Nurse Flashcards
Rough plan
Beginning - pseudo maternal
Middle - inadvertently comedic, loving
End - distraught
Opening quotes
‘Now by my maidenhead at twelve year old, I bade her come. What, lamb! What, ladybird!’
‘Susan and she - God rest all Christian souls! - were of an age’
‘Go girl, seek happy nights to happy nights to happy days’
Opening intentions
Shakespeare uses the Nurse as a pseudo-maternal figure which juxtaposes Lady Capulet’s distanced relationship from Juliet, emphasising the care and willingness of the lower class to protect - a quality lacked by the capital focused upper class.
Indictment of the parental relationships in this period.
The nurse, having already experienced the death of her daughter, has been through what Capulet and Montague are going to experience. Hence her maternal, affectionate nature may be a lesson learnt
Middle quotes
‘I anger her sometimes, and tell her that Paris is the properer man’
‘Will you speak well of him that kill’d your cousin?’
‘To comfort you, I wot well where he is. Hark ye.’
Middle intentions
Her ability to break away from generational differences which Juliet’s parents lack in this patriarchal society is indicative of many upper class parents
End quotes
‘Why, lamb! Why lady! … Why, love, I say! madam! sweet heart!
‘O woe! O woeful, woeful, woeful day!’
‘Never was seen so black a day as this’
End intentions
Shows how the detrimental impacts of the conflict transcend social class
Seeing humorous character, distraught amplifies emotion of audience, imploring a change to occur
‘Now by my maidenhead at twelve year old, I bade her come. What, lamb! What, ladybird!’
- continued relationship of endearment through ‘lamb’ ‘ladybird’ demonstrates closeness
- ‘lamb’ connotes innocence
- exclamative sentences paint her as frivolous and melodramatic, prone to rambling and exciteable
- aware of conversation with Paris showing close relationship
- informs audience that she lost virginity at 12, upholding patriarchal standards
Susan and she - God rest all Christian souls! - were of an age’
- refers to her daughter who died young
- through exclamation mark and dashes we can feel her sadness, pain
- perhaps sees Juliet as a daughter figure and mixes the two up
- shows close pseudo-maternal bond
- provides comedic, theatrical element with gossip orientated nature
- demonstrates how fragile life is - can go at any moment
- audience may draw parallels with the prologue to Juliet
‘Go girl, seek happy nights to happy nights to happy days’
- imperatives ‘go’ and ‘seek’ demonstrates affection towards Juliet as a pseudo-maternal figure
- repetition of ‘happy’ indicates genuine care for her, although ironic due to prologue about the upcoming events
‘I anger her sometimes, and tell her that Paris is the properer man’
- seen as a pseudo-maternal figure since Juliet is ‘angered’ at the lack of approval from her
- not always cooperative with one another, showing clashing views and how generations differ
- despite this, respects wishes to be with Romeo as she delivers letter to him although disapproves
- seen as trustworthy since Juliet confides in her and not Lady Capulet
‘Will you speak well of him that kill’d your cousin?’
- rhetorical question underscores deep-rooted nature of family conflict to the extent that nurse has a sense of family loyalty, not being a capulet
- seems logical in approach to Juliet
- this backs up her suggestion of marrying Paris
‘To comfort you, I wot well where he is. Hark ye.’
- despite Romeo killing Tybalt and thinking that Paris is the right man, Nurse goes above and beyond her expectations for Juliet’s happiness
- ‘i wot well’ shows she wills to do this to her best of her ability
- intention made clear ‘to comfort you’
- her willingness to let go of patriarchal and generational differences juxtaposes with parents of Juliet,
Why, lamb! Why lady! fie, you slug-a-bed! Why, love, I say! madam! sweet heart!
- links back to A1S3 ‘lamb’ reference - showing her affectionate language at the beginning and end emphasising her love
- repeated exclamations highlights highlights excitement for wedding because she knows parents will be less hurtful after marriage, protectiveness
- ‘lamb’ connotes gentleness and innocence, her expectations have changed to become obedient
- the fact she stays a lamb foreshadows her premature death
‘O woe! O woeful, woeful, woeful day!’
- nurse’s reaction to Juliet’s death
- repetition of ‘woeful’ highlights extent of dismay showing close pseudo-maternal relationship
- a much more emotive reaction than Juliet’s mother showing closeness
- emphasis on lower class due to repetition of woe, limited and restricted vocab to describe sadness
- this emphasis shows how wide spread detrimental effects are
‘Never was seen so black a day as this’
- her hyperbolic morning with the metaphor ‘black a day’ reflects intense grief
- as if Juliet is a light that is now gone which demonstrates how Juliet brings hope & joy to the nurse
- perhaps fills a void for Susan
- evokes empathy for audience since she has lost 2 young girls
Overview
Shakespeare uses the character of the Nurse as a vehicle to bring attention to the capacity for those of lower social status to demonstrate acts of love and care towards others. Initially, the Nurse is introduced to the audience as a pseudo-maternal figure as she treats Juliet almost as her own daughter. She also inadvertently acts as comedic relief at various points in the play which sometimes seeks to frustrate other characters. It is the Nurse who discovers Juliet’s ‘dead body’ at the close of the play with her reaction making clear how distraught she is to have lost someone so dear to her.
