ABSTRACT
Romeo and Juliet, long celebrated as one of the world's great love stories, is also one of Shakespeare's liveliest and most appealing plays. The playwright's dramatic purpose would seem to be to show us how much Romeo and Juliet grow and change once they encounter one another, and for this purpose such relatively stereotyped figures are extremely successful. The duel in which Mercutio and Tybalt are slain is central to the play not only in its placement at beginning of Act III but in its effect upon the populace of Verona. In light of this dramatic division within Romeo and Juliet it is extremely interesting to see what happens to some of its characters as a result of the duel and the deaths. Even more striking, however, is the change in our view of the Nurse. Shakespeare emphasizes this by building into his play two very similar scenes, one of which takes place before the duel, the other after.
