Romeo and Juliet Essay: The Nurse

In Act II, scene v, after returning from her first mission to Romeo, Juliet's Nurse tells her impatient mistress, "I am the drudge, and toil in your delight" (II, v., l.75). At this juncture, we are inclined to take the Nurse at her word. When we first encounter her in Act I, scene iii, the Nurse of Romeo and Juliet appears to be a comic figure given to bawdy humor and innuendo, but this coarse character is softened by her fondness for Juliet. Thereafter, she proves a reliable go-between, taking a message to Romeo in Act II, scene iv, and then apprising first Juliet and then Romeo of events in the wake of Act III's dueling scene. But in Act III, our perception of the Nurse as a "helping" figure undergoes a sharp reversal as she changes her views of Juliet's suitors, favoring the proper County Paris over the "dishclout" Romeo. In doing so, the Nurse displays a highly unattractive penchant for the calculation of immediate advantage, weighing in on the side that seems most likely to prevail, and to favor her own interests, here Juliet's parents and their support of Paris with Romeo exiled to Mantua. The question naturally arises: Whose side is the Nurse on?

In Act I, scene iii, the Nurse's role as a functionary is established at once as Lady Capulet goes through the older woman to get to her daughter, telling the Nurse to call Juliet forth. We learn a great deal about the Nurse from her very first remarks: "Now by my maidenhead at twelve year old, I bade her come. What lamb! What ladybird! God forbid! Where's the girl? What, Juliet! (I, iii, ll.2-3). The Nurse's language is vulgar, and even when she utters terms of endearment she relies upon conventional and easily available oaths. That much apparent, our opinion of the Nurse firms as she speaks about Lamas-tide (1 August), Juliet's upcoming fourteenth birthday and then reminisces about breast-feeding the girl when she was an infant (I, iii. ll.16-49) Lady Capulet rankles at these musings, proclaiming "enough of this," but the Nurse proceeds with her story (I, iii., ll.50-57) intent upon relating her own reaction to the events described, and end her speech by avowing Juliet to have been "prettiest babe I ever nursed" (l.60). By nature rather than intent, the Nurse demonstrates that she can violate the commands of Lady Capulet, and this identifies her as a possible ally in Juliet's efforts to forestall marriage to the Prince's cousin. There are, however, some notes in her early speeches that resonate with a dangerous irony. In passing, the Nurse mentions that she had a daughter, Susan, who died eleven years ago, is now in heaven, and was, in the Nurse's own words "too good for me." She also says that it is her fondest wish is to see Juliet "married once" (I, iii., l.61), a comment that rings forward when a secretly married Juliet faces a bigamous, second marriage to Paris.

The Nurse becomes handmaiden to the budding romance between her mistress and Romeo in Act II, scene iv. Accompanied by Peter, she asks Romeo himself about Romeo's whereabouts and is immediately impressed by the youth's capacity for wordplay. There is, however, a confusing exchange between the Nurse and Mercutio, as he calls her a "lady" in light-hearted jest and she becomes offended at this "scurvy knave," protesting that "I am none of his flirt-gills (loose women)/I am none of his skain-mates" (l.154), before scolding the silent Peter for standing idle while she is insulted. She recovers her composure, and asks Romeo, if he intends to lead Juliet into a "fool's paradise, as they say." When he objects to her suspicions above his intentions, the Nurse assures Romeo that she will tell Juliet of his "gentleman-like offer." In short order, Romeo gives the Nurse penny, she initially demurs, protests, he insists, and she predictable takes it with a perfunctory "God in heaven bless thee!" (II, iv, l.194). Now in possession of her hire, the Nurse relaxes. She touts Juliet's unsurpassed beauty, crudely mentions that Paris would like to "lay knife aboard" but that her mistress would rather see a toad, and then adds that she angers Juliet by telling her that Paris is a proper man.

In the next scene (II, v.), Juliet awaits Nurse's return with word from Romeo, complaining that her emissary must be lame, since she has been gone three hours after promising to return in thirty minutes. When the Nurse arrives, Juliet asks about the matter of the moment, but she complains about her aching bones. Unasked, the Nurse proceeds to give her appraisal of Romeo, who has a face and legs unsurpassed, is not the flower of courtesy but is still gentle as a lamb. She then passes her blessing on their union in characteristically ribald terms, saying "Go thy ways, wench, serve God" (II, v, ll.44-45). In Act III, scene ii, the Nurse brings news to Juliet saying "he's dead" and the confusion persists until the Nurse makes it plain that it is not Romeo who is dead, but the most bellicose of the Capulets "O Tybalt, Tybalt, the best friend I had/O courteous Tybalt, honest gentleman" (ll.61-62). Knowing Tybalt's character and never suspecting any kind of bond between him and the lowly nurse, these protestations of grief by the Nurse ring hollow. Moreover, despite her grief for Tybalt, she nonetheless volunteers to find Romeo. When she does so in Act III, scene ii, describes Juliet's reaction to Hamlet as "blubb'ring and weeping," saying that her mistress "Tybalt calls and then on Romeo cries." The characterization is inaccurate, for Juliet is more far more concerned with Romeo than with Tybalt.

Our growing misgivings about the Nurse's allegiance become overwhelming in the last scene (v.) of Act III. The Nurse weighs the situation and finds that with Romeo banished and the wedding to Paris in the works, she will switch camps, so to speak. She says to Juliet, "I think its best you married with the County,/Oh, he's a lovely gentleman!/Romeo's a dishclout to him" (III, v, ll.217-219). The Nurse has previously supported Paris's cause in Act I, saying of Romeo's rival that he is "a flower, in faith, a very flower" (I, iii. l.78). But in the interim, she has as much as called Paris a toad.

The Nurse's change of heart is clearly not a matter of altered opinion as much as it is a matter of altered circumstance. It is not that Romeo has killed Tybalt that causes the Nurse to call him a "dishcloth" but the fact that the immediate prospects for a union between Romeo and Juliet that is favorable to the Nurse are now clouded. We see the Nurse a final time as she tries to awaken the drugged Juliet, pulls back the curtain to the girl's bed and cries out, "Alas, alas! Help, help! My lady's dead/O, weraday, that ever I was born!" ((IV, v, l.15). It is a "lamentable" day, the Nurse raves on, stressing not the tragedy of Juliet's death but the pain that this event evokes for herself. The Nurse is absent from the tomb scene that concludes the play, but Friar Laurence refers to her as a witness who is privy to the story that he tells to the Prince. In fact, the Nurse does not know all: she has been kept in the dark about the sleeping potion ruse by Juliet. The reason is that the Nurse has shown herself to be untrustworthy. At bottom, the Nurse is not on the side of the lovers, nor in the camp of the parental authorities who oppose their union. She is on her own side, an opportunist bound to the course of least resistance.