Juliet Unlike The Nurse example essay topic

ROMEO AND JULIET COURSEWORK EXAMINE HOW JULIET'S YOUTH AND IMPATIENCE IS CONTRASTED WITH THE NURSES AGE AND WEARINESS IN ACT 2, SCENE 5 AND ACT 3, SCENE 5? Romeo and Juliet is a timeless love story, written by William Shakespeare during the Elizabethan period and it remains a classic to this day. The play represents themes about love and tragedy that are appealing even to modern audiences. The story of Romeo and Juliet is about two characters from feuding families who meet, fall in love at first sight and within five days, marry and die by committing suicide. There are many important themes in the play, such as, time, because the events take place over a short period. Disorder and chaos are represented by the feuding families, which ultimately lead to the death of the lovers.

Fate is an important element, as their love is doomed from the start. Along with these themes, the contrast between the young and old is dominant especially in Act 2, Scene 5 and Act 3, Scene 5 where Juliet appears rash and impatient while the Nurse seems old and weary of the tragic situation that has arisen. Act 2, Scene 5 is set in the Capulet's mansion where Juliet is waiting for the Nurse to return. She wants to know if Romeo wishes to marry her and has sent the Nurse to receive the answer. She is anxiously awaiting the Nurse's return at midday saying, "The clock struck nine when I did send the Nurse, In half an hour she promised to return". Juliet is worried about the answer because she does not know whether Romeo is willing to risk a secret affair as consequential as this.

She could be doubting that his proposal was dishonest and merely a ruse because he first fell in love, showing an impetuous nature. Juliet has expressed these concerns in a previous scene, when they spoke in the Orchard, she thought their marriage plans to be fast and rash, saying, "I have no joy of this contract tonight, it is too rash, Too unadvised, too sudden, too light the lightening, Which ceases to be, ere one can say, 'it lightens' " Juliet is letting her emotions take over her thought process and she has abandoned prudence for the promise of true love and eternal happiness. The theme of time highlights the contrast and depicts the more youthful characters, such as Juliet, as irrational, idealistic and unrealistic. She wishes to enter a marriage without much thought and caution over such a precarious matter and this could only be her undoing, because in the society she lives in, a young girl of a high social status could not marry without her parent's consent.

In addition, the two families are in a feud, therefore, the majority of the two families' members' will not accept the marriage. Juliet's first words are filled with nervousness, she says, "Perchance she cannot meet him: that's not so". After that outburst, Juliet decides that the Nurse is just being lazy and not acting fast enough. She describes how she thinks the Nurse should act as a messenger, optimistic and swift in her task but she mentions how older people cannot be so as they are "Unwieldy, slow, heavy and pale as lead". Saying, "Had she affections and warm youthful blood, She would be as swift in motion as a ball; My words would bandy her to my sweet love, And his to mine".

The movement words in this paragraph are important as they highlight the contrast between young and old, young people approach love in a more energetic and genuine manner. Conflict and contrast between young and old people is still relevant in the modern age because old people seem to show less emotion and are more restrained with their partner whereas young people approach love with a sense of swiftness and euphoria. Juliet says, "O she is lame! Love's heralds should be thoughts, Which ten times faster glides than the sun's beams, Driving back shadows over low' ring hills; Therefore do nimble-pinioned doves draw love, Therefore hath the wind-swift cupid wings".

At first, she is indicating the Nurse's pace. Then, she talks of how truelove can only be represented by the youth because of their willingness to move hastily, in tune and in pace with their hormones. She says that they do this because they think only about the emotions they feel, focusing on self-contentment. This puts the contrast of young and old into play.

All the young characters seem irrational, for example, Mercurio, when he starts a fight with Tybalt. Juliet is irrational with her decision on marriage. What is ironic is that even though rationality does not lead to happiness, according to Juliet, it does lead to survival. A point that is strikingly obvious at the end of the play, when the five deaths at the end were all premature. It is ironic that all the five characters that die are young as it is a more commonly perceived idea that the old die before the young and not vice-versa. When the Nurse enters, Juliet's tone changes from an unkind and cynical one to a more pleasant and light-hearted tone.

This makes the audience ponder about how much she has changed in so little a space of time. The Nurse comes in expecting attention and praise from Juliet when she has come back from her errand. The Nurse says, "Fie, how my bones ache! What a jounce have I!" Instead, Juliet, who has been sitting on the edge of her seat for the past three hours, only wishes the answer to her question (has Romeo accepted the marriage proposal). She asks, "I wouldst thou hadst my bones, and I thy news". This shows the impatience of her youth and how self-centered she is because she does not stop to congratulate the Nurse.

The Nurse does not take well to her tone and when Juliet asks her about Romeo's answer, she avoids it. The Nurse further antagonizes Juliet by avoiding the subject intentionally because she sees Juliet's impatience. When Juliet asks about Romeo's answer, the Nurse simply replies, "Romeo? No, not he; though his face be better than any man's, yet his leg excels all men's, and for a hand and a foot and a body, though they be not talked on, yet they are past compare". The Nurse's language in her reply is very physical. This indicates that her main interest is Romeo's body.

Juliet sees Romeo as the perfect partner because she thinks love is more about the relationship between two people. The Nurse on the other hand, believes that relationships are all about sex. The contrast between young and old is highlighted by the experience of the Nurse and the na " ivet'e of Juliet. As the Nurse has experienced a marriage, she understands that relationships are more about physical attraction. Juliet, believes the exact opposite; she believes that true love exists because she has no real experience in relationships and is rather idealistic about them.

