Escalus: The Prince of Verona, his continued annoyance with the ongoing feud between the Capulet and Montague families leads him to warn both families that further fighting between the two will be punished by death. Escalus is also responsible for banishing Romeo from Verona after Romeo killed Tybalt, an act of mercy on the Prince"s part. At the end of the play when both Romeo and Juliet are dead, Escalus tells the two grieving families they are largely to blame for this tragedy in addition to his own lack of intervention to stop the Capulet / Montague feud... Lines 281-295...
to her daughter, assisting her husband to convince Juliet into marrying Paris. When Capulet orders Juliet to marry Paris, Lady Capulet, falls into line, agreeing with Capulet and betraying Juliet. Nurse to Juliet: In many ways a surrogate mother to Juliet, she cares deeply for Juliet"s best interests, even encouraging Juliet"s dangerous relationship with Romeo in the hope that it will make Juliet happy. After Tybalt"s death, however, Nurse becomes less sympathetic and later when Capulet orders Juliet to marry Paris, she defends Juliet at first but later pragmatically suggests that Paris would not be so bad after all...