STATIC CHARACTERS

• JULIET'S NURSE

Who can help laughing at Juliet's Nurse? She says outrageous things, repeats herself constantly, and she loves a dirty joke. When she tries to act high-class and use big words, she winds up using the wrong word. There's no other character like her: the minute she opens her mouth, we know who's talking.

She serves several important functions in the play: she is Juliet's confidant, she is a message-carrier for the lovers; and her earthiness is a contrast to Juliet's idealism. The Nurse is a comic character who becomes tragic because she isn't able to grow. Let's look at her comic characteristics, and how they become tragic.

1. She understands things in physical terms. To her, love means sex. For example, when Lady Capulet tells Juliet that she'll be "no less" if she marries Paris, the Nurse cries that she'll be more: men make women pregnant.

2. Because she sees things in physical terms, she can't understand the depth of the lovers' emotional and spiritual bond. One partner is as good as another to her: what does it matter if Juliet has Romeo or Paris?

3. She says exactly what she thinks, whether or not it's appropriate. When Romeo, then a stranger, asks her who Juliet is, she tells him, "I tell you, he that can lay hold of her / shall have the chinks (money)." (I, v, 118-19)

4. Saying what she means without thinking hurts Juliet very much. The last thing she needs to hear at the end of Act IV is that the Nurse thinks Romeo is a "dishcloth."

5. She garbles messages. This is funny when we know the message, and it's good news.

6. The garbled message about the wedding is funny; the garbled message about who's dead is tragically painful to Juliet.

7. She loves to plot. This is endearing because she goes out of her way to help the lovers meet and get rope ladders.

She enjoyed plotting Juliet's marriage, but she doesn't take responsibility for her actions. If that plot doesn't work out, she thinks, start over and try another one. But actions have consequences, and Juliet is abandoned by her Nurse when she needs her most.

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