The Grand Lady Capulet has the highest status of all three women in the scene; she is a very wealthy Lady and would be the head of the household. She seems very distant from Juliet and talks to her very formally, this makes the subject of marriage awkward to her and in the end it is not her that introduces the subject but the nurse Lady Capulet uses the chance to bring in the topic easily “Marry, that ‘marry’ is the very theme a came to talk of” is what she says as soon as the topic of marriage is brought up the situation would leave Lady Capulet feeling very anxious as it is a very important subject. Her distance from her daughter could be explained by the traditions of the era they lived in, it was normal for a nurse to bring up a wealthy Lady’s daughter. Lady Capulet’s main priority is her husband; she is easily persuaded by him and would not stick up for herself against him. The topic of Juliet’s marriage seems to excite Lady Capulet. “Verona’s summer hath not such a flower” is what Lady Capulet says about the man in consideration, this shows she is very pleased with her choice and is expecting Juliet to like him, she may also be trying to warm Juliet to him before she meets him as her mother would want her to marry a rich respectable gentleman to carry on the family, being the only child of Lord and lady Capulet. In the scene the lady seems very unsure of herself and nervous, this may also because she does not know her daughter well and is not used to speaking to her.
The Nurse is the women who brought Juliet up from birth and has been her closest companion from the time she was born; she is extremely chatty and has by far the most lines within Act 1 scene 3. Her bawdy jokes bring comedy to the otherwise serious scene such as referring to Juliet “falling backwards” when she comes of age, and “Bigger women grow by men” meaning get women pregnant shows she is not embarrassed or ashamed. She seems to have three main things on her mind. Sex, God and Juliet. Her strong religious beliefs seem to be contradicted by her unruly attitude and blaspheming, which comes as a surprise from such a “religious” Lady.
While Lady Capulet is talking to her daughter the nurse interrupts her lady, this would be seen as very rude, it shows the character to be very outgoing and brave as it comes naturally to her to interrupt someone of such a higher status than her. Juliet seems to be the centre of the nurse’s world; she even uses Juliet’s life as a calendar for other events which have happened and uses pet names for her such as “lamb” “ladybird” and “Jule” this shows how strong the relationship between the nurse and Juliet would have been. She also uses reference to her own baby and her husband who have died, this could of lead to her becoming even more close to Juliet because she would have no family of her own to care for and love so she would give all of her affection to Juliet as if she was her own child.
The nest time we see the three main female characters together is in act 3 scene 5. A lot happens in during the middle section of the play between the Montague and Capulet families. Romeo and Juliet get married in secret helped by the nurse. Tybalt kills Mercutio Leading to Romeo Killing Tybalt. After this Romeo is banned from Verona, just after his wedding night with Juliet he leaves her, not knowing this would be the last time he see’s her alive again.
Lady Capulet enters just after Romeo had left her, Shakespeare creates great imagery through Lady Capulet in this scene, phrases such as “Wash him from his grave with tears” would create images in the audiences mind. Lady Capulet’s mood has dramatically changed by this scene after the death of Tybalt; therefore she is probably still grieving. When she sees her daughter crying she presumes it is because she has just lost her cousin, unaware to the fact that her husband has just been banished from Verona. Even in this situation Lady Capulet does not show a lot of sympathy towards Juliet, this may be because there is not a strong relationship between the two. She says to Juliet “Some grief shows much of love, but much of grief show’s still some want of wit”, telling her daughter that moderate grief shows love but too much grieving shows a lack of commonsense.
As Lady Capulet does not know the real reason of why her daughter is upset she believes the news she has found a husband for her is going to cheer her up. However Juliet does not take well to this, and when she refuses her marriage Lady Capulet becomes very angry and turns to her father. As he enters she says to him “tell her yourself” he then asks his wife if she has informed Juliet, and she sarcastically replies Ay sir but she will non she gives you thanks” which means I have but she will not have anything to do with it thanks. She then even wishes her own daughter dead “married to her grave” this shows a very cold and evil side to Lady Capulet, and how angry she must have been with Juliet.
At the beginning of the scene the nurse warns Juliet of her mothers approach she now sees Juliet as a woman because she refers to her as “madame”.
Although the nurse still shows signs of her outgoing and brave character, by sticking up for Juliet against Lord Capulet about marriage arrangements, she answers back to him “You are to blame my lord to rate her so” is what she answers back to him when he is telling Juliet off, this shows how she is not as respectful towards her master as she should be in that age. The nurse is still unusually quiet in this scene this may be because she is worried, because she had helped Juliet marry Romeo and now things are happening which are causing her to regret it.
At the end of the scene the nurse tells Juliet she is so sure Romeo would not come back she is willing to bet on it “All the world to nothing” that he “Dares ne’er come back to challenge you” meaning she bets he will never come back to claim her for his wife.
When Juliet asks the nurse for her advice the nurse urges her to be unfaithful and marry Paris. She compares the two young men and refers to Romeo as a “dishclout” or in other words a dishcloth compared to Paris, and tells Juliet how she would be pleased with this second marriage as it “excels” her first. This is not what you would expect a religious nurse to say.
Even though we can see she is trying to persuade Juliet to do what she think will be best for her I do not think she totally agrees with the advice she is giving, Like in >>>>>’s production of the play she cannot even look at Juliet when giving her the advice and she uses the phrase “Beshrew my heart” meaning curse my heart which could indicate she is doing something wrong.
The beginning of the scene sees Romeo leaving Juliet after consummating their marriage, as we have seen earlier by the way the nurse now uses the term “Madame” towards Juliet showing a now adult relationship between Juliet and the nurse. Juliet is very upset because she has been parted from Romeo. At first she tries to deceive her mother about why she is upset and “beseeches” Lady Capulet to tell her the joyful tidings. She reacts in shock when she is told about her marriage with Paris on Thursday and tells her mother in a forthright and angry manner “He shall not make me there a joyful bride”. However she does still not reveal to her mother the reason she does not wish to get married, she is already married to Romeo!
Towards the end of the scene both Juliet’s Mother and Father have disowned her and when she turns to the Nurse for comfort and advice, no real comfort is given, just a way of temporarily getting rid of their difficulties.
When the Nurse curses her own heart and soul, Juliet now endorses this “Amen” and then pretends she has been comforted by the Nurse, and tells her she has gone to “make confession” and be absolved.
This is the first time that Juliet lies to the Nurse and as the nurse leaves she reflects angrily to the nurse as “ancient damnation! O Wicked friend!”
Having already been disowned by her parents she now wants her relationship with the nurse to end. “Thou and my boson henceforth shall be twain” and she is totally alone.
The end of the scene sees Juliet starting to think about killing herself if the Friar cannot sort out her problems, she must very be sad.
Through the whole play these three characters bring most of the entertainment to the play. Through scenes of both love and tragedy these characters relationships have changed, from being a close family to now, Juliet being disowned and now not having a good relationship with the Nurse. Juliet had changed from being a shy, innocent young girl, to an independent young woman who no longer depends so much upon the Nurse, who stands up for herself. The nurse has gone from a loud bawdy character to a slightly more withdrawn lady, and Lady Capulet has gone from being distant from her daughter to disowning her daughter.
