Romeo And Juliet Foils

In the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Juliet is fortunate enough to have two mother figures. However, these two women create contrast in Juliet’s life. Lady Capulet, being her mother, and the Nurse, being the one who nurtured her, are foils. While Juliet is a Capulet by name, she was hand over to the Nurse to be raised immediately following her birth. Shakespeare uses these foils to create contrast and complexity to his tragic composition. Juliet is now of age to be married off and Lady Capulet is finally taking an interest in her daughter’s life. When Lady Capulet speaks to Juliet, rather than a voluble conversation, they have a terse interaction. She says to Juliet, “Speak briefly, can you like of Paris’s love?”(AI,s3.) This shows that Lady Capulet seeks only to marry her daughter off and not to develop a relationship. Her dearth of emotion over Juliet’s pending nuptials is rooted in her proper upbringing. Her childhood also lead to a lack of emotion, humor, and the unquestioning steadfastness to her husband.
As if she were her own, the nurse is very nurturing and protective of Juliet. She always puts Juliet’s needs first. While the Nurse is very altruistic towards Juliet she can be discourteous to her superiors at times. Also she can have vulgar sense of humor and be exceedingly unladylike. An example of her inappropriate humor is when she retorts, “Yes, madam: yet I cannot choose but laugh, To think it should leave crying and say 'Ay,'” to Lady Capulet (A1,s3.) The Nurse also does not care about what others think of her. She is strong willed and does what she believes is