Suzanne is a maid to the Countess. She lives in the chateau and, at the beginning of the play, she is set to marry Figaro. Suzanne’s predicament at the play’s opening embodies some of the class tensions at the heart of the play: When Figaro is delighted by the new bedroom that has been promised to him and his wife, Suzanne reveals that the Count is trying to pressure her into having an affair with him. The Count has already propositioned her for sex on several occasions. Suzanne’s social mobility is thus predicated on her accepting the Count’s immoral offer. Furthermore, the Count is demanding that Suzanne betray the trust of both Figaro and the Countess, showing how he is only interested in his own pleasure over the happiness of his proposed mistress, his apparent friend, and the wife he fought so hard to win. In the opening scene of the play, Suzanne’s situation provides a scathing satire of the self-interest of the upper class.

Suzanne chooses to embrace the farcical nature of her situation rather than sink into despondency. She hatches a plan with the Countess to reveal the Count as a figure of immorality. In this sense, she proves herself to be the equal of her husband-to-be. Suzanne’s intellect and cunning soon become evident in the play. She covers Cherubin with a dress, for example, then replaces him in the Countess’s dressing room. On both occasions, she uses her quick thinking to trick the Count. He rarely credits a woman with being able to trick him, so Suzanne plays on the inherent patriarchal biases of the French nobility to make her plots work. Suzanne’s plots soon extend beyond those of her husband. Events transpire so quickly that Suzanne must take it upon herself to continue the schemes. She and the Countess continue to trick the Count, long after Figaro has lost track of events. 

Suzanne shows herself to be her husband’s equal not only in terms of their ability to conspire together, but in terms of her plots’ ability to trick Figaro. He is deceived, made jealous by the impression that Suzanne is having an affair with the Count. When the truth is revealed, Suzanne does not forgive Figaro for his jealousy (as the Countess forgives the Count). Instead, she encourages Figaro to eat his “humble pie.” She shows that she is not willing to indulge her new husband, but to help improve him and correct him when he is wrong. She shows herself to be the equal of Figaro, in spite of social biases against women.

Count Almaviva is the antagonist of the play, a change in role since his first appearance in The Barber of Seville. In the first play, he was an ally of Figaro, a somewhat lovelorn figure who relied on Figaro’s intellect and charm to win the heart of Rosine. He was thankful to Figaro, which is why Figaro is now in his employ, yet now he wishes to seduce Suzanne. The count has no loyalty, coupled with a tremendous sense of entitlement. In the first play, this entitlement to the love of Rosine masqueraded as romance. In this play, however, this sense of entitlement functions as a damning satire of the count’s entire social class. The nobility have no loyalty or morals, only lust and self-interest.

At the same time, the Count’s role as antagonist is also an indictment of men who cannot comprehend what they have, reflecting Patriarchal Double Standards in Love and Marriage. In a series of sincere and bitter conversations, the Countess reveals the pain she feels at no longer being loved by her husband. Having fought so hard to win her heart, he has cast her aside after their marriage. The Count’s indifference toward his wife’s pain and his own lax attitude toward fidelity contrast strongly with the extreme jealousy and possessiveness he exhibits toward the Countess, whom he expects to remain faithful to him no matter what he does. 

After establishing the Count as the antagonist of the play, much of the narrative centers on an attempt to deliver some kind of justice. Since the Count is a rich, powerful, nobleman, however, there is very little in the way of legal recourse open to the characters. Instead, the Countess settles on social humiliation. If she can draw attention to the Count’s true character, then she will at least deny him the ability to pretend to be an upright figure in the community. Soon, Figaro’s plan to extort the Count for money becomes secondary to his wife’s desire for public accountability. This reaffirms the Count’s role as emblematic of the social order. The play is a satire; it cannot dismantle the social order, but it can criticize through the humiliation of a noble figure at the hands of his wife. Furthermore, the play functions as a satire of the lower classes’ attempts to assert power in the contemporary social order. 

After all their plotting and all their scheming, the Count is embarrassed in front of the other characters, yet he retains his power and status. This kind of public humiliation is not a threat to the public order, but an illustration of the lack of power among the lower classes. The Countess’s decision to forgive her husband is very important in this respect, as it reaffirms his power and restores balance to the social order with little more than a brief dint to his reputation.

The Countess is another character who first appeared in The Barber of Seville. Whereas men such as Figaro, Count Almaviva, and Bartholo have all retained their identity, the Countess has not. Previously, she was known as Rosine. Now, she is known strictly as the Countess. Other than a few lines of dialogue, her original identity is entirely subsumed into her new role as the wife of a powerful man. In this sense, she is the embodiment of a certain kind of female marginalization in French society. She is a figure of domestic unhappiness, someone who was promised boundless romance by the Count, only to be cast aside the moment he lost interest in her. 

Inspired by Suzanne and Figaro, the Countess decides to act. She knows that her husband is unfaithful, and she is shamed by these affairs. She decides to join forces with the other wronged parties, uniting with Figaro and Suzanne to take revenge on her husband. Soon, the Countess’s plans exceed Figaro’s plans. Figaro is left behind as the Countess encourages Suzanne to go further and further. Eventually, the Countess succeeds. She humiliates her husband in front of his subjects and the audience. At this moment, however, she offers him forgiveness. This moment is important, not only because it reaffirms the social order, but because it signals that the Countess still has some hope for her marriage. She wants a husband who can show her the compassion that she has shown to him. In this moment, she is showing her husband the kind of person she wants him to be.

Cherubin is among the youngest characters in the play but one of the most impactful. At the beginning of the play, he is just a page in the count’s employ. He is the godson of the Countess, but this association seems to offer him no protection from the Count’s ire. Instead, the Count latches onto Cherubin as a focal point for his anger and frustration. To the Count, Cherubin is less a servant or a boy than he is a rival for the affections of the women around the chateau. 

From Fanchette to Suzanne to the Countess herself, Cherubin’s adolescent interpretation of romance and love presents a threat to the Count’s self-identity, as the women seem to swoon over Cherubin while they run away from the Count. Cherubin presents the Count with the difficult suggestion that he is old and unattractive, which is why he directs so much ire and anger toward Cherubin. On a symbolic level, it is also why Cherubin is so often ducking and diving out of the Count’s sight. As the Count tries to seduce Suzanne and ward off any suitors to his wife, he senses Cherubin as a threatening presence, a figure lurking in his subconsciousness as much as he is lurking in his wife’s dressing room.

To deal with Cherubin, the Count decides to send the youngster away on military duty. The deployment is a punishment, but it is also designed to remove Cherubin from the immediate vicinity. At the same time, the specific nature of the punishment is designed to attack the youth and innocence that seems to draw women to Cherubin, but which the Count worries that he does not possess. 

Cherubin’s role in the latter half of the play is largely spent disguised as a woman. He is dressed as Suzanne, then as a shepherd, so that any male power that may threaten the Count is undermined in a theatrical sense. This is also an illustration of the way in which Cherubin’s youth blurs the boundaries between genders, especially as Beaumarchais’s own stage notes suggest that the role should be played by a young woman.