Benvolio- Benvolio is soooooooo great!! First of all, he's a Montague, so he's automatically better than the Capulets, except for Tybalt and the two servants in the beginning who are trying so very hard to be funny that it's touching. Anyway, when Benvolio breaks up the fighting, he doesn't come across as a spoilsport because he doesn't do it in an uptight way, and he is able to comfort Romeo without sacrificing his own character! Okay, so I usually don't like the nice guys, but Benvolio is too sweet to hate!
Benvolio is the only character you can count on. While Romeo jumps from one woman to the next, and the Capulets go from hating the Montagues to letting them stay at the party, Benvolio is consistent in his peacekeeping efforts.
His single-minded devotion to resolving everything is kind of amusing at a point where everyone else is just trying too hard. Poor Benvolio. Why can't he realize that no matter how hard he tries, Romeo is not going to listen?
Alright- end of the book here- WHERE IS BENVOLIO? They can't just get rid of him! He could have made everything better! If Friar Laurence had consulted him instead of taking everything upon himself, this story did not have to be a tragedy! Only I think Shakespeare knew that, so he ditched everyone's favorite sweetheart on purpose so that he could have his tragic ending. He could have at least made up an excuse or something for it… it wouldn't have been too hard to have a Montague servant mention that Benvolio was off a-hunting or whatever. It was kind of mean to just forget about him!
Tybalt- This guy is like a mindless fighting machine! Refusing to accept peace, he obviously turns insult to injury in more than one sense with all frequency. I doubt if he sees anything beyond his hatred for the Montagues. As a person, he'd be rather tedious to know, but he's quite comical as a character, even if he's not as great as Benvolio. Benvolio's the kind of guy you marry, Tybalt's the kind of guy you point and laugh at (and then run away real fast so he doesn't kill you.)
He is desperate to fight, kill, fight, kill, etc. etc. and it's surprising that he's not foaming at the mouth. It's not a party without some bloodshed! He has some serious Capulet pride!
Wow, Tybalt's lust for blood is highly funny! His automatic reaction to anything- especially anything Montague- seems to be to kill it (or to draw his sword and wave it around menacingly.)
Officially hating Romeo for killing Tybalt! Tybalt had every right in the world to be angry at Romeo, and every right in the world to dispose of Mercutio (they do tend to kill rabid beasts.) With one stroke of his impassioned sword, lover-boy disposed of my comic relief!
I would like to take this opportunity to say that the entire tragedy was Tybalt's fault… all of it. Directly, too. Yep. If it hadn't been for Tybalt, then Romeo and Juliet could have lived happily ever after. It's his fault Shakespeare decided to paint him as a two-dimensional villain. It's his fault that he was born in an era where family feuds were en vogue, and his fault that he miraculously survived to young adulthood in a time when the infant mortality rate was through the roof. His fault, too, that he was gifted with his sword, and that he was blindly raised by his parents to hate the family across the street, that his being a loyal son and doing what his parents wanted him to do (unlike certain title characters that I could name) led Romeo and Juliet to think that their whole forbidden love thing was so cool. It was his fault that he did not conceal his plan to kill Romeo at the party from his uncle, who promptly stopped it, thus letting Romeo and Juliet meet! Poor, dumb, misguided Tybalt, who never knew a quill that was mightier than his sword was manipulating him. He thought that Romeo was leading Juliet into shame, and rightly demanded satisfaction. He should have let Mercutio kill him for no reason! You see, it's allllll Tybalt's fault! Especially the fact that during his life, he did not command enough love from Juliet. Sure, Lord Capulet loved him, but by loving him, he became a villain too. If Juliet had loved him, she would have gotten over Romeo and married Paris! Then Paris wouldn't have to die and Romeo could have moved on to his next love and no one would get the raw end of the deal! Tybalt was the victim of literary convention!
(My apologies for any incoherency in the above paragraphs… I was ranting.)
Lord Montague- Not much to say about either of the 'rents except that they are not, I repeat, are not, Capulets in disguise!
Any old guy who demands his sword to join in a street brawl with people his son's age has got to be worth writing about… too bad Shakespeare doesn't think so.
Lady Montague- See above on the first count.
I might feel a little more sympathy for poor Lady Montague's death of heartbreak in the end if I actually knew anything about her (thanks again Shakespeare,) but all I can say is shame on Romeo. I bet that Benvolio took care of all the funeral preparations.
Lord Capulet- Much as I dislike the Capulets, Lord Capulet really seems to care about Juliet's well being, and he's quite eloquent. Now why did he ever settle for Lady Capulet?He seems to be a decent guy aside from his whole spiel on all his guests having corns (it kind of ruined his poetic image) and I really don't agree with his letting Romeo stay at the party. It made Tybalt the bad guy.
