The Role and Representation of the Nurse in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

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The Role and Representation of the Nurse in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

"Romeo and Juliet" is a tale of love and tragedy written by William

Shakespeare, They are star-crossed lovers. "Romeo and Juliet is set in

Verona, Italy in the 14th century. Shakespeare often set his plays in

the past. A very important point in the play is that there is a family

feud between the Montagues and the Capulets, Romeo is a Montague and

Juliet is a Capulet, which would have been an impossible love, if it

were not for the Nurse.

Shakespere has given her very free blank verse and her speech when we

first meet her in 1.iii is colloquial, repetitive, full of oaths,

interjections and irrelevancies, and spiced up with bawdy jokes. My

first impression of the Nurse is that she is impolite, she calls

Juliet 'my maidenhead' this is referring to Juliet's virginity and

unbroken hymen, I think that that is a very crude comment, and is not

an appropriate comment to be used in the presence of Lady Capulet.

Juliet feels quite embarrassed that the nurse is talking about very

personal and private things about her. I think that the nurse is

coarse and out of place to say such a thing.

The Montague gentlemen; Romeo, Benvolio and Mercutio (Romeo's closest

friend) treat the nurse as a joke, they don't take the Nurse very

seriously at all, the young men mock the Nurse. As the nurse enters

Mercutio exclaims 'A sail, a sail' Mercutio and Benvolio are joking

that the nurses clothes are as large as a ships sail. The Nurse does

not take this remark to heart, as she is a joker and a flirt, she

loves the company of men, and acts differently when she is with men,

ra...

... middle of paper ...

...by, she

was Juliet's wet nurse, at the time that Shakespere wrote Romeo and

Juliet in, the role of women were delicate objects and men controlled

everything. Women did not have a say.

The Nurse's role in the play was crucial and William Shakespeare's

character fits in well with the story. Without the Nurse in the story

of Romeo and Juliet there would not have been a romance or a wedding

between Romeo and Juliet. The Nurse is the key to the plot. Juliet's

death would have ruined the Nurse's whole life and she would have lost

her job. The Nurse is one of the characters in which the author

delighted; he has, with great subtilty of distinction, drawn her at

once loquacious and secret, obsequious and insolent, trusty and

dishonest, the Nurse is not a completely bad person. I feel that she

just was not good at her job.

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