The Nurse is the first character to discover Juliet’s apparently lifeless body in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
On the morning Juliet is expected to marry Paris, the Nurse goes to wake her. She finds Juliet unresponsive in her bedroom and calls for the household to come. The Capulets believe Juliet has died, while Friar Laurence knows that she has taken the potion as part of their escape plan.
This discovery changes the planned wedding into a funeral. The family’s grief also allows Juliet to be carried to the Capulet tomb, where Romeo later encounters her. Because the Nurse is emotionally close to Juliet, her reaction helps convey the shock of the supposed death.
The Nurse is distinct from Friar Laurence, who knows the truth and arranged the potion. She also differs from Balthasar, who later tells Romeo that Juliet has been placed in the tomb.