Expert: Arlene Schulman - 2/19/2009

Question
Hi Arlene,
Please help us settle a debate in our acting class!!
When the Nurse talks to Juliet in Act 2, almost at the end of Scene 5, she says: "Now comes the wanton blood up in your cheeks/they'll be in scarlet straight at any news"
Does she mean that Juliets cheeks USUALLY go red whenever she gets excited about things? (Probably being sarcastic, since what she is saying is not exactly ANY news)
Or does it mean that they will go even redder (scarlet=really red) when she hears what she's about to tell her??
You see, we are spanish acting students and we are trying to translate this scene, and we've been trying to figure this out for hours!! Please help!! :)

Answer
Hi Vanessa,

As always with Shakespeare, there are really no right answers.  Shakespeare often wrote in ambiguous terms and, since we have no way of knowing exactly what Shakespeare's initial intention was when he wrote the lines, what you believe it means is really more of a question of interpretation than of "right" or "wrong".  So it is possible that the line could be played both ways, depending on what the director and the actors decide on.

Considering that the nurse has just told Juliet to go to Friar Laurence's cell where "there stays a husband to make you a wife," it would be strange indeed if Juliet's cheeks didn't get red!  The news, of course, is exactly what she means by that and how it will happen.  So I'm sure she knows that Juliet will react.  

However, I think rather than take it so literally, Shakespeare means by those lines to indicate to his audience (and, by the way to the actors, who have no stage directions here other than what is contained in his dialogue) Juliet's emotional state on hearing the news that she is to secretly marry Romeo.  Since his actors did not perform "realistically" as we do today, but rather presentationally, and his theatre held over 2000 audience members, many of whom would have limited sight-lines to the stage, you'll find that his lines often contain specific references to the emotional state of the characters.  These lines are there to tell the audience Juliet's reaction to the news, rather than to be very specific in indicating her nurse's knowledge of that state.  

Of course, as we perform it today we take that into consideration as well, and may make an interpretive judgement as to the relationship between Juliet and her nurse, how the nurse delivers the lines and what she intends by them.  But the choices we make are interpretive, not definitive.  Either of the choices you suggest are valid.  

I hope that helps a little...  Enjoy your Shakespeare studies!

Best,
Arlene (MsDirector)