She shows the attitude of the people around her by telling jokes when the characters are happy, giving advice when the characters are in a dilemma or shows the good side of things when the characters are happy. All of these things help the audience to understand the plot, the atmosphere and the action in the play.
She is the character how tells the rude jokes and tries to be the center of attention. She appears in all of the acts in the play except act 5, where her presence would be most appropriate because of her emotions to Juliet. Although she isn’t present in act 5 her presence is felt and the audience feels her sorrow.
The nurse is closer to Juliet than lady Capulet, as she has raised Juliet since she was a child. She treats Juliet, as she was her own child, this is because her real doughtier died in an earthquake.
We can see this closeness in act 1, scene 3 when lady Capulet insists the nurse will stay while she tells Juliet about her marriage “Nurse, came back again, I have remembered me, thou’s hear our counsel.” Lady Capulet wants the nurse to stay because the nurse can handle Juliet and her reactions better than Lady Capulet can.
The nurse expresses her affection to Juliet by calling her nicknames like “lamb”, “lady bird” and she talks freely around Juliet in informal-language although Juliet is qualified as the nurse’s employer. The nurse doesn’t show this kind of affection to anybody else except Juliet. She refers to other family members in formal language but she gains confidence to tell rude jokes only when Juliet is around.
On the other hand, Juliet is also close to the nurse. She shows this closeness in act 1 scene 5, when she tells the nurse, she is in love with a Montague…
Juliet is forbidden of loving a person from the Montague family because she is a member of the Capulet family – the eternal enemy of the Montague family.
So by telling the nurse that she is in love with a Montague, she tells the nurse her biggest secret, this shows the nurse is reliable and trustworthy. These qualities are also shown in act 2 scene 4, when Juliet sends a secret message to Romeo about her marriage.
One of the nurses irritating points is she garrulous. She talks too much and never gets to the point. In act 1 scene 3, Lady Capulet has to stop the nurse talking so she could talk “enough of this, I pray thee, hold thy peace.”
Her importance is starts to be shown only in act 1 scene 5. Until act 1 scene 5, the only thing the nurse did was tell as about herself.
After Juliet met Romeo, she asks the nurse to find details about him. If the nurse wasn’t there Juliet would not have asked Romeo about him self as she is a little shy.
The nurse is also very defensive; she is worried that Romeo is interested in Juliet for her money not because he loves her. She says in act 1 scene 5, who ever marries her will get all of the money “I tell you, he that can lay hold of her shall have the chinks.” The nurse also warns Romeo that betraying Juliet is a nasty thing to do.
The nurse is likes Mercutio’s rudeness in act 2 scene 4, but she is annoyed with it at the same time. She asks Mercutio and Benvolio to stop being rude but she asks that in a very polite way that actually invite them to be ruder. She is able to stop them by either going to talk privately with Romeo instead of listening to their rude jokes or she could have stopped their rude jokes without ignoring them. At the beginning of the scene Romeo also tells rude jokes about her but after Mercutio and Benvolio leave he treats her in a very polite manner.
This kind of rudeness would immediately make the audience laugh when the nurse enters the stage.
The nurse treats Romeo well because he is Juliet’s love. When he offers her money she does every thing not to take it.
All of these points change after the nurse refuses to tell Juliet about her marriage to Romeo. Then both Juliet and the audience start being annoyed with her. Juliet stops her closeness to the nurse and the audience fined the more obnoxious properties in her. The way she tries making herself more noticeable is now more irritating than amusing like it was before, her jokes are no longer funny they are rude and stupid. She isn’t romantic, she is irresponsible because she is encouraging Romeo and Juliet’s marriage and she will seem even less responsible further on in the play when she will encourage Paris and Juliet’s marriage.
