The Nurse is the woman who nursed Juliet and has cared for her since babyhood, confidante of the secret marriage and messenger between the lovers. At the moment Juliet most needs her, she advises marrying Paris.
In Act I, scene 3, she says she weaned the girl on the day of the earthquake, eleven years before, calls her a lamb and a ladybird, and loses herself in memories while the mother tries to talk about marriage. At the ball (scene 5), she interrupts the two right after the kiss, to say the mother is calling Juliet, and it is through her that each discovers the other's house. In Act II, scene 4, even though humiliated by Mercutio in the street, she carries out her errand: she tells Romeo that leading Juliet to a fool's paradise would be cruel, and she receives from him the message for the wedding. In scene 5, she makes Juliet wait three hours for the answer.
In Act III, scene 2, she arrives with the ropes and, bewildered, lets Juliet believe that Romeo is dead, before saying that it was Tybalt, "the best friend I had," and that Romeo was banished. In scene 5, she defends Juliet before Capulet and is told to be silent. But when Juliet asks her for consolation, the Nurse says that Romeo is banished, that Paris is more handsome, and that the first husband is worth little beside him. When the Nurse leaves, Juliet, alone, says that from then on the Nurse and her heart will be two.
In Act IV, scene 5, she is the first to find Juliet motionless and gives her up for dead. After the lament, she leaves the play; she is mentioned only by Friar Laurence, who tells the Prince that she knows of the marriage (Act V, scene 3).