Who is prince escalus in romeo and juliet

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Prince Escalus

Prince Escalus of Verona has the misfortune of ruling over a state where two major families are locked in an unending war. 

The mere authority of his presence is no longer enough to make people pay attention to him: he must back it up with threats of torture and death. He does not even summon Capulet and Montague to appear together before him, but gives them separate appointments. When a further brawl not only kills one of the chief troublemakers but also the Prince’s own kinsman, Mercutio, he exiles the killer Romeo and attempts to bring peace by hitting the two families in their pocketbook. He soon loses another kinsman, County Paris, and concludes to his own guilt in the affair for not having been severe enough with the warring families. Despite the power of his speeches, his authority seems rather disregarded.

In Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Shakespeare uses Romeus and Juliet by Arthur Brooke as a source, where he changes details, like the role of the Prince, to add more meaning to the play through his showing of an ideal monarch. Prince Escalus in Romeo and Juliet is the ruler of Verona, which is the setting of the play. He is based on the Prince in Romeus and Juliet. When Shakespeare took his character, he changed his characteristics, slightly but in an important way. The Prince is first mentioned as the ruler of the town of Verona in Romeus and Juliet. In Romeo and Juliet, the Prince is first seen stopping the street fight between the families and servants. From the beginning, the Prince is seen as being a strict, but fair…show more content…
Both sides cooperate and reach out and agree on peace. Shakespeare here continues his use of the Prince as a model of the ideal leader by being just in his judgements and asking for peace for the good of Verona. This judgement is very different in Romeus and Juliet. The Prince does let Friar Laurence and Balthasar go, but he sentenced the Apothecary to be hanged and banished the Nurse. Friar Laurence was discharged and voluntarily left to go to a hermitage where he died five years later. Shakespeare does change this and makes the last scene less harsh and easier for the reader. He also uses this to make the Prince a kinder and a more just ruler. Shakespeare wrote during the Elizabethan Age. At this time Queen Elizabeth I ruled England and she was admired by the people. The English were coming off the monarchy of Henry VIII and he was not a good king. Shakespeare was showing the idealized monarch in this play through Prince Escalus. In Romeus and Juliet, the Prince was almost a one-dimensional character. Shakespeare took that and made him into a just and reasonable ruler. Prince Escalus is shown caring for his citizens, putting them first in his judgements. He greatly cared for the peace of Verona, doing all he could to ensure that amidst the fighting of the Montagues and Capulets there would be peace. Through the Prince’s efforts, peace did come to Verona,

The Prince of Verona. An imposing man who nonetheless struggles to control the violent, unruly members of House Montague and House Capulet as they feud and brawl endlessly in Verona’s streets, spilling blood and disturbing the peace. Prince Escalus warns both houses several times of the punishments they’ll endure if they continue fighting. In the end, however, when Romeo and Juliet are found dead, the prince concedes that “all are punished”—no one has been spared from the senseless grief that the two warring houses have perpetuated. Level-headed and fair, the prince is concerned with keeping Verona safe for all its citizens.

Prince Escalus represents the authority of Verona. He is neutral in the feud between the Montagues and the Capulets, and only wants peace between them. He has broken up many of their brawls and has warned the punishment for any further fighting will be death.

When he is called to the scene of Mercutio and Tybalt’s deaths, he shows mercy to Romeo by banishing him from Verona. Saddened by the deaths of so many young people in his city, he vows to uphold the law with punishment for some and a pardoning for others.

‘noble Prince’
[Benvolio: Act III, scene 1, 144]

‘sovereign’
[Watchman: Act V, scene 3, 194]

‘my liege’
[Montague: Act V, scene 3, 209]

(Christopher Chung, Paris)

   Transcript   

I am aware that our city has been facing an increase in violence. I have reached out to the parties involved, but they are deaf to my pleadings. I AM CALLING FOR A DAY OF PEACE. Any ideas for how to bring people together?

End the feud between the Capulet and Montague houses (succeeded).

Paris (unknown relation)

Mercutio (cousin)

House of Capulet
House of Montague (both formerly)

Reasonable Authority Figure

Prince Escalus is one of the major characters appearing in the famous William Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet. He is the well-intentioned Prince of Verona who wishes to end the feud between the House of Montague and the House of Capulet, which cost the lives of six people throughout the play.

