Nurse

• "Come Lammas eve at night shall be fourteen. Susan and she, god rest all Christian souls were of an age" - Act 1 scene 3


  - shakespeare wants us to sympathise with the nurse as she was married young and her daughter died who was a similiar age to juliet- explains why there bond is close compared to juliets and her mothers

  - shakespeare uses susans death thematically - nurse points out similarities between susan and juliet who were "of an age" - hints at how juliet will also die
• "I tell you he that can lay hands of her shall have the chinks" - Act 1 scene 5


  -Shakespeare implies that love is never just love in a patriarchal society

  -nurse voices social opinion that the most important part of courtship is financial which consequently portrays Juliet as property that. A suitor "can lay hold of" and then points out the value of the property is worth the "chinks"

  -nurse practically celebrates patriarchal thinking

  -the tragedy of the feud could be prevented if capulet did not have entitlement to choose a husband for his daughter
• "I think you are happy in this second match for it excels your first: or if it did not your first is dead or twere as good he were" - Act 3 scene 5


  - big betrayal for Juliet

  -nurses pentameter breaks down- Shakespeare uses it to show that what she is saying is wrong

  -this advice is emotionally wrong for Juliet as she loves Romeo however is being forced to marry Paris

  -however for a patriarchal society this advice is good as there is no realistic expectation that there marriage could ever be public - marrying Paris is a much better match socially and financially for Juliet