Act2 Scene4(lines 83-end)
In this scene Mercutio is saying sexual jokes to Romeo and Mercutio directs the jokes to the nurse when she appears to talk to Romeo. These jokes irritate the nurse and warns Romeo if this is how he is going to treat her then shell get involved. The nurse arranges a date for the marriage to be held on.
The director for the new movie has a lot of extra things in the play added on like the nurse is wearing a lot more make up and is wearing red clothes, this means that the director is attempting to make the nurse look cheerful. The director also makes the nurse a lot more aggressive to Romeo as she pushes him and warns him a lot more aggressively than in the old one. The nurse herself likes to joke around but she only take a certain amount and if the joke is directed at her or Juliet she has a very low tolerance level towards it as you find out when Mercutio goes over the top. One of the reasons Mercutio behaves this way to her is that Mercutio doesn’t know who the nurse is and how important she is to Romeo and Juliet. The effect on the audience when this happens is the audience are meant to laugh but have some sympathy for the nurse as she’s gone to Romeo to help Juliet out and she is being laughed at. The nurse says to Romeo “ Scurvy knave! Pray you, sir, a word : and as I told you, my young lady bid me enquire you out”. This proves that the nurse has a very strong relationship with Juliet as it is saying that she cares. In this scene the nurse’s emotional feelings show the most in the story as the director puts the nurse in positions that can easily show to the audience that she is like a caring mother for Juliet.
Act2 Scene5
In this scene Juliet awaits in agony for the return of the nurse to hear if Romeo is willing to go ahead with the marriage and has a date set. The nurse arrives but doesn’t want to tell Juliet straight and wants to mess around. The nurse complains that her bones ache from walking around everywhere. The director puts this scene of the Juliet asking the nurse to show how excited Juliet is on marrying Romeo. A soliloquy is spoken by Juliet and she uses words like ‘Cupid’, ‘sweet love’ and ‘Love’s heralds’. These words represent strong love. When Juliet finds out what she wants to hear she is very happy and her face goes from a frustrated face to a cheerful face when she finds out that Romeo wants to get married in Friar Lawrence’s cell. The nurse does her best to make Juliet not finding out by complaining about her aches “ Jesu, what haste! Can you not stay a while? Do you not see that I am out of breath?” and “Lord, how my head aches”. The nurse comes up with these excuses because she likes to see Juliet beg for the answer and wants to keep it that way. The nurse sends Juliet to go get married and says a rude joke “ I am the drudge, and toil in your delight; But you shall bear the burden soon at night”. The nurse doesn’t think before she says or does things and just says what ever comes into her mind. The nurse has already said something like this before so this shows that the nurse likes to hear her own voice and likes to say the stories that she likes over and over again. In this scene the nurse isn’t as caring as before as she is more enjoying to tease Juliet. I would say that she is related to Juliet more like a close friend than a Mother as there isn’t a lot of care for each other in this scene as Juliet just cares about the answer and the nurse just cares about teasing Juliet. However this doesn’t mean that the nurse and Juliet don’t like each other it just means that in this scene a lot of care isn’t required. In this scene the nurses effect on the audience is that the audience will feel neutral to the nurse but also find her to be a happy character.
Act3 Scene2
In this scene a lot of emotion is involved. At first Juliet finds out that Tybalt is dead and then later finds out it was Romeo who Murdered him. Juliet then finds out that Romeo is to be banished from Verona. Juliet threatens to kill herself but is stopped by the nurses promise to find Romeo. Juliet is waiting one day for Romeo to arrive so they can spend the night for the first time as husband and wife when the nurse comes rushing and breaks the news that Romeo killed Tybalt. Juliet is confused at first who is dead as she thinks it’s Romeo who is dead. The nurse says some harmful things towards Romeo “No faith, no honesty in men, all perjured”. This offends Juliet because it is an abusive comment to her husband. The nurse is very aggressive in this scene. This is because she cares a lot for Juliet and feels if Juliet stays with Romeo it will be no good for anyone including herself. The nurse would be described as a caring mother. She is very protective in this scene but the only problem is she doesn’t know what she’s saying has so much abuse to Juliet and is just thinking about what will happen to Juliet if the relationship with Romeo stays. The effect on the audience is that the nurse is a caring woman but has gone to far with the abusive comments towards Romeo. The reason may be that the nurse says this is because at the time she is extremely annoyed with Romeo for killing Tybalt that she just says what she thinks at the time.
Act3 Scene5
In this scene Romeo and Juliet have just spent the night together. Then the nurse warns Romeo that lady Capulet is on her way to speak to Juliet. Lady Capulet mistakes Juliet’s tears for the death of Tybalt and so does Capulet. Lady Capulet tells Juliet that she will get married to Paris. Lady Capulet not knowing that Juliet is already married so marrying again would be a sin. Juliet refuses the marriage. Capulet is extremely annoyed by Juliet’s decison and insults her. Capulet then is further enraged by the nurse’s defence while Lady Caoulet refuses to help Juliet. Juliet attempts to seek comfort from then nurse but doesn’t get it so tells the nurse to be gone and goes to see Friar Lawrence. When Capulet is insulting the nurse, the nurse doesn’t get involved straight away and when she does she is told to move out the way. The nurse doesn’t get involved straight away because she hasn’t got the confidence as she fears that if she gets involved and starts arguing with her master she will be sacked. After the argument Juliet tries to get sympathy form the nurse and the nurse says “ I think it best you married with the County O, he’s a lovely gentleman!”. The nurse tells Juliet to marry Romeo then changes mind + says marry Paris. This is indecisive. The nurse doesn’t take things seriously she thinks she can change the irreversible like Romeo and Juliet’s marriage. Juliet is heart broken when she hears that the only person on Capulet’s side who agreed with the relationship between Romeo and Juliet now disagrees. The audience think now that the nurse is stupid for getting this relationship so intense and then suddenly changing sides. The nurse is doing this because it is best for her as she can still keep her job if she stays on Capulet’s side. The nurse thinks that this relationship is just a little one and it can be stopped so easily. “Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye As Paris hath. Beshrew my very heart, I think you are happy in this second match”. In this scene the nurse isn’t very close to Juliet as she’s suddenly just stopped helping out Juliet. She would be described as a traitor to Juliet. Her effect on the audience would be that the audience would see what the nurse has got involved in and perhaps feel slight sympathy for her.
