Characters in Shakespeare's Tragedies Flashcards
The Capulet’s daughter, who falls in love with Romeo and fakes her own death after he is exiled.
Juliet
A Moor (an African) who is a general in the defense forces of the city state of Venice. He falls in love and marries Desdemona, but is tricked by Iago into believing that his wife has been unfaithful with his lieutenant, Cassio, and murders her.
Othello
Prince of Denmark; he is son to the late king and nephew to the present King Claudius.
Hamlet
Juliet’s family name
Capulet
General of Rome, he has spent the last ten years fighting for Rome but does not want to be its new emperor; his strict adherence to tradition causes his enemies to take revenge against him. Father of Lucius and Lavinia.
Titus Andronicus
King of Britain whose willingness to believe empty family leads to the deaths of many.
King Lear
He appears first as a confidant and a devoted follower of Caesar, and he offers Caesar a crown during the feast of Lupercal. He is able to dupe Brutus into allowing him to speak at Caesar’s funeral and by his funeral oration to excite the crowd to rebellion.
Mark Antony (Marcus Antonius)
Lear’s two older daughters who join forces to betray him and plot his murder.
Goneril and Regan
King of Scotland. His victories in battle have made him a popular and honored king. His decision to pass the kingdom to his son Malcolm provokes his untimely death at the hands of Macbeth.
King Duncan
An Athenian gentleman who gives away all his wealth and becomes a bitter misanthrope.
Timon
Claudius’s chief counsellor, and the father of Ophelia and Laertes. Hamlet unknowingly kills him, thinking him to be Claudius, when he is spying from behind a curtain.
Polonius
Romeo’s family name
Montague
The Montague’s son, initially in love with Rosaline before falling in love with Juliet. He is exiled after killing Tybalt to avenge Mercutio’s death.
Romeo
Queen of Egypt and lover of Mark Antony
Cleopatra
Kinsman to the prince and friend of Romeo. He accepts Tybalt’s challenge to defend Romeo’s honor and is killed, thus precipitating Romeo’s enraged reaction during which Romeo kills Tybalt.
Mercutio
A fellow-captain and companion of Macbeth, who also receives a prophecy from the Witches: that his children will one day succeed to the throne of Scotland. This information is sufficient to spell his death at the hands of the resentful Macbeth, who is later haunted by his ghost.
Banquo
A brother of the Franciscan order and Romeo’s confessor, who advises both Romeo and Juliet. He agrees to marry the couple in secret in the hope that marriage will restore peace between their families and later concocts the potion plot through which Juliet appears dead in order to avoid marrying Paris.
Friar Laurence
Queen of Denmark, and the late king’s widow, now married to Claudius, and mother to Hamlet.
Queen Gertrude
Duncan’s eldest son; fearful of implication in his father’s murder, he flees to England, where he raises a large army with the intention of toppling the tyrant Macbeth.
Malcolm
The wife of Macbeth, whose ambition helps to drive her husband toward the desperate act of murder. Subsequently, her husband’s cruelty and her own guilt recoil on her, sending her into a madness from which she never recovers.
Lady Macbeth
A legendary Roman general who becomes active in politics but is quickly deposed and exiled, whereupon he leads Rome’s enemies in an assault against Rome and is then murdered by Rome’s enemies after making peace with Rome.
(Caius Marcius) Coriolanus
Daughter of Polonius, and Laertes’s sister, who lives with her father at Elsinore. She is in love with Hamlet and goes insane with grief after the death of her father, finally drowning after a branch of a willow tree into which she had climbed broke.
Ophelia
Lear’s youngest daughter. She genuinely loves her father, but her refusal to flatter him leads to her tragic death.
Cordelia
A beautiful young Trojan woman. The daughter of Calchas, a Trojan priest who defected to the Greek camp, she becomes Troilus’s lover.
Cressida
A captain in Duncan’s army, later the Thane of Glamis and Cawdor. When Three Witches predict that he will one day be king of Scotland, he takes his fate into his own hands.
Macbeth
Son of Polonius. In the final scene, he kills Hamlet with a poisoned sword to avenge the deaths of his father and sister.
Laertes
A praetor; that is, a judicial magistrate of Rome. He is widely admired for his noble nature. He joins the conspiracy because he fears that Caesar will become a tyrant.
(Marcus) Brutus
A noble Venetian lady who marries Othello and accompanies him on the campaign against the Turks but finds him becoming distant and making wild accusations against her. Although murdered by him, she dies declaring her love for him.
Desdemona
The handsome, wealthy, kinsman to Prince Escalus whom Juliet is supposed to marry.
Count Paris
The wife of Julius Caesar; she urges him to stay at home on the day of the assassination.
Calpurnia
Lady Capulet’s nephew and Juliet’s cousin. He challenges Romeo to a duel in response to Romeo’s attending a Capulet party. His challenge to Romeo is taken up by Mercutio, whom he kills. Romeo then kills him.
Tybalt
Lord Montague’s nephew and Romeo’s cousin who serves as an unsuccessful peacemaker.
Benvolio
A thane (nobleman) of Scotland who discovers the murdered King Duncan. He suspects Macbeth and eventually turns against him. When Macbeth arranges the murder of his wife and children, he swears personal revenge and eventually kills Macbeth.
Macduff
The brother-in-law of Brutus and an acute judge of human nature, he organizes the conspiracy against Caesar and recruits Brutus by passionate argument and by forged letters.
Cassius
Norwegian crown prince who delivers the final lines of Hamlet and becomes the King of Denmark.
Fortinbras
Roman general and one of the three joint leaders, or “triumvirs,” who rule the Roman Republic after the assassination of Julius Caesar; lover of Cleopatra
Mark Antony
A prince of Troy. The younger brother of Hector and Paris, he is a valiant warrior and an honorable man. He is also desperately in love with Cressida.
Troilus
Queen of the Goths and the central antagonist of Titus Andronicus. Mother of Chiron and Demetrius.
Tamora
Othello’s captain in the Venetian defense forces. He had hoped for promotion, but Othello passed over him in favor of Cassio, and Iago contrives revenge on them both.
Iago
Othello’s lieutenant; a young and inexperienced soldier, whose high position is much resented by Iago.
Cassio
A successful military leader who wants the crown of Rome. Unfortunately, he is imperious, easily flattered, and overly ambitious. He is assassinated midway through the play.
Julius Caesar
