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- Protective - The nurse is protective over Juliet and acts as a mother figure to her in the play. The nurse raised her for most of her life, when Lady Capulet did not.
- Inappropriate - The nurse makes many crude remarks within the play, and cannot contain herself at unsuitable times.
- Ridiculed - other characters in the play, including Mercutio and his comrades, make fun of the Nurse and mock her physical appearance as well as her behaviour. She is very offended by these jests and responds angrily.
- Uneducated - the Nurse makes many malapropisms in her speech - she has a tendency to use words incorrectly which highlights the fact that she is unintelligent and dull-witted
- Loyal - Juliet confides in her greatly in the play and she proves herself to be a dependable confidant, for example, when she meets with Romeo to arrange wedding plans.
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- Acts as Juliet's confidant in the play - Juliet relies on the Nurse for her friendship, counsel and company as her only real friend.
- Symbolises the Elizabethan era's lower-class as a maid without an important position in society or power to make decisions.
- The Nurse is a prominent mother figure in Juliet's life. She had raised her when she was a child and they therefore share a very intimate relationship which is sadly lacking with Lady Capulet (her real mother). This is an important relationship.
- The Nurse is one of very few characters that knows about the secret marriage of Romeo and Juliet and has much more knowledge of the situation than the majority of characters.
- The Nurse aids the wedding and is the one that sends word to Romeo regarding the arrangement of the hidden marriage - allowing it to take place.
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- At the beginning of the play, the Nurse is presented to be a charismatic and lively character who possesses strong affections towards Juliet as her only genuine friend. Juliet relies on the Nurse and she proves herself to be loyal and trustworthy in many ways.
- However, in act 3 scene 5, we see a significant turning point in their relationship. When Juliet consults the Nurse at a desperate time about the arranged marriage to Paris, the Nurse responds in a way that seems unemphatic and irregular. She advises Juliet to follow her father's orders and marry Paris, whom she believes is a better suitor for her Juliet sees this as an act of betrayal. Their friendship becomes fragmented, leaving Juliet isolated with no one to turn to.
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- "Faith, I can tell her age unto an hour." 1:3
- "Thou wast the prettiest babe that ever I nursed" 1:3
- "I am so vexed, that every part about me quivers. Scurvy knave!" 2:4
- "Can you not stay awhile? Do you not see that I am out of breath?" 2:5
- "Hie you hence to Friar Laurence's cell; there stays a husband to make you a wife" 2:5
- "Tybalt is gone and Romeo banished" 3:2
- "Will you speak well of him that kill'd your cousin?" 3:2
- "She's dead, deceased, she's dead; alack the day!" 4:5
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