Nurse

• It was common for higher and middle class families to have a nurse to look after their children. The nurse is juliet's wetnurse, meaning she breastfed her.
• Lady capulet: "nurse, come back again" (A1S3)

  .shows lady capuket is reliable on the nurse, because higher families hired a nurse to take on the parenting role, so lady capuket didn't have to

  .shows the distance between lady capukef and her own daughter, but the close relationship of jukiet and the nurse (her source of wisdom)

  .suggest lady capulet feels she cannot have such an intimate conversation with her daughter without the nurse being present
• Dialogue:

  .Shakespeare uses blank verse for the nurses Dialogue (blank verse=iambic pentameter that does not rhyme, has ten lines of ten syllables, with alternating stressed and unstressed) blank verse was usually used by Shakespeare for upper classes

  .nurse uses blank verse to highlight her significance, and Shakespeare's intention is not for the audience to view her the same as lower class characters, to show she is a surrogate parent to juliet
• "For juliets sake, for her sake rise and stand" (A3S3)

  .The nurse talks romeo out of committing suicide, showing she also becomes romeos confidant at one point

  .reveals the nurses key role in the play as nurturing
• "I will tell her sir, that you do protest" (A2S4)

  .this scene is when juliet send the nurse to talk to romeo about arranging their wedding

  .use of malapropism (misuse of a word for humorous effects, word sounds similiar to correct but with different meaning)

  .here, the nurse means 'propose' not protest

  .this highlights that she has come from the working class

  .also highlights another key role of the nurse, comedic relief
• "I warrant, a virtuous-where is your mother?" (A2S5)

  .Here, the nurse returns to juliet who is desperate to know what romeo has said

  .here the nurse is dragging on her speech and conversation, avoiding the information juliet craves

  .highly comedic character
• "Will you speak well of him that killed you cousin?" (A3S2)

  .we can say juliets relationship with the nurse suffering as the play progresses

  .this is because juliet is getting closer and closer to her fate, therefore there are less opportunities for jokes

  .nurse doesn't understand juliets love for Romeo even after his actions, implies their maternal bond breaking
• "I think it best you married with the county" (A3S5)

  .The nurses suggestion angers juliet

  .juliet is becoming a woman, she begins to distance herself from people she associates with childhood

  .this ultimately results in her death
• Why does Shakespeare not include the nurse in the end if the play?

  .as the play progresses, her relationship with juliet falls apart and she no longer takes on her role of nurturing with juliet

  .therefore, the time for joking has dissapeared and she and romeo are on the path to their fate

  .juliet distances herself from the nurse for not supporting her choices, and friar becomes her confidant
• "Go girl seek happy nights to happy days" (A1S3)

  .seems encouraging on the surface

  .alternatively, she prioritises 'happy nights', and is congratulating the sexual side of the relationship

  .here the nurse is focusing on juliets transition to womanhood

  .the nurse is hinting to juliet what her life will be like as a assonance daughter, warning her that her relationship will be sexually driven, because in elizabethan era, women were only viewed as a way to reproduce, and had no rights
• "Bigger women grow by men" (A1S3)

  .nurse focuses on sexual aspects, becoming pregnant

  .the nurse is forced to believe this is the only purpose of women, this presents to us the mistreatment of the nurse as she is a lower class woman, used as a parental figure
• "He is not the flower of courtesy, but I'll warrant him" (A2S5)

  .shows the nurse doesn't believe he is perfect for her, introduces us to her nurturing role as she grew up with jukiet and provided for her, therefore she believes no on will ever be told enough for her in her eyes

  .however she agrees to tolerate him, to make juliet happy, she also doesn't share this information with juliets parents, even though there's a risk of her being punished