Personality

Despite his desperate threats to keep the houses from quarrelling, Prince Escalus is shown to be very fair and sympathetic. He acts out of responsibility for keeping Verona safe, and is pressed to do something after seeing two wealthy families fighting on the streets for the third time. As the two houses have shown continued disregard for his authority, he resorts to taking a more forceful stance against the feud, warning that those who continue to disturb the peace again will pay the price with their lives. When the Prince hears that Tybalt and Mercutio were both killed in a fight with Romeo, he at first decides that Romeo will be sentenced to death, but softens the sentence to banishment after being convinced that Tybalt was the primary aggressor. Although he is grieved by the loss of Mercutio, who was a cousin to him, the Prince states that it is more important for him to be responsible than vengeful.

He is saddened to realize at the end of the play that his prediction that "mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill" has resulted in the death of another kinsman, Paris, and that the murderer, Romeo, had also been killed by the burden of his banishment, and Juliet as well. After the reveal that Romeo and Juliet were secretly married, and that it was the feud of the Capulets and Montagues and Lord Capulet's mistreatment of Juliet that lead to their deaths, the Prince decides to not punish anyone, declaring that the grief from this tragedy is enough punishment, and that he is also punished for not being involved enough. While suffering from bitter emotions and grief just like everyone else, he remains level-headed throughout the story, and speaks formerly to everyone. This trait is best shown at the end of the play when he asks everyone to set their emotions aside to figure out what happened to Romeo, Juliet, and Paris. Through his commentary on the events evolving from condemnation of the malignant fighting to admitting his faults and forgiving both houses for the tragedies they share as a result of their actions, he can be seen as one of the wisest characters in the story.

Story

Act 1

The play opens with fighting in the streets, which the Prince dissipates with his arrival on his steed and cavalrymen to enforce his authority. He calls out the Capulets and Montagues on the street for profaning their swords by staining it with the blood of their neighbors. He orders those partaking in the street brawl to drop their swords and hear that this is his last warning before he takes any lives. He accuses them all of disrupting the peace with their irrational hatred, and asks for Lord Capulet to follow him at once and for Lord Montague to meet him in the afternoon. The meeting was described by Lord Capulet to have been the Prince giving them high stakes to keep the peace in Verona.

Act 3

Romeo kills Tybalt in Scene 1 of Act 3, although he had not intended to do so since Tybalt was now a relative of his from his marriage to Juliet. Benvolio tells Romeo to run, knowing that the Prince will be likely to sentence him to death. When Prince Escalus arrives, he very predictably questioned who was responsible for Tybalt and Mercutio now being dead. Mercutio was killed by Tybalt, but Lady Capulet yells for vengeance for the death of Tybalt. The Prince ignores her and asks Benvolio to give him all the details, which he profusely offered in favor of Romeo. Hearing that Romeo had been peaceful to Tybalt and that he only killed him because Tybalt had slain Mercutio, he alleviates the death penalty in favor of banishment instead. Acting in a fair manner, he also fines both Capulet and Montague. Romeo hides in Friar Laurence's cell, where the friar tells him that Prince Escalus has banished him. Romeo despairs over this, since he cannot live without Juliet. The Friar does not show sympathy for Romeo, believing that his love for Juliet is infatuation and not true love.

Act 5

The Prince makes his third and final appearance in Scene 3 of Act 5, the final scene of the play. The dead bodies of Paris, Romeo, and Juliet are discovered by watchmen, who notify Prince Escalus. He maintains a level-headed attitude when confronted with grief, and encourages others to do the same so they all can learn about what happened. Friar Laurence confesses his part in it, stating that he had secretly married Romeo and Juliet, and how the results of his infamous plan to prevent Juliet from marrying Paris was warped by Friar John not being able to deliver a letter to Romeo in Mantua, which contained important information: Juliet is sleeping in the tomb, believed to be dead, so you can arrive at night to run away with Juliet when she wakes up. He makes no mention that he did this in hopes that their marriage will ease the conflict between the two families, but nevertheless, the Prince states that he still sees him as a holy man. He asks Balthasar, Romeo's servant, and Page, Paris's servant, what both of their masters were doing in this crypt, and receives a letter from Balthasar that tells him that Romeo bought poison from an apothecary and came to die with Juliet, not knowing that she wasn't actually dead. Prince Escalus remarks that from their feud, love has taken both family's children, and taken away two of his kinsmen: Mercutio and Paris. Despite having much to be angry for, he notes that he has failed by not doing enough to prevent the ongoing conflict, and instead expresses sorrow and sympathy that they have all suffered. Those who are at fault are not punished by Escalus but by grief. Referring to who is at fault for the tragedy, including himself, Prince Escalus remarks, "some shall be pardoned, some are punish'd: for never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo." These words spoken by Prince Escalus are the last words of the play.