In Act 2, Scene 5, Juliet, who has been untouched by the hardships of life, wishes to see if her dream can be a reality whereas the Nurse, who has already dealt with reality, wishes only to focus on the present and what will get her through the day. The Nurse constantly avoiding the subject further irritates Juliet and she asks, "Sweet, sweet, sweet Nurse, tell me, what says my love?" The Nurse affably replies, "Your love says, like an honest gentleman, And a courteous, and a kind, and a handsome, And I warrant a virtuous - Where is your mother?" Juliet brusquely replies, Where is my mother? Why, she is within, Where should she be? How oddly thou replies". This shows the difference in priorities in the young and old. Juliet wishes to focus on an idealistic future and so hastily commands an answer from the Nurse.

The Nurse desires only to talk about the pains of her life and make jokes. This shows the patience and calmness of her character. Juliet wants to hurry everything whilst the Nurse takes her time. In Act 3, scene 5, to try and cover up the grief of Tybalt's death, Juliet's parents decide to rush the marriage of Juliet and Paris. Juliet however, has hidden her existing marriage to Romeo and does not see things in the same light as parents.

"I wonder at this haste, that I must wed ere, He that should be husband comes to woo". This is ironic because earlier in the play, in the Orchard Scene Juliet agrees imprudently to marry Romeo. This demonstrates just how rash Juliet was in her youth because she decides to marry Romeo. Juliet changes drastically in this scene as she is thrown from her innocent na " ivet'e and is forced to realise the cold, cruel and unkind reality of life, and so enters maturity in an unfair and hasty moment. "Nurse! - What should she do here?

, My dismal scene I needs must act alone". Before this moment, Juliet was joyful and expectant of good tidings to come as time goes on. In this moment, all her idealism fades into nothingness as she realises that life requires effort and intrepidity. The innocence of her previous rationality of hasty marriage was simpler, she loved Romeo and felt that the only way to secure that love was marriage but now, her reasoning is based more on her personal independence. Now, Juliet believes that she does not know Paris enough to commit and Romeo is her one true love.

What is contradictory about Juliet's feelings about Paris is that she still does not know Romeo very well. Perhaps she holds on to Romeo because it is her way of preserving a dream of a better life. The youth in Juliet has disappeared as she matures and her previous impatience seems to fade, as she grows older. The play show that cynicism increases in alignment with maturity and Juliet is no exception, "Alack, alack, that heaven should practice such stratagems, Upon so soft a subject as myself". This shows how she, as does the Nurse, focuses not on the idealistic future but on her own growing pains.

She faces life with doubts of happiness rather than her previous joyful focus on life because she realises that life requires effort to have happiness. In Act 3, Scene 5, she says, "Thou and my Bosom henceforth shall be twain, I'll go to the friar's cell to know his remedy, If all else fail, myself have the power to die". She poses many questions to her father, mother and Nurse. "Is there no pity sitting in the clouds, That sees into the bottom of my grief? All of these questions relate to the panic she feels. She poses the questions to convince them to look at the same bleakness of the situation as she views it; she cannot marry the man she does not love.

She may act and think in a mature manner but she remains the youthful toy of emotion. The Nurse simply advises Juliet to marry Paris and accept that love with Romeo is a lost cause. "Romeo is banished, and all the world to nothing, That he dares ne " er come back to challenge you; Or if he do, it needs must be by stealth". On the other hand, Paris is a handsome and rich nobleman with plenty of good prospects for the future, she says, "I think you are happy in this second match, For it excels your first". The Nurse advises Juliet to do so because she knows that young love is a simple fantasy and relationships are just about sex at the end of the day and love is merely an illusion of what the relationships are really about - lust.

"Romeo's a dish clout to him. An eagle, madam, Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye, As Paris hath". The Nurse feels that this marriage has more grounding and is more worthwhile because she thinks Juliet has a better future with Paris and not banished Romeo. What is the point of arranged marriages such as this, if they do not guarantee family security and financial gain? Juliet however, still has faith in her relationship with Romeo and feels abandoned by the bluntness of the Nurse, her lifelong friend, and so believes that she will get what she wants and no one can convince her otherwise.

Juliet, unlike the Nurse is not so humble as to be subservient and accepting of duties, she does not wish to consider the requests and desires of others if they do not benefit her. Juliet is a great deal more determined than the Nurse and so does what she wants, rather than what the rest of the world, in this case her parents and the social climate of the time, wish of her. Juliet does not take the Nurses derogatory attacks on Romeo well and responds only with subtle sarcasm (such as calling her counsellor - because we listen to, not mock a counsellor) as she banishes the Nurse from her presence. "Go counsellor, thou and my bosom Henceforth shall be twain". This shows Juliet's fresh approach to matter as she matures. When she was younger she might have accepted the Nurse's ultimatum and moved on but as she has matures she has selfishly pushed away anyone who stands in her interests.

In conclusion, I think that the play, Romeo and Juliet, shows that there are many differences between young and old characters. Most of these contrasts however, are to do with experience. The play has shown me that the youth are always anxious to challenge and hurry life whilst the older people tend to move in time and in accordance with the flow of life and consequentially are more cynical and rational in their decision-making.