Romeo is the only son of the respected and noble Montague family. At the beginning of the play, he is introduced as a depressive teenager who confuses night for day, suffering from an unrequited, melancholic love for a girl named Rosaline. The moment he sees Juliet at a ball held by the enemy Capulet family, which he attends secretly at the insistence of his friends Mercutio and Benvolio, he finds true love and instantly abandons his superficial infatuation. Placing Juliet at the center of his life, he ignores the ancient feud between their two families and the risk of death. Shortly after marrying in secret in Friar Laurence's cell, he kills Tybalt—whose treachery caused the death of his soulmate, Mercutio—in a fit of vengeful rage while trying to intervene in a street brawl. This act leads to his exile from Verona and the beginning of the downward spiral. While in exile in Mantua, he receives false news that Juliet has died, purchases cheap poison, and commits suicide at his lover's grave for the sake of the love he believed in.
As the sole heir to the Montagues, he is a well-educated, respected young man with noble skills such as swordsmanship. He is known not as a brawler in the streets of Verona, but as a lonely, introverted youth filled with dreams. His habit of wandering in forests and lingering in the dark, much to the worry of those around him, is proof of the depth of his lovesickness.
A young, handsome, agile, and noble-looking youth. Just as he is in his magnificent sword and careful, period-appropriate noble garments, he is, as the Nurse says, 'a gentleman, even nicer than the legs of all other men'.
Juliet
The sun of his life, his absolute object of devotion, and his wife.
Tybalt
His forced adversary, with whom he tried hard to reconcile but whom he killed in the name of revenge.
Mercutio
His blood brother, whose wit and strength he admired, and whose loss turned him into a killer.
Rahip Lawrence
His spiritual savior, whose advice he desperately needed.