Escalus is the rule of Verona and exerts an influence over the play, helping to move its plot along and providing the reader/audience with an authority figure who wants peace but is unable to achieve it until after the deaths of Romeo and Juliet.

Escalus is the rule of Verona and exerts an influence over the play, helping to move its plot along and providing the reader/audience with an authority figure who wants peace but is unable to achieve it until after the deaths of Romeo and Juliet.