I prefer to think of Romeo and Juliet as a love story with a tragic ending rather than a classic tragedy, because the love Romeo and Juliet find and share is beautiful and inspiring: there is nothing tragic about it.
Juliet My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep. The more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.
[Act 2, Scene 2, 133-35]
Their heart-rending deaths are of course tragic, resulting as they do from an unforeseeable flaw in Friar Laurence's well-intentioned but unlikely plan. Their lives, however, serve to prove that young love is viable, that young people know what they want and will go to extreme lengths to find it. The fair (ie beautiful) city of
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If the respective heads of the feuding houses come across initially as concerned fathers, this impression fades. Romeo is closer to Friar Laurence, in whom he is able to confide than his own father.
Romeo Hence will I to my ghostly father's cell,
His help to crave and my dear hap to tell.
[Act 2, Scene 2, 188-9]
Juliet answers to her father, treats her mother with respect but looks to her nurse for motherly advice and attention. It is fair to say that the Friar and the Nurse fulfil roles as surrogate parents, more out of situational proximity than choice. The Nurse carries out the necessary role of go-between in the early stages of the relationship and the Friar marries them. In the crisis caused by Tybalt's death and Romeo's banishment, the Nurse fails Juliet completely by taking the easy way out.
Nurse I think it best you married with the County.
O, he's a lovely gentleman!
Romeo's a dishclout to him.
[Act 3, Scene 5, 218-220]
The Friar is better intentioned than the Nurse but his plans still go astray because of ill chance or fate.
Fr Laurence Romeo! O, pale! Who else? What, Paris too?
And steeped in blood? Ah, what an unkind hour
Is guilty of this lamentable chance!
[Act 5, Scene 3, 144-46]
It is significant that the two young people rely on people outside of
This conflict in viewpoint shows itself when she encourages Juliet to overlook the expelled Romeo and wed Paris, deceiving Juliet's trust by upholding a false marriage: I think it best you wedded with the County. O, he's a lovely gentleman . Romeo's a dishclout to him. Juliet can hardly imagine how the nurse offers such a strategy after she praised Romeo and united the couple. The nurse attendant is at last subject to the impulses of society. Her social position puts her in the serving class — she isn't enabled to make change around her. Her maternal nature toward Juliet floats her to help Juliet in wedding Romeo; be that as it may,when Capulet winds up incensed, the Medical caretaker withdraws rapidly into accommodation and desires Juliet to overlook
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet – popularly considered by many to be the quintessential love story of all time – is a play that we are all familiar with in one way or another. Whether it be through the plethora of portrayals, adaptations and performances that exist or through your own reading of the play, chances are you have been acquainted with this tale of “tragic love” at some point in your life. Through this universal familiarity an odd occurrence can be noted, one of almost canonical reverence for the themes commonly believed to be central to the plot. The most widely believed theme of Romeo and Juliet is that of the ideal love unable to exist under the harsh social and political strains of this world. Out of this idea emerge two
In William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the nurse and Friar Laurence play an enormous role. Not only does their advice aid Romeo and Juliet but their actions and the decisions they make throughout the whole play affects the whole outcome of numerous situations. Had the nurse and the friar not made the decisions they did, the tale of Romeo and Juliet might have not ended in tragedy.
They tell eachother everything. Most importantly, they can trust one another. Juliet turns to the Nurse for every problem she has. She depends on the Nurse to be there for her, especially in times of struggles and her love life. Throughout her love story with Romeo, the Nurse plays a very active role in Juliet’s life. We see the Nurse helping her to sneak away with Romeo but on the other side, we see the Nurse telling Juliet to obey her family orders, which relates back to the conflict between a parent figure and child.
