Snaith//Romeo & Juliet Character Cards

The son of Montague and Lady Montague. Romeo is a teen of about sixteen, He is handsome, intelligent, and sensitive. He is also impulsive and immature. He lives in the middle of a violent feud between his family and the Capulets, but he does not let that affect him in any way when he meets Juliet. He secretly marries Juliet, the daughter of his father’s worst enemy; because he is so madly in love with her at first sight. He happily takes abuse from Tybalt; and he would rather die than live without his beloved, he shows this in the ending where he kills himself to be reunited with Juliet in death. Romeo is also a kind friend to his relative Benvolio, Mercutio, and Friar Lawrence.

The daughter of Capulet and Lady Capulet. A lovely young woman, Juliet begins the play as a simple child who thinks little about love and marriage, but she grows up quickly upon meeting Romeo, the son of her family’s great enemy. Because she is a girl in an traditional of the time family, she has none of the freedom Romeo has to roam 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 news about him after he gets involved in a fight with Tybalt. Juliet’s closest friend is her Nurse, who she sees as a mother figure, though she’s willing to shut the Nurse out of her life the moment the Nurse turns against Romeo.

Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin is the most aggressive Capulet and is constantly starting confrontations with the Montague family throughout the play, an example would be when he kills Mercutio. He will do anything to show that the Capulets are superior to the Montagues, he would die for the Capulet name and does when Romeo kills him for killing Mercutio.

The Nurse is Juliet’s mother figure and she confides in her throughout the play. Most of the nurses language contains sexual jokes and innuendos, resulting in her being less well spoken compared to the rest of the main characters who are of a more noble birth than her. Juliet is more of a mother figure to Juliet than her own mother as she has raised her and Juliet has seen her as a mother. The nurse helps Juliet throughout the play with her love for Romeo, by helping him into her bedroom and being a messenger between the couple. Juliet trusts the nurse throughout the play until the nurse agrees with Lady Capulet that  Juliet should marry Paris, from this point onwards Juliet no longer sees the nurse as a friend.

Lord & Lady Capulet follow a very aristocratic and traditional roles in family life. Lord Capulet is the head of the house and his wife and Juliet must follow what he says. Lady Capulet is not seen as a mother figure  by Juliet to her lack of involvement in her life. Lord Capulet is seen to be a caring father to wards Juliet throughout the play until she disagrees with his arrangements for her to marry Paris. When she stands up to him he becomes enraged and says terrible things to Juliet. Lady Capulet gives no support to Juliet when she hears of her fathers plans to marry her.

Mercutio has a very quirky and humorous personality which makes him a popular and memorable character. He has a very laid back attitude to everything life throws at him. He is constantly stirring up trouble with Tybalt leading to fights and eventually his and Tybalt’s death. He contrasts heavily with Romeo's personality as they have such different outlooks on life.

Paris is Lord Capulet’s ideal man for Juliet, he is eager to marry Juliet and constantly pushes Capulet to arrange the marriage.  Paris believes him and Juliet are in love and when he hears of her death he is overwhelmed with grief. He visits the family tomb to lay flowers in her memory but comes across Romeo and starts a duel with him thinking Romeo is here to desecrate her grave. Paris is killed and asks Romeo to lay his body next to Juliet’s, showing off Paris’ feelings for Juliet.

The Friar is a friend to both Juliet and Romeo and helps them with their relationship by marrying them, he did this in the hope of ending the feud between their families which it did in the end but not how he hoped. The friar is wary of Romeo's quickly found love and believes young people do not understand love yet. Both lovers confide in the Friar and ask advice and help from him throughout the play. The Friar is a major player in the death of the couple as he is the one who cam up with the plan to fake Juliet’s death and for them to run away together. But this backfires when Romeo is not informed of the plan and kills him self to reunite with Juliet in death.