Question

Contrast the characters in this excerpt from Act I, scene iii of Romeo and Juliet.

Lady Capulet: This is the matter. Nurse, give leave awhile.
We must talk in secret: nurse, come back again;
I have remember’d me, thou’s hear our counsel.
Thou know’st my daughter’s of a pretty age.

Nurse: Faith, I can tell her age unto an hour.

Lady Capulet: She’s not fourteen.

Nurse: I’ll lay fourteen of my teeth—
And yet to my teen be it spoken I have but four—
She is not fourteen.

What does this passage convey about these two characters?

Nurse wants to build a stronger relationship with Lady Capulet.
Nurse resents Lady Capulet’s great wealth and power.
Lady Capulet is jealous of Nurse’s strong love for Juliet.
Lady Capulet is Juliet’s mother but Nurse knows Juliet best.

Answer 1

Correct answer: "Lady Capulet is Juliet’s mother but Nurse knows Juliet best."

Brief explanation: Lady Capulet speaks formally and in her role as mother/authority, calling for private counsel, while the Nurse replies with intimate, comic familiarity (she can "tell her age unto an hour," jokes about her teeth). The exchange shows the Nurse’s close, practical knowledge of Juliet and affectionate, earthy manner versus Lady Capulet’s more distant, social-maternal role.