night to mourn her, confronts Romeo when Romeo arrives, and is killed in the fight. Romeo lays his body beside Juliet's.
The unseen object of Romeo's lovesickness when the play opens. A Capulet by family — she is on the guest list for the feast — and has sworn to live chaste, which leaves Romeo despairing. She never appears on stage and is forgotten by Romeo within five seconds of his first sight of Juliet. Her function in the play is to establish that Romeo is sixteen and that what he calls love is not always reliable.
Friar Laurence's brother in the order, dispatched to Mantua with the letter explaining the sleeping-potion plan to Romeo. Quarantined en route by a plague scare and unable to deliver it. Returns to Friar Laurence's cell in Scene 24 with the letter still in his hand. The single piece of bad luck on which the play's final mechanism turns.
A starving Mantuan apothecary whose shop Romeo notices in Scene 23. Reluctantly sells Romeo a deadly poison for forty ducats — illegal, punishable by death — because he is desperate. "My poverty, but not my will, consents." Romeo, paying him, observes that the gold is the worse poison.