Romeo and Juliet: The Nurse’s Story

The heroine of Romeo and Juliet enters the play late. Not until the third scene of the first Act is she called on-stage by her mother and her Nurse, who are also appearing here for the first time. The latter part of this scene is given to Lady Capulet’s brisk and formal announcement of an offer for her daughter, with Juliet’s timid and obedient response. All the earlier part of it is dominated by the Nurse, and her reminiscences of the past set the tone for the first appearance of the only three really important women in this romantic and domestic tragedy. Lady Capulet’s conventional niceties make their point too, but it is the Nurse who holds the stage. Indeed, her ‘moment’ seems to have an importance in the play as a whole which has not been recognised. It demands to be looked at in a little detail. At Juliet’s entry, mother and Nurse are discussing her age: