Her father also enters her chamber, but when Juliet refuses to marry Paris, the nurse quickly steps in to protect Juliet from her outraged father.
Her interference is one thing that is not by- passed in the Capulet household.
Nurse: “ God in heaven bless her: you are to blame my Lord to rate her so.”
Capulet: “And why my Lady Wisdom? Hold your tongue, good prudence, smatter you’re your gossips, go.”
Capulet is fed up with her interfering and he puts her in her place, in those days a nurse would not talk like that to her master.
I believe the nurse is a motherly figure to Juliet. Someone to she can talk to in time of need.
In act one, scene three the nurse talks to her about her child that was about the same age as Juliet. She died at a young age. I sense that the nurse treats Juliet the same way as though she were her own daughter and I believe that’s the message going across to the audience.
She still misses her daughter so to help comfort that pain she wants the best for Juliet.
In those historical days nurses were there to raise the children up in a rich family, whereas today a nurse is someone who looks after the sick and the term used now is a nanny.
The nurse is an important person in the play in her own right for she is the link between Romeo and Juliet. I believe she is brought into the play for various reasons.
The decade the play is set in, its convenient and typical for a rich family to have a nurse although it is not normal for a nurse to stick her nose into every bodies business and so that sort of personality can get one in a lot of trouble.
Shakespeare makes her the connection between the two lovers, she is the messenger figure.
The nurse is the messenger in the play, anything Juliet wants to tell Romeo she will send the nurse to heed news to him and visa versa. I believe that she is the anchor in Juliet’s life for she keeps her firmly on the ground; she doesn’t allow her to wander off daydreaming she keeps her in the real world. She’s the only person who Juliet can open to, someone she’s confident with and ally.
Juliet’s father threatens Juliet for refusing to marry Paris, but instead of the nurse being understanding for the first time in the play she disappoints Juliet by trying to encourage her to commit bigamy by marrying Paris when she fully well knows Juliet is already married to Romeo. At that point to Juliet she has betrayed her, although nurse believes she is trying to tell her to do the right thing, she doesn’t understand how sad Juliet is.
This now leaves doors open to questions, was the nurse part of what drove Juliet to her death?
Without the nurse in the play, there would have been some loose ends. Romeo and Juliet would have had to find a way to keep in contact without being caught and both would have got very frustrated.
Juliet would not have had someone to confide in.
I believe the nurse is a realistic character because in the play; her character is perceived by the audience as a loving nurse who shows a bond between her and Juliet. She is a mother figure to Juliet and I believe many people in the world have someone they can look up to or rely on. The play is based in Italy; and many foreign people have different cultures, time has changed, before you didn’t have the right to talk to your master of the house like that for it was rude and disrespectful, but now nannies are paid to do there job and most don’t mix business with emotions, I think that’s what happened with the nurse in the play. That was what Shakespeare was trying to get across in the play.
I do think she was exaggerated in the play because in some parts of the play the things she did would have got her in a lot of trouble back then.
Nurse: “ay not one speak?”
Capulet: “peace you mumbling fool, utter your gravity o’er a gossip’s bowl, for here we need it not.”
The nurse interferes with peoples problems, she is a very rude person.
She resembles my nanny my fathers mother she is very interfering in my fathers life, although she knows he’s grown up apart of him is still her little boy so too much interfering can lead to destruction of some sort.
I have learned that the nurse has a realistic part in the play. Without her I believe the play would have had a lot of loose ends. She is there mainly for Juliet; and she’s the link between Romeo and Juliet and to the audience, she brings life and humour to the play. The nurse is a dramatic device in the play, she has a dramatic impact on the audience and in the play.
I believe if Shakespeare had not added the nurse in the play, he would have to have found some other way to bring humour to it. Also the play was set in a specific decade where it was convenient for a nurse to look after the children.
