Paris is pompous

"Do not deny to him that you love me." (IV.i.25)

Paris is a minor character, but he serves great import to the movement of the plot of Romeo and Juliet. Paris, the Capulets' chosen suitor for their daughter, Juliet, serves as the antithesis to Romeo. While Romeo is a true romantic who loves deeply, Paris is a conceited and semi-misogynistic man who desires to wed without wooing. He talks with Lord Capulet as if his marriage to Juliet is a mere business transaction. He does not even know Juliet when he decides to wed her. Yes, Romeo and Juliet fall in love impulsively and without too much conversation, but their feelings are mutual and rooted in commonalities: they are close in age, they have lives dictated for them by their parents, and they lack their families' desire to hate. Paris, on the other hand, shares no connection with the young Capulet.

Paris is also blind to Juliet's feelings, but not because he cannot see them. On the other hand, Paris chooses to look away when Juliet's heart is must pure and exposed. After the tragic murder of Juliet's cousin, Paris is pompous enough to believe that a wedding between Juliet and him would help ease her troubles. He sees himself as a husband to be the remedy to Juliet's broken heart. When he says to Juliet in Friar Lawrence's cell "do not deny to him that you love me," he presumes to know but refuses to actually listen to Juliet's response. Paris hears her words, but his conceded, self-satisfying nature keeps him from understanding his future wife's truth.