CASABLANCA characters

Rick is the main character of the story and the owner of Rick's Café Americain. He continually declares his freedom from all bonds, whether political or personal. After Ilsa leaves him, he undergoes a significant change. In the flashback, we see Rick in Paris visibly happily in love with Ilsa. This is destroyed when she does not appear at the train station. Rick never turns back into that person who was in Paris, but overcame his cynicism and apathy to become a sacrificial idealist who pledged to help allied things in World War II.


Ilsa is Rick's former lover and Victor Laszlo's wife. She has a history with Rick, in Paris they fell in love because at this time she had believed that her husband Laszlo is dead. After she found out Laszlo is alive she send a note to Rick, who was waiting for her at train station, saying she could never see him again. Despite her obvious commitment to her husband and her confessions of love for Rick in Paris and later in Casablanca, she rarely shows much passion. For Rick's requirement in the end she again leaves him and leaves Casablanca with her husband. 





Captain Renault is a France's prefect of police in Casablanca. As the French government he serves and represents, has given up caring about right and wrong, and his only loyalty is to the winning side and represents unscrupulous cynism. Also he is a hypocrite, castigating Rick for allowing gambling in his bar just as he pockets his earnings for the evening however after showing this behavior and seeming morality, he is also Rick's good friend and shows signs of being a decent person at heart. Renault brings into movie Casablanca his humor and approaches everything with wit which makes the best lines his. At the end of the movie, he shows his decency when he refuses to arrest Rick and decides to join him as a friend. 


Victor Laszlo is a Czech nationalist writer and anti-Nazi partisan. He endured some time in a concentration camp, but he still remains enthusiastic, courageous, and outspoken and became a committed political leader who wants defeat the Nazis. Victor is a devoted husband to Ilsa and is willing to sacrifice himself to ensure her safety.