What characters are in Shakespeare's plays?

Answer 1

"Famous" is extremely relative. The most-recognized characters are different from the characters everyone would really love to play or the characters that have the most lines.

However, Puck, from A Midsummer Night's Dream stands pretty high up on the list, I'm sure. The title character of Richard III, is up there too. Julius Caesar is probably most recognizable simply because he is a real historical figure known around the world, not just in England or in Shakespeare's era.

Sir John Falstaff was so famous in Shakespeare's day that he wrote another play, The Merry Wives of Windsor, just to showcase that character and it's now one of the best comic roles in the canon.

And of course, the tragic five are also recognized famously because they are studied academically, theatrically, and critically: Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, King Lear, and the star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet.

Answer 2

There is no character which appears in all of Shakespeare's plays. It is in fact unusual to have the same character appear in more than one. When this happens, it is usually because the play is based on historical figures. Thus Mark Antony is in both Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra; Henry of Monmouth is the Prince of Wales in both parts of Henry IV and the titular king in Henry V; Richard of Gloucester along with his brothers George Duke of Clarence and Edward IV appear in the third part of Henry VI and also in Richard III.

Apart from these historical figures, the plays each have 12 (Othello) to 50 (Henry VI Part 2) named characters, although the usual number is around 20. Although they sometimes share a name (there are quite a few called Antonio), they are all separate characters. If you want to know them all, you must read all the plays. They include Dick the Butcher, the wisecracking second-in-command to Jack Cade in Henry VI Part 2, Abhorson, an executioner in Measure for Measure who is proud of his guild secrets, Parolles, a blowhard scam artist in All's Well that Ends Well, Luce, a serving woman in Comedy of Errors who is "spherical, like a globe", Morgan, a character on the lam in Cymbeline who lives in a cave, Ludovico, an emissary from Venice in Othello, who is shocked by the change in Othello, Jessica, Shylock's daughter in Merchant of Venice, who elopes and converts to Christianity and then seems to regret her choice, the gardener in Richard II who uses his garden as a political allegory and so on and on.

Answer 3

Of course, every part in Shakespeare has been played by hundreds of thousands of different actors over the last 400 years. Some of the actors who were in The Lord Chamberlain's men and who would have played in these plays when they were first performed include Richard Burbage, Will Kemp, William Sly, Shakespeare himself, Augustine Phillips, John Heminges, Henry Condell and Christopher Beeston.

Answer 4

Some of his best known characters would be romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, hamlet, Julius Caesar, and Othello, all from plays of the same name. I may know them the best because these are the ones our school studies, as well as other works of shakespeare i have read

Answer 5

Shakespeare wrote 38 plays, you know! Important characters are bolded.

All's Well that Ends Well: Helena, Countess Rousillion, Widow, Diana, Violenta, Mariana

Antony and Cleopatra: Cleopatra, Charmian, Iras, Octavia

As You Like It: Rosalind, Celia, Phoebe, Audrey

Comedy of Errors: Adriana, Luciana, Luce, Aemelia

Coriolanus: Volumnia, Virgilia, Valeria

Cymbeline: Imogen, Queen, Helen

Hamlet: Gertrude, Ophelia

Henry IV Part I: Lady Percy, Lady Mortimer, Mistress Quickly

Henry IV Part II: Lady Northumberland, Lady Percy, Mistress Quickly, Doll Tearsheet

Henry V: Princess Katherine, Queen Isabel, Alice, Hostess

Henry VI Part I: Joan la Pucelle, Margaret, Countess of Auvergne

Henry VI Part II: Queen Margaret, Eleanor Duchess of Gloucester, Margery Jourdain

Henry VI Part III: Queen Margaret, Lady Grey, Princess Bona

Henry VIII: Queen Katharine, Anne Bullen

Julius Caesar: Portia, Calpurnia

King John: Constance, Queen Elinor, Blanch of Spain, Lady Falconbridge

King Lear: Goneril, Regan, Cordelia

Love's Labour's Lost: Princess of France, Rosaline, Maria, Katharine, Jaquenetta

Macbeth: Lady Macbeth, Three Witches, Lady Macduff

Measure for Measure: Isabella, Mariana, Juliet, Francisca, Mrs. Overdone

Merchant of Venice: Portia, Nerissa, Jessica

Merry Wives of Windsor: Mrs. Page, Mrs. Ford, Anne Page, Mrs. Quickly

Midsummer Night's Dream: Hermia, Helena, Titania, Hippolyta

Much Ado About Nothing: Beatrice, Hero, Ursula, Margaret

Othello: Desdemona, Emilia, Bianca

Pericles: Marina, Thaisa, Dionyza, Lychorida

Richard II: Queen, Duchess of Gloucester, Duchess of York

Richard III: Lady Anne, Queen Margaret, Queen Elizabeth, Duchess of York

Romeo and Juliet: Juliet, Nurse, Lady Capulet, Lady Montague

Taming of the Shrew: Katherine, Bianca, Widow

Tempest: Miranda

Timon of Athens: Phrynia, Timandra

Titus Andronicus: Tamora, Lavinia

Troilus and Cressida: Cressida, Helen, Andromache, Cassandra

Twelfth Night: Viola, Olivia, Maria

Two Gentlemen of Verona: Sylvia, Julia,Lucetta

Two Noble Kinsmen: Emilia, Jailer's Daughter, Hippolyta, Three Queens

Winter's Tale: Perdita, Paulina, Hermione, Emilia, Mopsa, Dorcas

Plus of course innumerable servants, ladies, Shepherdesses and other extras.

Answer 6

Look at the titles of many of his plays. If that isn't helpful, try the list of characters located at the beginning of most published plays.

Answer 7

romeo & Juliet

Answer 8

Romeo, Juliet, Julius Caesar, Hamlet.