- Project: Verona
Large in presence, comfortable in her own body in a way that no one else in this play is comfortable in theirs. Has been in the Capulet house since before Juliet was born -- longer, arguably, than the Capulets themselves in any sense that matters to a child. Moves through every room as though she has cleaned it, which she has. Speaks at length when brevity would serve and then, at the one moment her length might have helped, falls silent.
The nurse mediates. She carries messages between Juliet and the world -- to Romeo, to the friar, to Lady Capulet -- and she does this with genuine pleasure in the carrying, genuine love for the girl she is carrying for, and no consistent principle about where the carrying should stop. She is the most mobile person in the play and the one whose mobility is finally turned against the person she loves most.
The nurse believes her love for Juliet is sufficient guide for every decision she makes on Juliet's behalf. She cannot see that her love is for Juliet as a child in her care -- fed, protected, returned safely to the house each evening -- and that this love has no instruments for the person Juliet has become, who does not need returning to the house but needs someone willing to stand in the street with her. When the world turns against Juliet, the nurse's love produces the advice that will cost Juliet the last person she could have told the truth to.
The nurse laughs before she delivers news -- good news, bad news, any news. The laugh is not cruelty and not carelessness. It is the body buying a moment before the mouth must say the thing. When the laugh does not come, the news is the kind she does not know how to carry.
persona_nurse.md Type: Fictional v0.1.0 - Romeo and Juliet