With respect to aristocratic birth—a necessary component of nobility in chivalric romance—Theseus is literally of supernatural stature and can casually refer to 'Hercules our kinsman' (1.1.66). He is pointedly contrasted with the vicious Creon, to his considerable advantage, and the Second Queen says that he was 'Born to uphold creation in that honour / First Nature styled it in' (1.1.82-83). As the highest-ranking figure in the play's world, and especially since he is presented as a strikingly noble leader, Theseus carries great moral weight; his closing remarks are thereby clearly signaled as the play's essential position.

Hippolyta is the Queen of the Amazons, fiancé and later wife of Theseus, Duke of Athens. Hippolyta helps establish the tone of magnanimous nobility and pity that dominates Act 1, but she is unimportant thereafter. In 1.1, when her wedding to Theseus is interrupted by the pleas of the royal widows who seek the duke's aid, Hippolyta speaks in their support, insisting that her anticipated marital joy must be postponed in their cause. In 1.3 she describes the friendship between Theseus and Pirithous, which offers a parallel to the relationship between the title characters, Palamon and Arcite, and which also signifies nobility of spirit. She herself displays a serene spirit in observing without jealousy, in fact approvingly, that Theseus might be unable to choose between Pirithous and herself. In Acts 2-4, where her part is written by John Fletcher, she is an ordinary aristocratic figure, graciously attending the duke at court. She is presumably married to Theseus by this time, although the rescheduled wedding is never mentioned. In Act 5 Hippolyta hardly speaks, but she makes a significant point after the duel fought by Palamon and Arcite for Emilia, when she offers a tender acknowledgement that the play's developments provoke 'Infinite pity' (5.3.144-145).

In 5.1, before the duel, Emilia addresses the goddess Diana, seeking assistance in her quandary. She asks the goddess to make sure the winner is the cousin who genuinely loves her the most, adding that she would prefer to remain unmarried. In response, a rose tree with a single rose appears on the altar; supposing that its singleness means she will not have to marry either cousin, Emilia is delighted, but then the rose falls. Chagrined, Emilia remains hopeful, closing touchingly with the plea, 'Unclasp thy mystery.— I hope she's pleased; / Her signs were gracious' (5.1. 172-173). In 5.3 she is too distracted to watch the duel, which is reported to her by a Servant, and we cannot help but sympathize. When she is awarded to Arcite and Palamon is sent to be executed, according to the rules for the duel, Emilia cries out, 'Is this winning? / 0 all you heavenly powers, where is your mercy?' (5.3.138-139). This despairing cry is the nadir of the play; however, Emilia immediately accepts her fate, rejecting suicide in the next line, because the gods' 'wills have said it must be so' (5.3.140). By the play's end Emilia can accept the final twist of fate—Arcite dies accidentally and Palamon wins her by default—with equanimity. She has learned the lesson that Theseus declaims in the final line: we must 'bear us as the time' (5.4.137).

Pirithous is a friend of Theseus, Duke of Athens. Pirithous attends Theseus in every scene in which the duke appears; he also provides commentary on Arcite in 2.4 and, as a messenger, dramatically halts the execution of Palamon in 5.4. However, he is significant only as the subject of a conversation in his absence. In 1.3 Hippolyta reflects on the long friendship of Theseus and Pirithous, saying 'Their knot of love, / Tied, weaved, entangled ... May be outworn, never undone' (1.3.41-44). This striking parallel to the tie between Palamon and Arcite helps establish the theme of male friendship that is woven through the play. Hippolyta's remarks also spark a variant on the theme, the account by Emilia of her similar childhood friendship with a girl.

