One of the characters in Romeo and Juliet that I don’t see as idiotic, is oddly enough, Juliet’s Nurse. She may not seem very bright in the play, but I think she is one of the most compassionate and caring characters. The Nurse seems to be used by Shakespeare as a tool of convenience and some comic relief, but I would have liked to see her character have some more substance. When an assignment to write where she was in some spare time allowed me to create that for her, I really wanted to do it.
(Juliet’s Nurse was tired of running Juliet’s silly little errands. The Nurse found Juliet, despite being a very bright young lady, to be very naive with her personal endeavours. The Nurse knew after meeting Juliet’s love Romeo, that both children had their heads off in the clouds. Their forbidden love would bring nothing but trouble upon both houses. But, when she remembered the feeling she felt with her deceased husband, the Nurse knew Romeo and Juliet needed to be together. She could see their love pouring out of their childlike eyes.
The Nurse knew when Juliet expected her to return with the news, and that it was nearing that time when she departed with young Romeo. She did not want to return to Juliet’s hectic affairs just yet, though, and found herself wandering off towards the market. The Nurse had no intention of buying anything, or even looking at the various product being sold off. The Nurse went to the market to watch the people.
Her favourite person in the market today was an older man, his face creased with experience. He was selling soft bread that smelled like a caring innocence. The bread man smiled gently at the young boys who would run through the market from time to time, instead of screaming at them as his fellow sellers did. The Nurse studied his face carefully, noticing his features, which were similar to her deceased husband. She imagined if her husband were to still be with her today, she would like him to be like this gentle man in the market.
As the Nurse looked at the bread man for the last time, he stared right back at her, and they held a lingering eye contact, broken when the man started to shake with a hearty man. The Nurse smiled silently to herself, thinking how lucky the man’s wife must be. She thought of Romeo and Juliet as she walked home to bring Juliet her news. The Nurse wished that they would have many moments of peace in their future together, as she had just experienced with the bread man.)
To write this, I first came up with ideas. My first plan was to have the Nurse have a romantic affair with the Friar, but I quickly realized that would some with some serious moral and religious questions, and quickly scraped it. I wanted to have the Nurse have some romance, but I didn’t really want to create a character and whole backstory for their love. I then remembered the Nurse was widowed, and I know women back then rarely got remarried. I decided to focus my story on the Nurse’s thoughts and let her have some relaxing alone time, because Juliet and Lady Capulet don’t seem to leave her alone. I hope you enjoyed my interpretation of Juliet’s Nurse.