I think that his being upset by the murder of his nephew (namely Tybalt) made him yell at Juliet… not schizophrenia or a mean streak or anything like that. You just don't go from being a jovial, happy old fellow to threatening to throw your beloved daughter out on the street for no reason. I really truly think that he loves Juliet more than Lady Capulet does, and he just wants to keep her his little girl forever. (Notice that he wants to delay the marriage when he still thinks that she's a little girl, and when he realizes the reality of mortality through the murder of Tybalt, he wants to put her in a marriage where he knows she'll be loved and well off. When she refuses, he treats her like a little girl, but is appeased when she agrees.) I feel so bad for him because the daughter whom he loves more than she'll ever love Romeo is hoodwinking him, and he can't even realize it. Juliet is repulsively self-centered.
Lady Capulet- How much does she annoy me? She really seems to want to marry Juliet off ASAP… perhaps trying to compensate for her own unhappy marriage?
I don't think that she cares for Juliet at all, but is too self-involved to display any emotion except conceit. She doesn't seem upset by Tybalt's death, so her joining in on the scream-fest is totally unjustified.
If it weren't for the fact that she doesn't have a heart, it might have made the tragedy just a little sweeter if Lady Capulet, not Lady Montague, died of heartbreak. It wouldn't be altogether implausible, though, if she died to get some attention… You could see how it might be traumatizing for her to be ignored in favor of a couple dead kids. She notably says nothing to lament the loss of her daughter.
The Prince- He doesn't have any real character, but he is a bit indecisive what with all his making of proclamations, then repealing them, then making some more proclamations. I think that he and all the other ignored characters should have a support group or something during the course of the story. Why don't they realize that no matter what they do, Romeo and Juliet are still only going to care about themselves?
Romeo- This man bugs me so much! Lovelorn, impassioned, stupid. "Duh… I love a girl!" No kidding, loverboy. Stop a minute and take a breath. He needs a life! He's one of those people that judge their worth by their love life, methinks.
He still needs a life, and he needs to give his well-meaning friends a break! They're trying so hard to cheer him up, but all he pays attention to are his raging hormones!
I'm still annoyed beyond all belief by him. He takes himself so much more seriously now! It's even more maddening! He's every ounce as nutty as before, only he's convinced he's mature. He's abandoned all practicality in favor of foolish demonstrations of his ardor. (Let's analyze: does one encourage a man who turns up outside your window at night without ever having been introduced, proclaiming that he flew in to stalk you? Obviously Juliet's the exception, but Romeo didn't really pick the most tactful approach.) I think Rosaline was the sane one. The only way to keep this guy grounded is by rejecting him.
Once again- it's not so much that Romeo's more practical now, but more like he's as foolish as ever and just thinks he's practical. I realize that for literary purposes the play must take place in a short period of time, but the idea of a wedding so soon is absurd. Seriously. Give them two weeks and they'd totally be over each other! Problem: Shakespeare kills them before two weeks are up. That severely curtails realistic potential. Willing suspension of disbelief? Uh-uh. I suspended it the first two times, but this time it's right here with me, and it is as disbelieving as ever!
Romeo is like a bad male model, making pathetic attempts at displaying various emotions. (Here is Romeo sad. Here is Romeo giddy. Here is Romeo conceited. Here is Romeo in love. Here is Romeo serious.) Here is Romeo mysterious. Our forthright hero had a change of heart and decided to play a guessing game with Tybalt, minus telling Tybalt that they were playing a guessing game. ("Hey Tybalt! Guess who I married five minutes ago?") How is anyone supposed to know?! This whole scenario before the fight brought to mind a little kid parading around yelling "I know a secret you don't know! I know a secret you don't know!" Um… the idea of Romeo marrying an enemy of his house is as probable as the Prince eloping with his horse if you think about it, which Romeo didn't. This whole play is founded on the Willing Suspension of Belief in Intelligent Characters. Romeo needs to sort out his priorities! After refusing to help his insane buddy Mercutio in true heroic style, he goes and avenges his death. Wow. You almost feel bad for him- the way he has to make everything as bad as humanly possible. Imagine the worst-case scenario and multiply it by a million and you have the story after Romeo's gone through it. You almost feel bad for him, but not quite. If he had stopped for just a minute to think that Tybalt would be killed anyway for killing Mercutio, that whole banishment dealie could have been avoided.
