Romeo and Juliet Coursework - The nurse

November 2001

Romeo and Juliet Coursework

The Nurse

William Shakespeare wrote the well-known play “Romeo and Juliet” in 1599. “Romeo and Juliet” is a great love story that ends tragically. It is set in Verona, Italy where there is a major family feud between the Montagues and the Capulets. Obviously knowing of the conflict Juliet the daughter of the Capulets and Romeo the son of the Montagues meet and fall in love. Even though the position that they are in makes the relationship very difficult they decide to become husband and wife. Fortunately the young couple have someone to help arrange their plans to be wed. This person is Juliet’s Nurse. The Nurse has looked after Juliet since she was a baby. This is why Juliet trusts the Nurse enough to let her help with her relationship with Romeo. Therefore the Nurse is an important character in the play because she acts as an “messenger” between the two lovers.

Shakespeare presents the Nurse into the play at the beginning of Act 1, Scene 3. During this scene Lady Capulet tells Juliet and the Nurse about Paris and his proposal of marriage. In this scene we are able to see the closeness between the Nurse and Juliet. The Nurse acts as a mother figure and only shows warmth and affection towards her. The author gives much evidence of this affection during Scene 3. “What, a lamb! What, ladybird!” This is one of the first things that the Nurse says about Juliet as she is calling her for her mother and it shows straight away the Nurse’s feelings for her. “Ladybird” is a term of endearment. After she says this the Nurse goes on, “God forbid, where’s this girl?” The Nurse is becoming worried only after a few moments of calling the young girl. When Juliet finally enters the room her mother Lady Capulet orders the Nurse to exit the room so that she can talk to her daughter in private and the Nurse leaves obediently. But with the awkwardness of not knowing what to say she calls the Nurse back into the room. Shakespeare now shows the Nurse as being loquacious meaning very talkative. From lines 17 through to 49 the author shows how long-winded the Nurse is by having her jump from subject to subject which have no real relevance to the topic at hand. But it does show that the Nurse can be very frank when she is talking her comments are mostly linked to a sex. For example in line 54 she says, “A bump as big as a young cock’rel’s stone” Here she is explaining a fall that Juliet had when she was younger and is describing the bump on her head to be as big as a cockerel’s testicle. Also the Nurse obviously has no self-control due to the fact that she interrupts Lady Capulet while she is talking. Lady Capulet gets so annoyed by this that she tells the Nurse, ”Enough of this, I pray thee hold thy peace”. This is another why of saying be quiet. Here Shakespeare shows the antithesis between the Nurse and Lady Capulet, the control of Lady Capulet against the lack of control of the Nurse.

Shakespeare placed Romeo and the Nurse’s first encounter with each other in Act 1, Scene 5 of the play, just after Romeo kisses Juliet. Juliet has just left to talk to her mother and Romeo asks the Nurse who she is.

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In this scene the author exposes to us again how much the Nurse cares for Juliet by the way she brags to Romeo about her and her family’s wealth. This is shown in lines 115 to 116, “he that can lay hold of her Shall have the chinks”. What she is trying to say is that whoever marries Juliet will have plenty o money. She is adapting a playful tone here when she is talking to Romeo this shows the flirtatious side of her personality. Also in this conversation Romeo finds out that Juliet is a Capulet his family’s worst enemy. We don’t hear from the Nurse till Act 2, Scene 4 where she has been sent to find Romeo for Juliet. We are now seeing the evidence that she is acting as a messenger for the couple. In the scene the Nurse is in Verona’s square with all the young men and her servant Peter. Again Shakespeare shows us how flirtatious she is. The Nurse enjoys the sexually connected comments that the men are making towards her. For example, “I tell ye, for the bawdy hand of the dial is now upon the prick of noon”. This quotation is taken from Mercutio Romeo’s best friend. Mercutio is proving to the Nurse the time of day but not in a polite way. When he says, “dial” he means women and when he says, “prick” he means penis. After the Nurse confronts Romeo with Juliet’s proposal of marriage she says to him, “if ye should lead her in a fool’s paradise”. Here Romeo is being warned by the Nurse not to seduce Juliet. She is being protective over her she does not want to see the teenage girl get hurt.

Juliet is very angry when the Nurse returns after three hours of her being sent to find Romeo with her message in Act 2, Scene 5. The Nurse shows that she takes her messaging job very seriously in this scene because she talks for up to sixty lines before she tells Juliet of her news from her future husband. “Lord, how my head aches!” even though the Nurse knows that Juliet is very anxious to hear what she has to hear about Romeo, she enjoys the scenario and teases the young girl. The fact that the Nurse enjoys teasing Juliet is evident in the way she does not give the information quickly. This also proves that the Nurse is chatty and long-winded.

Shakespeare enforces that the Nurse is highly emotional in Act 3, Scene 2 when she tells Juliet the news of her cousin Tybalt’s death. The way that she repeats herself shows that she is highly dramatic and emotional. “He’s dead, he’s dead, he’s dead!” the use of the exclamation mark exaggerates her feelings. The Nurse is not making herself clear to Juliet because she is so excessive with her emotions. She is contradicting herself therefore she is confusing the young girl. Her Nurse is not telling her who is dead, Juliet doesn’t know who has passed away all sorts are going through her mind she is worrying about her husband Romeo, the Nurse is prolonging her pain. Even so the Nurse does show the potential to of great feeling and sadness, O Tybalt, Tybalt, the best friend I had!” But after showing such feeling she we can a certain type of selfishness about the Nurse. She is thinking about the death of Tybalt and how it affects, her and not how the girl that she treats as her own is going to be affected due to the fact that the killer was her husband Romeo. William Shakespeare here is presenting to us human potential and again shows that the Nurse lacks discipline because of how she can’t control her emotions.

After Romeo has committed homicide he retreats to confide in Friar Lawrence in his cell. He is devastated about murdering his wife’s cousin Tybalt and needs to confide in the Friar. The Friar acts as a confidante to Romeo just like the Nurse does to Juliet. He also protects Romeo as the Nurse protects Juliet when her father Capulet threatens to physically hurt her. Romeo is sobbing and crying. The Nurse enters the cell and says that “O he is even in my mistress’ case”. By this the old lady is saying that Juliet is acting exactly the same as Romeo. But straight after she gives this information she goes on to say, “Stand up, stand up, stand, and be you a man;” She is giving that she is capable of controlling Romeo this again shows her concern for Juliet. Displaying his pain and suffering Romeo tries to commit suicide but is stopped by the Nurse, this is also evidence for the Nurse protecting Juliet. The Nurse then continues to give inappropriate behaviour, she is flirting with the Friar, which is a monk. “O Lord, I could have stay’d here all night”.

Act 4, Scene 5 the Nurse discovers Juliet “dead”, when really has taken drugs to make her sleep for twenty-four hours. The Nurse is desolate over the her “death” and displays her feelings again by repetition, “Never was seen so black a day as this. O woeful day, O woeful day!” I think that the Nurse acts a servant, friend, confidante and successful messenger towards Juliet in the play. She and Friar Lawrence also contributed to the marriage of their two young friends, which ended up killing both lovers. I don’t believe that the Nurse helped towards the death of Juliet because the couple were determined to get married even with the circumstances that they were in.