Romeo and Juliet
Count Paris
Juliet's suitor
A polished young nobleman and kinsman of the Prince who sincerely hopes to marry Juliet.
Paris is handsome, courteous and well connected, a relative of Prince Escalus. He comes to Lord Capulet openly and respectfully to ask for Juliet's hand, and he accepts Capulet's request to wait. He is not a villain, and nothing suggests he is cruel.
What he lacks is any sense of what Juliet feels. He assumes the match is settled, greets her as "my lady and my wife" at the Friar's cell, and answers her sharp, double-edged replies as if they were shy flirting. His belief in the proper order of things is what places him between the lovers.
“Sweet flower, with flowers thy bridal bed I strew.”
In the story
Contains spoilers.
Paris asks for Juliet before the feast, then is told to wait. After Tybalt's death, Lord Capulet promises him a Thursday wedding. He meets Juliet at Friar Laurence's cell, where she parries his words, and later he comes to the tomb at night to scatter flowers for the Juliet he believes is dead.
Romeo arrives to open the tomb. Paris takes him for a banished murderer, challenges him, and Romeo, who does not want to fight, kills him. Romeo recognizes him as a good man and lays him in the vault beside Juliet at his dying request.
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