At this point, I feel no sympathy for Romeo, or his fate. I'm sick of saying that if he'd waited half a second, he could have found out the truth. It's not like he would listen anyway. He'd just plow on ahead, kill his mother through grief, kill Paris, kill himself, and, through his death, kill Juliet. He has a lot of blood on his hands. The only point in this entire play that I almost liked Romeo was when he let show his first display of human decency and agreed to place the murdered Paris's body next to Juliet's. There were so many times during the course of this soap opera that Romeo could have died, should have died. It had to catch up with him eventually. The last couplet, however, should have read:
"For never was a story of more pain
Than of Romeo's total lack of brain."
Mercutio- Light-hearted, amusing, and creative, especially with his interesting monologue, I still get the feeling that he's trying too hard.
He adores the sound of his voice.
I think that being blatantly ignored by a friend that he was trying so hard to help cracked his sanity. He's actually fairly humorous, but only after the insanity (notice he stops talking in verse!) and only when he's not trying to be (like just before his death.) I think Tybalt was helping humanity by putting Mercutio out of his desperate misery.
The Nurse- Though I can't call her the wittiest creature ever to grace the stage, she's in good company here. She does love Juliet, but it's questionable whether she has her best interests in mind. She would like to see her married to Paris, but she doesn't push the subject too far.As one of the two adults involved in the romantic scheme before Romeo and Juliet, it would be nice to think that she could foresee the disaster, but of course she can't…
Woops, Nursie betrayed Juliet's trust by not wanting her to stay involved with a banished man! Silly Nurse!
Shakespeare ditched the Nurse in the end, too, which is really sad because she loved Juliet, too. While I didn't ever really connect with the Nurse, I definitely didn't dislike her, and I don't think she deserved what she got, even if Romeo and Juliet did. Juliet should have been allowed to live, if only for the Nurse's sake.
Juliet- None too interested in marriage, Juliet seems to be pretty average for a 12 or 13-year old. Not too much to say so far, but she's got enough character to oppose her mother's stifling wishes.
I give her credit for remaining grounded, but that's it. Why isn't she even mildly frightened by finding Romeo beneath her balcony? She's allowing herself to be strung along by Romeo's wordy flattery, and it seems unlikely that she could truly love him after knowing him so very, very briefly. A crush, perhaps, but not true, lasting love. This is lust, not love, as supported by Juliet's soliloquies later on.
Actually kind of melodramatic, she seems to forsake her family in favor of Romeo by the marriage scene. She's the heroine, and she knows it! Every small event must be dramatized and dramatized by pubescent Juliet, because, after all, you can only be a title character of a Shakespearian tragedy once. You need to milk it for all it's worth.
She definitely does decide that she likes Romeo more than her family when he kills poor Tybalt, and I've lost any and all respect that I had for her by now. She's too inconsistent! You can't just forsake people who sacrifice their very lives to protect not even your own miserable being, but just your happiness! It's abhorrent.
She inherited the selfishness of her mother, not caring what her parents or the Nurse or Paris think when she plays dead. She takes the Drama Queen route out, thinking that the whole world is against her and the only way to be happy again is to reunite with Romeo. Yes, love is important. I'm not saying anything to the contrary. But she had love right there with her family, too, and if she could have just opened her eyes and realized that, she might have been able to wait for Friar Laurence to get a pardon for Romeo in perfect contentment with her family.
I guess Juliet really didn't have many other options but to kill herself in the end. She did so much to be with Romeo, and there he was next to her… dead. Paris was dead. Her parents thought she was dead. Why not die too? Obviously she could have done something else, but it was expected for her to die and complete the tragedy. Too bad for everyone who loved her.
Friar Laurence- Well-intentioned… not amusing, but not detestable. He doesn't know what he's getting into, but his heart's in the right place.
He's not too smart. I mean, his intentions stay good, but he's just not in a position to help in all the ways that the star-crossed lovers want him to. He sets up his plans, but he doesn't think beyond that. He puts all his eggs in one basket. If one thing goes wrong, the plan is wrecked. He is forced to go from Plan A to Plan B to Plan C to Plan D. Eventually one of them has to fail, and it does. At least his overall goal was achieved: the surviving Montagues and Capulets reconcile in the end.
Paris- What's not to love about Paris?! He's handsome, sweet, well-intentioned, and, oh yeah… murdered by Romeo. Paris did NOT deserve that! He was at the tomb to lay flowers near the body of his fiancée whom he loved! How was he supposed to know that she was already married to a man whose sword is readier than his conscience? Paris can be the President of the Great-Characters-That-Shakespeare-Hates Support Group, but I'm sure that's no consolation when you're dead!