Nurse In Romeo And Juliet Essay Research

Nurse In Romeo And Juliet Essay, Research Paper

Many of Shakespeare?s tragedies incorporate some character who is amusing, delightful, and downright comic, injecting into the somberness of the plot line a note of levity. In Romeo and Juliet, this is the character of Juliet?s nurse. We do not have a name for her, and yet we know much about her, for she is only too happy to tell us everything we?d like to know — sometimes two or three times. Garrulous, simple, and common, she is none-the-less endearing because of her good heart and her deep love for Juliet — and even more important, she is essential to the development of the story itself.

When we first meet her, she and Lady Capulet are looking for Juliet. Lady Capulet wants to talk to her daughter in private, but her nurse doesn?t get the hint; a chance remark about Juliet being thirteen years old launches her into a rambling remembrance of Juliet?s babyhood, which she can date precisely because Juliet would be the same age as her own Susan, who died. She manages to toss into this conversation an earthquake, the Capulets? trip to Mantua eleven years before, and the details of weaning children off the breast. She manages, however, to throw in one bit of foreshadowing. She tells Lady Capulet that one day, as the toddler Juliet was playing, the child fell flat on her face. The Nurse?s husband picked her up and teased her, telling her that when she got older, she would ?fall backward when [she has] more wit?, and the child stopped crying and said ?Ay.? (I, iii, 41, 47). What she means by this remark is that when girl-children are small, they scamper and trip and fall forward, but when they are older, they find themselves thrown backwards in bed. Since the crisis of Juliet?s life will stem from love — from being thrown backwards in bed, as it were — this is a significant prophecy. Just as significantly, the toddler Juliet agrees to it, just as she is a willing participant in the events that lead to her death.

The Nurse is entranced when Juliet is to be betrothed to Paris; she calls him ?a man of wax . . . a flower, in faith, a very flower? (I, 76-78). But she is not so loyal to Paris that she does not see the attributes of Romeo as well. More to the point, she is as caught up in the excitement of forbidden love as Juliet is, and she?s thrilled to be part of Juliet?s plans for sending messages to her secret lover. When she dresses up to take the message to Romeo, she apparently looks ridiculous; Mercutio calls her cloak ?a sail? and herself ?a bawd?, causing her to become ?so vexed that every part about me quivers!? (II, iv, 108, 136, 171). Romeo tells her to commend himself to Juliet, which so excites her, that she can hardly stay to hear the rest; he protests that he hasn?t given her the message yet. Before they part, she makes another prescient comment: that ?rosemary and Romeo begin with [the same] letter? (II, iv, 220). Romeo asks what of it, and the Nurse has no logical reply because it was simply another of her passing fancies; but the very incongruity of the remark will cause audiences and readers to remember it. Rosemary is the flower symbolizing the remembrance of the dead.

It is important to note the way the Nurse gives her mouth free rein, and also the extent to which she is driven by her emotions. We can argue that she is an old woman, but she cannot be too old, for she nursed Juliet only eleven years before. In all likelihood the reason the Capulets tolerate her behavior is that the child Juliet has been devoted to her, and she has obviously been a servant of long standing in the household. But occasionally the Nurse?s passion for squeezing the very last drop of excitement or emotion out of every situation becomes cruel. For example, when she returns from speaking with Romeo, the Nurse procrastinates a long time before giving Juliet the news of her beloved. Her excuse is that she is too tired to talk, and her bones ache; to which Juliet replies, ?I would thou hadst my bones, and I thy news!? (V, i, 27). Finally the Nurse switches her focus of complaints onto Romeo. ?Well, you have made a simple choice; you know not how to choose a man; Romeo! No, not he; though his face be better than any man?s, yet his leg excels all men?s; and for a hand, and a foot, and a body, though they be not to be talked on, yet they are past compare; he is not the flower of courtesy, but, I?ll warrant him, as gentle as a lamb. Go thy ways, wench; serve God. What, have you dined at home?? (V, i, 37-46).

What has she said here? Juliet does not have good taste in men; the man she picked is gorgeous; what he lacks in manners he makes up in sweetness. That doesn?t sound like such a bad choice! And yet again, in this passage?s incongruity, we who know the story?s ending pick up something sinister in ?you know not how to choose a man.? For had Juliet made the safer choice — Paris, the count her parents wanted her to marry — Juliet would have lived, and in all likelihood so would Romeo. Had she ?served God? in the sense of obeying her parents (Shakespeare always comes down on the side of the status quo), tragedy would not have resulted.

Even more strange is the way the Nurse announces to Juliet that the girl?s cousin Tybalt is dead by Romeo?s hand. Actually, the Nurse says nothing about Tybalt for some thirty lines; she enters the room, wailing and moaning that ?he?s dead, he?s dead, he?s dead!/ We are undone,