Palamon's long prayer to Venus in 5.1 marks a turning point, for instead of the enraptured plea for Emilia's heart that we might expect, he vents a satirical recital of the ridiculous behavior love inspires. He mocks the tyrant who weeps to a girl and the old man who is confident his young wife is faithful, and he recites all the ugly betrayals and offences a lover might commit, though he disclaims them. The pleasant aspects of love are not mentioned. He closes his prayer by apostrophizing the goddess as one 'whose chase is this world / And we in herds thy game' (5.1.131-132).  Such cynicism reflects the weight that the conflict has had—he wears Venus' 'yoke, . . . [that is] heavier /Than lead itself [and] stings more than nettles' (5.1.95-97), for in the end he loses his friend. At the close, engaged to Emilia, he addresses his dead cousin with a plaint that typifies the confusion and helplessness of humanity in the hands of unpredictable fate, the play's most important theme: '0 cousin, / That we should things desire which do cost us / the loss of our desire! that naught could buy / Dear love but loss of dear love!' (5.4.109-112).

As the protagonists of a stylized chivalrous romance, the two cousins are very similar, and their characterizations tend to blur even more given the unevenness of the play, a collaboration between Shakespeare and John Fletcher. Nevertheless, some distinctions can be drawn. In 1.1 Arcite is the leader of the two introducing the idea of fleeing the corrupt court of Thebes and attempting to broaden Palamon s military orientation. When they are obliged to fight for Thebes Arcite draws the deepest conclusion from their situation. Declaring that they will have to trust 'th'event, / That never-erring arbitrator (1.1.114-114) he presents an important theme of the play, humanity's helplessness to direct destiny. When their quarrel over Emilia arises, he is the more reasonable of the two, attempting to smooth things over in 2.1, when they meet again in 3.1, and as they prepare to duel in 3,3 He is also more sensible about the approach of Theseus, proposing that Palamon hide and they fight later. Nevertheless, he is perfectly willing to fight it out when Palamon insists, and when the combatants offer petitions to the gods in 5.1, Arcite speaks to Mars, the god of war. At his death. Arcite is simply a pawn of the plot, asking forgiveness with his lasting personality is still further obscured by the fact that in Acts 2 to 4, Shakespeare probably wrote only one scene (3.1), and Fletcher's Arcite is a somewhat different character from Shakespeare’s. A sentimentalist, he laments in 2.1 the fact that imprisonment means the cousins will not find 'The sweet embraces of a loving wife' (2.1.84) or produce children, and he thinks achingly that 'fair-eyed maids shall weep our banishments' (2.1.91). When in 2.2 he decides to enter the wrestling and running competition to gain the attention of the duke's court, he is nothing more than a stereotypical hero-in-disguise. Perhaps in light of this, Shakespeare gives him a beautiful meditation on Emilia at the opening of 3.1. However Arcite’s inconsistencies merely reflect the failings of the play as a whole.

Boy is a singer at the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta. In 1.1.1-24 the Boy sings the Song ‘Roses’, their sharp spines being gone' and strews flowers. He provides a note of decorous festivity before the ceremony is interrupted by the arrival of the three Queens.

The Queens are part of the ritualistic aspect of the play that links it to other Shakespeare Romances. They are highly significant figures in 1.1, Shakespeare's spectacular opening scene. Their sudden appearance, all in black at a festive ceremony, is a coup de theatre, with a grand effect on stage. Their repeated approaches, first to one character and then another, form a dancelike, stylised sequence, a kind of liturgy that reinforces the high seriousness of their purpose.  In 1.5 they again offer an impressive tableau, as Act 1 closes in tragic triumph.

Valerius is a gentleman of Thebes and friend of Arcite and Palamon. In 1.2 Valerius informs his friends of the challenge to King Creon of Thebes issued by Duke Theseus of Athens, who intends to conquer Thebes and avenge the king's evil behavior in refusing burial to his defeated foes. Valerius thereby provides the link between the two title characters and Athens, where, as prisoners of war, they will enact the main plot of the drama. Having fulfilled this function, Valerius disappears from the play.

Woman is an attendant of Emilia. In 2.1 the Woman converses with her mistress, who speaks of the maidenly virtues. They are overheard by Palamon and Arcite, who fall in love with Emilia. The Woman's decorous conversation simply offers openings for Emilia in an incident that furthers the plot. Since most scholars believe that 2.1 was not written by Shakespeare and most likely a creation of Fletcher's.

