The Character of the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet

The Character of the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet

The Nurse has a very important role in the play, being Juliet’s

closest friend and helping her in her illicit relationship with Romeo.

Her position in the Capulet household is superior to that of a normal

servant. She is very familiar when she talks to Lady Capulet, and at

times oversteps the mark. She talks about the daughter she once had

and lost, and it is evident that Juliet is like a replacement and the

Nurse lavishes all her motherly love and protectiveness on Juliet. She

is bossy to the other servants, we see this in the beginning when she

gives orders to Peter and bosses him around. She is not very

intelligent, and is a fairly simple person, which makes her an easy

target for Mercutio’s sarcastic comments. She is very long-winded when

she talks, and is very rude, however she is extremely honest, and

makes the audience laugh. This is one of her main functions in the

play; Shakespeare put her there to provide humour in dark, sad times.

As the play goes on, we see that however much she tries to help the

two lovers with their relationship, she is too shallow to understand

the pure, true love that they share. This, ultimately distances her

from Juliet to the point where Juliet feels that she can no longer

trust her lifetime friend, and carries her burden on her own.

It is normally the Nurse who talks rubbish that doesn’t make sense,

but in Act 3 Scene 2, it is the other way round. It’s Juliet who is

talking nonsense, beginning the scene with a long speech, with lots of

metaphors, and long-winded language, asking the gods to make the night

come quicker so that she can be with Romeo. M...

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...Shakespeare. She provides humour, a mother- figure, and

creates tension in the play, so we cannot simply dismiss her as

meddling old fool. It is regrettable, that she lost Juliet’s trust,

but she was not entirely to blame for this; throughout the play, in

everything she said and did, she only had Juliet’s best interests at

heart. She was only trying to help, and it hurt her more than she let

on to lose Juliet’s love and confidence in her. It was beyond her

capabilities to understand deep things, such as true love, the fact

that Juliet was Juliet was not going to be her little girl for ever,

and whilst this does not fully excuse her, it does not make her

blameless. One should not use intellectual limitations as an excuse

for stupidity. However, above all her faults the Nurse was the perfect

soul mate for Juliet Capulet.