Thursday, November 27, 2014

In Romeo and Juliet, how does the character of the Nurse compare in Act II scene 5 and Act I scene 3?

The character of the Nurse in this play is a very
interesting one to analyse. Of course, in Act II scene 5 she brings Juliet news from
Romeo about where and when to meet Romeo to marry him. Yet interestingly when she first
enters she deliberately "plays" with Juliet, complaining about her health and keeping
Juliet in suspense before delivering the news that the Nurse knows she wants so much to
hear:



I am
aweary, give me leave awhile.


Fie, how my bones ache! What
a jaunce have I!



She then
goes on to talk about the relative merits of Romeo as a man, commenting on his physical
qualities, until finally giving her the news that she has been waiting
for:



Then hie
you hence to Friar Laurence's cell;


There stays a husband
to make you a
wife.



Throughout she mocks
Juliet and makes fun of her, refering to the "wanton blood" in her
cheeks.


If we compare her presentation in this scene with
her first entrance in the play, Act I scene iii, the Nurse is similar in terms of being
a character who provides humour and is shown to be annoying Lady Capulet. She also is
very much in favour of her charge marrying, especially to "such a man" as Paris, who is
"a man of wax," in her words. However, what is key to note is the way that in the later
scene, the Nurse comes to deliberately defy what she knows to be the will of her
mistress by helping to organise a marriage between her charge and a Montague--the rival
family that is so bitterly in conflict with the Capulets. In spite of her apparent
approval of Paris as a match for Juliet, she goes behind her employer's back to help
Juliet create an illicit liaison with Romeo.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Calculate tan(x-y), if sin x=1/2 and sin y=1/3. 0

We'll write the formula of the tangent of difference of 2 angles. tan (x-y) = (tan x - tan y)/(1 + tan x*tan y) ...