Gaoler is the prison-warden whose Daughter goes mad with unrequited love for Palamon, a prisoner of war and one of the title characters. The Daughter helps Palamon escape, but when he returns to the aristocratic world, she loses her mind. The Gaoler first appears in 2 1 where he agrees to the Wooer’s suit for the Daughter's hand, and where he is a conventional warden to his prisoners. He is unaware of his daughter s state when he reappears in 4.1, worrying that he will be blamed for Palamon's escape. Once informed of the Daughter's madness, he is helpless to ease her plight In 5.2 he objects mildly to the prescription-that the Wooer disguise himself as Palamon and sleep with her-but he goes along and reports her cure in 5.4. A simple pawn of the plot. he is believed to have been the creation of Shakespeare's collaborator, John Fletcher.

Though she resembles Shakespeare's Ophelia—both are unlucky in love, both gather flowers by a lakeside (see 4.1.54, 78), and both sing bits of song (in 4.1.108 the Daughter names a song Ophelia sings in Hamlet 4.5.184)—the Daughter is a very un-Shakespearean character. Her chief function is clearly as an object of humor, for in Shakespeare's day insanity was regarded as highly amusing. Her diatribes are conventional indications of madness, artificial and unconvincing, and her cure is laughable, as it was doubtless intended to be. She was almost certainly not created by Shakespeare but by his collaborator John Fletcher, who probably wrote all the scenes she appears in (though some scholars attribute 2.1 and the best of her soliloquies, 3.2, to Shakespeare).

Wooer is the suitor of the Daughter of the Gaoler. In 2.1 the Wooer agrees with the Gaoler on a marriage contract, saying that he has the Daughter's consent to marry him. He is not seen again until Act 4, after the Daughter has gone mad with unrequited love for the nobleman Palamon. Though unafflicted with jealousy and sympathetic to her plight, the Wooer is helpless to ease it, until in 4.3 the Doctor prescribes that he disguise himself as Palamon and woo her, adding in 5.2 the instruction that he sleep with her, to which he readily assents. He proposes to her and is accepted, but she suggests bed before he can. The Doctor's ploy works, for the Daughter is later reported to be 'well restored, / And to be married shortly' (5.4.27-28). Slightly buffoonish, the Wooer is a gentle but undistinguished fellow, merely a necessary part of the subplot. He is probably the creation of Shakespeare's collaborator John Fletcher, to whom the scenes he appears in are ascribed.

Friends are either one of two characters that are acquaintances of the Gaoler. In 4.1 the Friends assure the Gaoler that Theseus, Duke of Athens, has forgiven him for the fact that Palamon has escaped from his gaol with the assistance of his Daughter, and they sympathize with him when the Wooer brings evidence that the Daughter is deranged.  The Friends, mere pawns of the plot, were probably not Shakespeare's creations, for most scholars agree that 4.1 was written by his collaborator, John Fletcher.

Countrymen are peasants. In 2.2 four Countrymen tell Arcite of wrestling and running competitions at a country fair. The outcast nobleman subsequently distinguishes himself at the fair, coming to the attention of the court of Duke Theseus, and thus meeting his beloved, Emilia. Six Countrymen appear in 3.5, one of them dressed as a Bavian, or baboon, as part of the duke's entertainment; five of them, with Nell and her friends, perform a dance under the direction of the Schoolmaster. Most scholars agree that neither 2.1 nor 3.5 was written by Shakespeare; thus, the Countrymen are probably the creation of John Fletcher.

Bavian is a performer dressed as a baboon, or bavian. The Bavian is part of an entertainment performed before Theseus in 3.5. He speaks only two words, 'Yes, sir' (3.5.37), in response to his director, the Schoolmaster, who tells him, 'My friend, carry your tail without offence / Or scandal to the ladies; and be sure / You tumble with audacity and manhood, / And when you bark do it with judgement' (3.5.34-37). This directive casts an amusing light on English rustic entertainments of the 17th century. However, most scholars agree that Shakespeare did not write this scene; the Bavian and his instructions are probably the work of John Fletcher.

Executioner is the ax man prepared to behead Palamon.   The executioner does not speak as he stands ready in 5.4; his presence merely serves to heighten the tension with a visible reminder of Palamon's apparent end, before a pardon arrives.