In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the Nurse discovers Juliet apparently dead on her wedding day.
Juliet drinks Friar Laurence’s potion shortly before the wedding planned with Paris. The potion makes her appear dead, allowing the friar’s plan to avoid the marriage and reunite her with Romeo. Her family expects to celebrate a wedding, but instead finds her apparently lifeless in her room.
The Nurse is the first person to enter and wake Juliet on the morning of the wedding. She calls for the family and announces the devastating news, changing the household’s preparations from celebration to mourning. The discovery leads to Juliet’s burial in the Capulet tomb.
This scene is sometimes misremembered as a discovery by Friar Laurence, but he is not the person who finds her. The Nurse has cared for Juliet since infancy and is one of her closest companions, although she does not know the full details of Friar Laurence’s secret plan.