Juliet’s nurse is protective, affectionate, and bawdy.
First of all, Juliet’s nurse is like a mother. She is very protective of the little girl she raised from a baby, because she lost her own children. She cares more about Juliet than anything. Juliet reminds her of her own daughter, Susan, because they would have been the same age had Susan lived. Nurse is not all too impressed with Romeo, and tells Juliet she can do better.
Nurse is affectionate. She seems to care for Juliet when no one else does. She gives her advice. For one thing, she tells her to marry Paris. Yet when Juliet tells her she only loves Romeo, Nurse concedes and helps them secretly marry.
I will tell her, sir, that you do protest, which, as I
take it, is a gentlemanlike offer.(165) (Act 1, Scene 4)
She wants what Juliet wants.
Nurse also really likes to make bawdy, sexual jokes. Some of her jokes are stronger than others, but an example is when Lady Capulet tells Juliet that she will not grow less to have a man.
No less? Nay, bigger! Women grow by men. (Act 1, Scene 3)
This is of course a reference to the fact that men make women pregnant. Her jokes are a good source of comic relief throughout the play.
The first character trait of the Nurse is she loves to talk. In Act I, Scene 3, the Nurse goes on and on about how she raised Juliet since she was a babe. Lady Capulet is trying to tell Juliet that County Paris wants to marry her. Everytime Lady Capulet tries to get a word in the Nurse starts her ramblings.
The second character trait is the Nurse will do whatever it takes to make Juliet happy as if she were her daughter. In Act II, Scene 4, she goes behind Lady and Lord Capulet's backs and meets secretly with Romeo to set up the wedding with Juliet.
The third character trait of the Nurse is she can be wishy-washy in her actions. In Act II, Scene 5,After Romeo is exiled and Tybalt is killed by Romeo, the Nurse sides with Juliet's parents and tells her to marry Paris. She tells Juliet that Romeo is as good as dead and since she is still living, she should marry Paris. She has totally betrayed Juliet at this point and Juliet has lost respect for the Nurse.
1. She's lowbrow. The nurse is a working class, bawdy character who makes comments and jokes at Juliet's expense. Her sexual undertones are inappropriate for a woman in charge of a young woman, yet she seems oblivious to this. 2. She's indiscrete. She tells too much, and ignores lady Capulet's and Juliet's request that she hold her tongue (1 iii). She tells Romeo that Juliet has another suitor who "would fain lay knife aboard" (wants to have sex with her) when there is no reason for her to reveal that info.
3. She is well-intentioned, but foolish. She...
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seems concerned about Romeo's integrity, telling him it would be weak dealing if he were leading Juliet into a fool's paradise, yet in almost the next breath she's arranged to help Romeo hang a ladder to Juliet's bedroom.
3. Drama Queen (see the exchange between her and Juliet after she first sees Romeo)
4. She is pragmatic. When it looks as if things won't work out with Romeo, she counsels Juliet to take the second choice (Paris).
The nurse is loving towards Juliet. She begins to tell a story about the young Juliet even though Lady Capulet doesn't want to hear it. It is remincent of a mother that tells everyone the time her toddler ran around a wedding naked. She is also loyal to her charge. She does help her out when trying to recieve the message from Romeo even though she knows who he is. The nurse is also very bawdy. Her language is not of the upper class. She can tell a rude joke if the occaision arises.
What are three characteristics of the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet?
While playing a loving and comic role, the Nurse of Romeo and Julietlaterbecomes a rather fickle character.
- Comic
The Nurse embodies romantic comedy as the inarticulate messenger and "sparring partner" with Mercutio. Her prolix ramblings lighten the more serious moments as, for instance, when she and Lady Capulet talk in Act I, Scene 3. When Lady Capulet mentions that Juliet is not fourteen, the Nurse rambles on and on about this and other numbers, beginning by saying,
I’ll lay fourteen of my teeth—and yet, to my teen be it spoken, I have but four—she is not fourteen. How long is it now to Lammastide? (1.3.12-14)
Enjoying the number fourteen, she continues for another fourteen lines until Lady Capulet cuts her off with "I pray thee hold thy peace," and then the Nurse picks up on the word "peace" and rambles about this. In playing her role, the student can take a word and then do the same rambling about it.
- Loving and affectionate to Juliet
As a poor relative, the Nurse has been taken in by the wealthy Capulets to care for their baby daughter. As a result, she has developed a motherly-like fondness for Juliet, although she must also stay in Juliet's parents' good graces lest she lose her position in the Capulets' house.
When Juliet falls in love with Romeo, the Nurse obeys her wishes and makes contact with Romeo. She demands to be assured that Romeo's intentions are genuine, and she later enables Romeo and Juliet to spend the night together before he must flee Mantua. Even in this serious moment, though, the Nurse cannot resist joking. For, when she says,
I must another way,To fetch a ladder by the which your loveMust climb a bird's nest soon when its dark.(2.5.77-79)
The Nurse makes a bawdy joke because "climbing a bird's nest" is an earthy expression for having sex.
- Fickle
While the Nurse stands in contrast to Juliet in that she seems more practical than the romantic Juliet, it is yet difficult to understand why she later urges Juliet to marry Paris when she knows Juliet is already married to Romeo:
Romeo is banished, and all the world to nothingThat he dares ne'er come back to challenge you,Or, if he do, it needs must be by stealth... Beshrew my very heart, 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, As living here and you no use of him.(3.5.226-238)
Here the Nurse seems callous towards Juliet, but it may be that she does not want to lose Juliet. For, if Juliet marries Paris, the Nurse will probably obtain a position in Juliet's new household. Perhaps, too, the simple and practical Nurse cannot understand the idealistic thinking of Juliet. The Nurse also could have changed her position because, after her defense of Juliet against Lord Capulet, she has suffered abuse by Lord Capulet and fears for her own safety, having nowhere else to live.
"You are to blame, my lord, to rate her so" (3.5.177) the Nurse tells Lord Capulet, and he lashes out at her verbally, perhaps even physically, as he has demonstrated in Act I that he is rather choleric. At any rate, this is the moment after which the Nurse changes her point of view.