The Nurse

• The Nurse

  A bawdy, overly talkative, and humorous character in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
• The Nurse


  • Teases Juliet but is also completely devoted to her
  • Eventually betrays Juliet's wishes by giving her unkind advice
  • Completely grief-stricken by Juliet's feigned death
• The Nurse in the first half of Romeo and Juliet


  Helps Juliet and provides comic relief
• The Nurse in the second half of Romeo and Juliet


  No longer Juliet's ally, lacks humorous parts of her character
• The Nurse in the beginning of Romeo and Juliet

  1. Loyal to Juliet and supportive of her secret romance with Romeo

  2. Helps arrange the marriage of Romeo and Juliet
• The Nurse in the beginning of Romeo and Juliet


  • Has speeches and scenes designed to provoke laughter
  • Carries messages and brings the two young lovers together
• The Nurse in the end of Romeo and Juliet

  1. Changes opinion, encourages Juliet to betray Romeo and deny their marriage

  2. No longer included in Juliet's clandestine plans
• The Nurse is left to mourn Juliet twice, along with all the other Capulets
• The Nurse


  • Dominates early scenes with Juliet and Lady Capulet
  • Launches into endlessly long speeches and makes dirty jokes
  • Continues talking despite Lady Capulet's annoyance
• The Nurse's role in the beginning

  1. Acts as a messenger

  2. Encourages the secret marriage

  3. Helps Romeo secretly enter Juliet's bedchamber
• The Nurse's role later in the play

  1. Turns position, encourages Juliet to abandon Romeo

  2. Juliet stops confiding in her
• The Nurse


  • Completely devoted to Juliet
  • Devastated by the loss of her young charge when Juliet takes the sleeping potion
• The Nurse


  Has many facets to her personality: talkative, funny, annoying, mischievous, unscrupulous, but completely devoted to Juliet
• Comic relief in Romeo and Juliet

  The Nurse makes jokes that relieve tension in scenes
• The Nurse makes bawdy jokes

  Helps break up tension in early scenes
• The Nurse's bawdy jokes

  • "Now, by my maidenhead, at twelve year old, I bade her come."
  • "I'll lay fourteen of my teeth,—And yet, to my teeth be it spoken, I have but four—She is not fourteen."
• The Nurse as the butt of jokes

  • Mercutio calls the Nurse ugly by making a pun on the word "fan"
• How the Nurse betrays Juliet


  1. Knows about Juliet's secret marriage to Romeo

  2. Advises Juliet to deny the marriage and wed Count Paris instead

  3. Suggests Juliet proceed as though her marriage to Romeo never happened