Rachel Green

"Imagine the worst things you think about yourself. Now, how would you feel if the one person that you trusted the most in the world, not only thinks them too, but actually uses them as reasons not to be with you."

- Rachel after finding Ross' list of reasons not to be with her.

Rachel Karen Green is a fictional character on the popular television sitcom Friends (1994–2004). She is played by Jennifer Aniston, who received Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe for her performance.

Personality
Rachel's personality evolves somewhat over the series. Early on, she is portrayed as a spoiled girl. She can often be self-centered, but is often sweet and tries to be a good friend. Later on in the series, especially after she gives birth, she becomes much less self-absorbed. As a girl used to have people at her beck and call, Rachel admits to Mr. Treeger that she has never taken the trash out. When Treeger yells at her for clogging up the trash chute, which he had unclogged shortly before with a lot of efforts, Rachel returns to the apartment in tears and exaggerates the situation. Monica dismisses the exaggerations, saying Rachel always cries. ("The One With The Ballroom Dancing")

As teasingly established in "The One With The Joke", Rachel has a reputation for being a "pushover". For instance, in "The One With The Cheap Wedding Dress", when Rachel, Monica, and Phoebe attend a sale in Brooklyn to find Monica's wedding dress, a confrontation takes place. Rachel is found huddled in a rack, terrified, blowing her panic whistle. When told to get up, Rachel insists that Phoebe hold her hand.

Instances of Rachel standing up for herself are far and few. For instance, in "The One With The East German Laundry Detergent" she is bullied by a horrible woman at the Laundromat but gets to assert herself when Ross encourages her. In "The One With Rachel's Sister", she angrily confronts Ross but fails to impress anyone. Exceptionally, however, she gets to strong arm her sister, Jill Green, in the same episode and Joey in "The One With Rachel's Book" and "The One With Phoebe's Cookies" entirely on her own. She also claims to have punched a woman in the face for trying to steal her umbrella though there is only her word for it. ("The One With Joey's Dirty Day")

Despite the personality evolution, Rachel is used to lying. Most significantly, in "The One With Joey's Porsche", she commits slander in a legal court, accusing Ross of being mentally unstable, being an intravenous drug addict and having failed to consummate his marriage. Very often, lies are told to inflict damage. For example, in "The One With Ross' New Girlfriend", she deliberately misleads Phoebe in hopes of ruining Julie's haircut out of jealousy. Also in "The One At The Beach", Rachel tricked Bonnie into shaving her head. There are also instances of deceit that are more impulsive than deliberate, such as claiming that Monica hurt her ankle in "The One Where Phoebe Runs" or assuming a fake Indian accent in NYU. Nevertheless, they don't justify the act. In "The One With Rachel's Sister", Rachel dismissed Jill's fake crying as a deceitful invention of her own that would not fool its inventor.

Rachel is shown to not like to take any responsibility for things, which is seen in The One With The Jellyfish, when she wants Ross to take all the responsibility for everything that went wrong in their relationship, when they were both at fault, but this is also seen in The One With The Videotape, when Rachel blames Ross for coming onto her the night they conceived Emma, when it turns out she is really the one who came onto him, clearly showing she doesn't want to take responsibility for that either. Rachel also has a very jealous side of her when it comes to girlfriends of Ross or women he likes, despite not being with him or interested in dating him. This is shown mostly in The One At The Beach, The One With The Jellyfish, The One Where Chandler Can't Cry, and The One With The Cooking Class. This is also shown when guys she likes, mention they have a girlfriend. Its shown in The One Where Monica Sings, that Rachel is a bit of a hypocrite since she gets mad at Ross for not giving her a guy's phone number and moves back with Joey because of this, but in the season 8 episode, The One With The Cooking Class, she doesn't want him to date other women because of the baby coming. However, despite these issues, Rachel has matured more in the later seasons, especially seasons 8 -10.