Romeo and Juliet
Abram
Montague servant
A proud Montague servant who answers the Capulets' thumb-biting insult in the first scene of the story.
Abram serves the Montague household and walks the Verona square with Balthasar. He is short-tempered, fiercely loyal to his masters, and unwilling to let any sign of disrespect go by. He is among the first people to meet the Capulets when the story opens.
Abram is a type rather than a deep character: the servant who inherits his master's quarrel. His role is to show how far the feud has seeped into daily life, so that men who have nothing to gain from it are ready to draw swords over a gesture.
“Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?”
In the story
Contains spoilers.
Abram and Balthasar come upon Sampson and Gregory in the square. Sampson bites his thumb, and Abram asks directly whether they bite it at him. Neither Capulet will admit it. Abram asks if they quarrel, and swords come out at once.
Benvolio hurries in to stop the fight and Tybalt arrives to make it worse. The Prince ends it with his edict. Abram's confrontation is the first spark of the story, and the book returns to the same square for the deadly duel.
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