In the end both the Friar and the Nurse are face with the loss of Romeo and Juliet. The two characters
Supporting the Friar’s dismal assessment of Romeo is the Nurse. I will direct her to be the funny character in the scene, her face underlining how ridiculous Romeo appears, bawling like a woman on the floor. She even looks appalled as she asks Rome to stand up and be a man, instead of blubbering on the floor. Still, as the Nurse describes Juliet's misery, she would exude deep concern like a mother would. Her face depicts that if there is anyone who loves Juliet as much as Romeo, it is her for she is similar to a mother who cares only for her child's happiness and nothing
do not think this is genuine love to me as he later falls in love with
The Friar is always ready with a plan. He has a civil relationship with most characters and doesn’t have any enemies, in the play, which is unusual as most characters have an enemy. Tybalts enemy is Romeo and Lord Capulets enemy is Lord Montague. As a character the Friar is concerned about the feud and will do anything in his power to stop it “To turn your households’ rancour to pure love”. He always wants to do the right thing by everyone but his decisions and actions end in
Without the help of the Nurse, Romeo and Juliet would not have married or had a way to interact with each other. This is clearly shown in Act II Scene V where the Nurse talks to Romeo about the marriage plans. “I will tell her, sir that up do protests, which, as I take it is a gentlemanlike offer.”(836) If the Nurse had not been present as a messenger, communication between Romeo and Juliet would have been difficult and extremely risky. The Nurse is a mother figure to Juliet because, she takes care of Juliet and gives her advice. There are many situations where Juliet relies on the Nurse. For instance on her wedding night, the nurse helps Romeo by getting him a ladder to Juliet’s room. Thus, the Nurse influences the story by bringing the two young lovers together and helping them marry.
For instance, in Act III scene II the nurse expressed in distress that “there’s not trust, no faith, no honesty in men, all perjur’d… Shame come to Romeo.” William Shakespeare positions the audience to sympathise for the nurse, that as a mother she desires for Juliet’s happiness, and by scolding Juliet for defending Romeo, she’s trying to save Juliet from the adversity she’ll be facing later on. However, Shakespeare clearly uses dialogue to express that within the nurse there are aspects of jealousy and enviousness seeing how much Juliet cares for Romeo, but not much for her. As audiences, we gain insight into the nurse’s life, she’s been treated as a servant, though takes part in intimate family affairs and as Juliet’s confidant, but overall her role as a second mother is not recognise. She treats Juliet like her own birth daughter, hence even though she chides Juliet for defending Romeo by saying “Will you speak well of him that kill’d your cousin?”, her love cannot be
The Nurse is a good friend of Juliet´s and also played a big role in raising her. The nurse wanted the best for juliet and for her to be happy therefore, she encouraged her to get married. ¨Is your man secret? Did you ne'er hear say, Two may keep counsel, putting one away..¨(2.4, 185) This showed how the nurse knew how dangerous it was for the people to find out they were married yet, she still allowed the marriage and told them to betray their parents and keep it secret. The nurse also sent Romeo letters for Juliet to keep them in contact. ¨There stays a husband to make you a wife. Now comes the wanton blood up in your cheeks.¨(2.5). This shows that the nurse had talked to romeo. Although, Friar is the one who brought the idea of
Both Friar Lawrence and The Nurse are loyal to Romeo and Juliet (respectively), they have defended, protected and have helped upkeep their well being, but do not always make decisions in their best interests, which in fact lead to both of their demises.
The Role of the Nurse in Her Relationship with Juliet in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
The nurse and Friar are sophisticated characters that act as parental figures within the prolix and truculent play. The timeless classic Romeo and Juliet (RJ) by William Shakespeare revolves around the notion of determinism, death, love and deception. Despite Romeo and Juliet having warring parents who pay little regard to them, the Nurse and Friar act as parental figures towards them who guide through vexed situations in their best interest, however, this only prolongs their declivity, with the Friar acting as a motif of death and the Nurse acting as a beacon of hope. By
The Nurse is the only other person that knew about the secret relationship between Romeo and Juliet. She was sort of Juliet’s messenger in the story, she told Romeo about the marriage and when he was going to see Juliet again. Then towards the ending of the story she started realizing that Juliet’s parents were not going to let her marry anyone but Paris. So Nurse tried to help Juliet realize that, and it only made Juliet more upset and run off to Friar. When Juliet was upset she told Nurse that she was going to pay respects, nurse knew that wasn’t true and did nothing about it, if Nurse would have stopped Juliet from going to Friar she could have prevented the whole plan and stopped the events leading to Romeo and Juliet’s death. But Romeo and Juliet made it very difficult for the Nurse and Friar help them because they wanted nothing but to be together and they wouldn’t wait for anything.