Romeo and Juliet characters: main and secondary

One of the best-known plays by William Shakespeare is, without a doubt, Romeo and Juliet. This play tells the tragic story of two young lovers who challenge their respective families because These oppose his love and, at the end of the play, the two protagonists would rather die than live without him. other. The passionate love between Romeo and Juliet embodies the ideal of impossible and eternal love, a topic of universal literature of all times.

This play, which is one of Shakespeare's earliest masterpieces, has had great influence and impact on later art and culture: Romeo and Juliet It has been taken to the cinema, to the theater and to the television, as well as it has also been a source of inspiration for poets, painters, sculptors and other artists. In this lesson from a TEACHER we study what are the main and secondary characters of Romeo and Juliet.

Index

1. Introduction and plot of Romeo and Juliet
2. Main Characters: Romeo and Juliet
3. Minor characters in Romeo and Juliet
4. The importance of Romeo and Juliet in literature

Romeo and Juliet is about the impossible love story between two young men belonging to two families from Verona that have faced each other since time immemorial: the Montagues and the Capulets. Romeo Montesco meets the beautiful lady Julieta Capulet at a party and they both fall madly in love with each other. Both decide to marry in secret, helped by Fray Lorenzo, who officiates the link.

One day, Mercury, a close friend of Romeo, quarrels with Tybalt, who belongs to the Capulet family. Then Romeo appears and, seeing Mercury die at the hands of Tybalt, Romeo kills him. Faced with this situation, the Verona authorities Romeo is forced into exile and flee away from the city. He says goodbye to his beloved Juliet and part of him.

Meanwhile, the Capulet family, unaware of her daughter's recent marriage to a Montague, want to marry her to another man. Juliet, aided by the friar who officiated her liaison, decides to take a potion to simulate that she has passed away and wait for Romeo, advised by the priest, to rescue her again to flee together to Mantua, the city where Romeo now resides.

However, the friar cannot warn the young lover in time that when he contemplates the supposed corpse of his beloved, Romeo ingests a poison and commits suicide at Juliet's feet, who when a short time later wakes up and sees the corpse of her loved one, cannot bear the pain and guilt and decides to stick a dagger in order to die and be forever with his Romeo.

When the Montague and Capulet families They discover what happened, decide to reconcile and forget their quarrels.

Image: Slideplayer

First, let's briefly detail the characteristics of the main characters of Romeo and Juliet:

Romeo Montague

Young protagonist, belonging to a wealthy family, the Montagues. At the beginning of the play, Romeo is in love with Rosalinda, until he meets Juliet at a dance to which he secretly attends with Mercurio and Benvolio, his best friend and his cousin respectively. Romeo embodies the quintessential romantic lover, who is capable of dying for her lover since he cannot live without her.

Juliet Capulet

She along with Romeo, the other protagonist of the play. Fair lady, daughter of the Capulets. She falls in love and secretly marries Romeo and in order not to be forced to marry Count Paris later, she decides to drink a concoction to appear dead until the arrival of her true love, Romeo. However, he arrives before her, believes her dead, and commits suicide. At the beginning of the play, Julieta is submissive and docile but later she is capable of deceiving her parents in order to be with hers in love with her. Seeing Romeo dead, he can't bear the pain and decides to commit suicide.

Image: Slideshare

Second, we will briefly explain what the most important secondary characters of Romeo and Juliet:

• Friar lorenzo: He is the religious in charge of marrying secret lovers. He is kind and helps young people in any way he can, believing that families are wrong to be in conflict with each other. It is his idea to fake the death of the young woman to try to save the love of both.
• Mercury: He is Romeo's best friend. Due to his death at the hands of Tybalt, Romeo, blinded by anger, kills him and condemns himself to exile. Mercury is always with Romeo, advising him as a good friend.
• Tybalt Capulet: Juliet's cousin. He deeply hates the Montagues and by viciously killing Mercury, he condemns himself to death, as Romeo is forced to avenge the wrongful death of his friend.
• The mistress: The nurse of the young Juliet, she is her confessor and is aware of the love affairs of Juliet and Romeo. The Mistress watches over the young woman's safety and advises her to leave the young Montague after he has to go into exile and to marry Paris.
• Count Paris: Juliet's suitor. Educated, from a good family and social position. He is well received by the Capulet family, who intend to marry him to Juliet, which is why he fights with Romeo and passes away.

Image: Slideplayer

One of the most important works of world literature is "Romeo and Juliet", without a doubt. It is a piece that is world famous all over the world and that marked a great influence on European literature of the time. Since its publication, this Shakespearean play has been constantly performed and has also been translated into other European languages ​​such as German, French or Italian. In Spain, the trace of this tragedy also had a great influence on the authors and literature of the time.

Each author who adapted this piece did so by giving it a different touch and adapted to his reality, his culture and his time. This is why a playwright like David garrick In 1748 he decided to transform some of the scenes in this work since, according to his reality, they were somewhat indecent. Garrick gave more importance to the fact of fidelity and the eternity of love in the couple to the detriment of the idea of ​​love at first sight, which eliminated it from the plot. In fact, this version was very popular and it was the one that was represented the most during the 18th and early 19th centuries. However, in 1845 the original version of Shakespeare was taken up again.

It was in the 19th century that this Shakespearean play became one of the most popular. However, during the following century, the 20th, there was another piece that earned him fame: Hamlet. The influence of "Romeo and Juliet" in literature has been very important but, also, it has been within performing arts since, in the musical field, many productions related to this have appeared tragedy: West Side Storyit is one of the most obvious, a piece written by Sondheim and set to music by Bernstein.

If you want to read more articles similar to Romeo and Juliet characters: main and secondary, we recommend that you enter our category of Reading.