The Role of Nursey in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

The Role of Nursey in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

In this assignment I am going to discuss the role of the Nurse and how

she adds humour to the play. Firstly I will talk about the social and

historical background of the play 'Romeo and Juliet'.

William Shakespeare wrote 'Romeo and Juliet' in the Sixteenth century

based on some ideas taken from Arthur Brooke's poem 'The Tragicall

Historye of Romeus and Juliet' written in 1562. The poem was thought

to be boring, so Shakespeare used his ample skill with language to

change it so that it would be dissimilar and much more exciting.

The play is set in fifteenth century Verona. Romeo and Juliet are

children of two very important families, the Montague's and the

Capulet's, who loathe each other and are still feuding after many

years.

His play focuses on the forbidden love affair between the two

youngsters, Romeo and Juliet, and the difficulties they have to face

to be together. For example Romeo is banished from the city for

slaying Tybalt in retaliation and Lord Capulet insists that Juliet

marries Paris even though she doesn't love him at all; Juliet is not

happy with this at all.

The story ends in tragedy when Romeo thinks that Juliet is dead and

takes some poison so that he can be reunited with her again. Juliet

then wakes but when she sees that Romeo is dead she takes her life by

stabbing herself with Romeo's dagger. The play closes with the two

grieving families vowing to be reconciled.

There have been many different versions of the play going back to the

performances at The Globe in Shakespeare's time on a bare stage with

very few props and brilliant actors...

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...ugh it may not apparent at first, it is clear that the nurse is

the character who makes the play work. Her role is such that if her

character were absent from the play, it would definitely not have

concluded in the way it does. It is the nurse who has a major role in

developing the relationship between Romeo and Juliet, and at the same

time it is her who is partly responsible for their deaths.

It can be argued that the nurse has many functions within the play. To

summarize, these are that of a go between, a surrogate mother and to

add humour to the play. She creates dramatic irony and enables

development of the plot and other characters.

Overall, Shakespeare uses the nurse as a tool to move the play

forward. The nurse's role is of paramount importance and it can be

said that the play would not function without her.