nurse

• Shakespeare gives the nurse funny lines
• she speaks in blank verse - iambic pentameter that doesn't rhyme, 10 syllables (stressed, unstressed) - which is usually only for main characters - this signifies the nurses importance
• she sometimes speaks in prose - which is ordinary language
• First meet the nurse in A1 S3 - when Lady C, Juliet and nurse are talking about Paris - it starts off with the nurse talking about Juliet's childhood - Lady C says 'Enough of this; I pray thee hold thy peace' - which makes the nurse repeat the stories
• Nurse and Juliet have a close relationship


  shown when Lady C says 'Nurse, where is my daughter?' - she doesn't know where her daughter is, but the person who she hired is more likely to find her/know where she is
• nurse and juilet have a close relationship


  when Lady C wants to talk to Juliet she asks the nurse to leave - she quickly changes her mind: 'Nurse, come back again; I have remember'd me; thou hear our council' - this shows Lady C can't have am intermate conversation with her daughter with out the nurses presence
• 'I can tell her age upto an hour'


  she was present for juliets birth

  nurse=wet nurse
• wet nurse


  breastfeeds someone else's child

  common in Elizabethan England - for the rich

  working class women would breastfeed rich women's kids

  usually only stay until baby has weaned (can eat solids) but Juliet is 14, shows closeness - nurse is essentially a surrogate parent to Juliet - which is why she speaks in blank verse like the Friar to Romeo
• Nurses past


  had her own daughter who died- 'Susan is with God'

  her husband is dead- 'my husband - God be with his soul'
• Nurses happiness revolves around Juliet


  'An I might live to see thee married once, I have my wish'
• the nurse nurtures Juliet - as well as her relationship with Romeo

  • Act1, Scene5 - Juliet asks the nurse to find out about Romeo
  • Act2, Scene4 - Juliet confides in her nurse and sends her to meet Romeo
  • Act3, Scene3 - sent to deliver messages and ring to Romeo
  • Act3, Scene3 - snatched dagger from Romeo
  • Act3, Scene5 - she warns Juliet Lady C is about to come and see Romeo in her room
  • Act3, Scene5 - stands up to Capulet
• Comedy - 


  Act2, Scene4 - Shakespeare introduces comedy with the nurse using malapropisms (misuse of a word for a humorous effect), they are similar words to the correct word but very different meanings - 'I will tell her sir that you do protest' (should be propose not protest)
• Comedy - 


  Act2, Scene5 - nurse drags out Romeo's proposal to Juliet - deliberately winds up Juliet - uses prose
• Act3, Scene 2 - 'will you speak well of him that he killed your cousin'

  nurse to Juliet after Tybalt's death
• The nurses and Juliet's relationship weakens as the play progresses


  Juliet is becoming a woman, so she distances herself from the things that remind her of her childhood - 'I pray the leave me to myself tonight' Juliet to the nurse after the nurse suggests she should marry Paris
• Absence in the final scene 


  everyone but the nurse is present

  shows the tragedy of the social order - nurse is excluded because she is of a lower class - with Juliet gone, she has no link to the Capulet

  the happy ever after doesn't happen for everyone, the nurturing and comedy the nurse bring is gone
• when Juliet dies she repeats 'woe' for comedic purposes and 'o day'