# Juliet — The Last Man character guide

> Juliet in The Last Man by Mary Shelley.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Poor Juliet, the unhappy Juliet, sweet Juliet

**First appearance:** 0002-the-last-man

## Snapshot

A gentle young woman whose brief happiness is undone by love and loss, her sorrow a quiet counterpoint to the novel's public catastrophes.

## Who they are

Juliet moves through the story as one of its tenderest casualties, a girl whose affections are given wholly and whose grief, when it comes, is absolute. She is remembered as 'sweet Juliet' and 'poor Juliet' — epithets that mark how the people around her see her: as someone to protect, and someone fate will not spare. Her suffering personalises the plague's approach, showing that before nations fall, individual hearts are already being broken.

## In the story

### [V](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_last_man_se/chapters/volume-iii-v)

Young, lovely, and enthusiastic; sole relic of the ducal house of L⁠⸺; lost her husband to the plague; joined the preacher out of fear for her child; ultimately rescues Lionel from prison.

### [Chapter VI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_last_man_se/chapters/volume-iii-vi)

Mentioned as a victim; her corpse and that of her babe are placed on a bier and carried in procession.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_last_man_se/characters/juliet
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_last_man_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_last_man_se/characters