The narrator who appears in the Prologues to Acts I & II
Balthasar
Romeo's servant. He travels to Mantua to inform Romeo of Juliet's supposed death.
Benvolio
Montague's nephew & Romeo's friend. He attempts in vain to prevent the fight between Mercutio and Tybalt.
Tybalt
Lady Capulet's nephew and Juliet's cousin. After mortally wounding Mercutio in a duel, he is killed by Romeo.
Capulet
Juliet's father; He arranges Juliet's marriage to Paris and makes peace with Montague after the lovers' deaths.
Lady Capulet
Juliet's mother; she favors Juliet's marriage to Paris and, with her husband, rebukes her daughter when she protests the match.
Montague
Romeo's father; He reconciles with Capulet after Romeo's and Juliet's deaths.
Escalus
The prince of Verona. He attempts to prevent the public brawls between the feuding houses and banishes Romeo from Verona for killing Tybalt in a battle.
Romeo
The son of Montague and Lady Montague.
Paris
A nobleman and Escalus's kinsman. He is engaged to Juliet before her apparent death and is killed by Romeo at the Capulet vault.
Nurse
Juliet's attendant. She helps arrange Juliet's secret marriage to Romeo.
Juliet
The daughter of Capulet and Lady Capulet.
Mercutio
Romeo's friend and a kinsman of Escalus. He is killed by Tybalt in a duel.
Friar Lawrence
A Franciscan priest. He conducts Romeo and Juliet's secret wedding and devises a scheme to prevent Juliet's marriage to Paris.
Apothecary
A maker of drugs and medicines who sells Romeo the poison with which he kills himself.
Friar John
A Franciscan monk. He is quarantined in Verona because of the plague before he can deliver Friar Lawrence's letter to Romeo.
