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Comparison of pyramus and thisbe and romeo and juliet
Comparison of pyramus and thisbe and romeo and juliet
Comparing texts romeo and juliet
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Written in the Stars
Love, especially desperate, intense love, is a popular theme for many pieces of literature over the years. Because of love’s powerful and ubiquitous nature, many easily relate to it, which is perhaps a strong reason for its popularity as a theme in literature. But as many also know, love does not always work out perfectly. Two very famous stories, that of Pyramus and Thisbe, recounted by Ovid in his Metamorphoses, and also Romeo and Juliet, written by the great William Shakespeare. There is little doubt Shakespeare used the story of Pyramus and Thisbe as inspiration for Romeo and Juliet, and thus they have many similarities. Both stories share very similar plots with similar archetypal young lovers as characters. Because Shakespeare used Pyramus and Thisbe as his inspiration for Romeo and Juliet, at first glance the stories seem almost identical with essentially the same beginnings and endings; however, the two stories differ slightly in their journeys to the climax and end of the plot.
Pyramus and Thisbe and Romeo and Juliet both begin with two very attractive, desirable youth who are unaware of each other’s existence. Pyramus and Thisbe become aware of each other due to the close proximity of their homes:
Pyramus and Thisbe, he the loveliest youth, and she the most sought after girl, the East held, lived in neighbouring houses, in the towering city of Babylon, that Semiramis is said to have enclosed with walls of brick. Their nearness and their first childhood steps made them acquainted and in time love appeared…(IV:55-92)
Ovid does not detail exactly how the two fall in love, but we can use our imagination to fill in the blanks. This is very different from Romeo and Juliet. In Shakespeare’s t...
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...ng his dagger. Both stories involve a third party in the deaths, but who that is differs. In Pyramus and Thisbe, the lioness serves as an intermediate between the two deaths, while Romeo’s friend, Friar Lawrence, plays this role in Romeo and Juliet.
Overall, Romeo and Juliet and Pyramus and Thisbe are extremely similar. Obviously, this is not surprising because one is based off the other. However, It is the fine details of each story that make them unique classics. These time-honored tales are remarkable in their very own special ways. The drama of the star-crossed lovers is a motif that is very often illustrated, but rarely gets old.
Works Cited
Ovid, and Rolfe Humphries. Metamorphoses. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1955.
Print.
Shakespeare, William, and Alan Durband. Romeo and Juliet. Woodbury, NY:
Barron's, 1985. Print.
During the story Romeo and Juliet convince them selves to be in love with each other and they become obsessed, not with the love for each other, but with the fact of being in love with each other.
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a play commonly viewed and known as a true love story; however, after analyzing several hints portrayed by the protagonists, it is evident that Shakespeare did not intend to make Romeo and Juliet seem like a true love story but a criticism of how superficial society’s view on love is.
Lust or Love: An Essay Analyzing the Relationship of Romeo and Juliet in Romeo and Juliet
issue “And yet, I warrant, it had upon it brow a bump as big as a
Love in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet "Romeo and Juliet" is a love tragedy based on different kinds of loves. Romeo and Juliet become married in a forbidden relationship over the high tension brawl between their rival families which Shakespeare clearly shows in the play. Despite the family brawls, the pair decides to let their "perfect" love defeat all. Peoples ideas have changed in the space of 400 years, for example back then some loves featured in this play would produce different reactions to the audience, than today. Shakespeare opens the play with the chorus who speaks a sonnet, where love imagery is found; "Two Star-crossed lovers" =
It is considered that fate is what unites and separates Romeo and Juliet, however, Shakespeare suggests it is also partially due to the excessive emotions displayed by the “lovers” that evokes the denouement of the play. As the relationship between Romeo and Juliet is “too rash, too unadvised and too sudden”, their love is terminated in their calamitous deaths.
William Shakespeare, a creative literary artist, impacted his audience with the essence of love. Based on his play, A Midsummer Nights Dream, Lysander a main character explicitly states, "The course of love never runs smooth," expressing an opinion easily relatable to the modern generation. The story of an hour, written by Kate Chopin, is another literary work that easily expresses the same theme. With this in mind, both works revolve around the aspect of love and it's challenges that some May or may not overcome. Love is much more than an emotion, it's another world, another life that overcomes oneself into something unknown.
Romeo and Juliet is arguably the most famous story about love in literature. This is in part because of the tension caused by the look the different characters have towards what love means and its role in life. These views were very important for the progression of the story. Their different views collided and caused much grief and sorrow for the characters throughout play. Many important events that propelled the story forward would not have happened without the various feelings towards love the characters have and how they felt of and reacted to the other characters’ view on love.
The classic play Romeo and Juliet by the famous playwright William Shakespeare is one of the most beautiful love stories of all time and has captured and inspired readers everywhere. Regardless of the fact that it was written in the 1500’s, it is still being performed and extolled today. There is a multitude of reasons for such continuance of the play. First of all, its everlasting themes of love and hate enable people to deeply relate to the story. Secondly, its memorable characters deeply imprint on the minds of readers. And lastly, above all, is its magnificent language which many writers today regard in awe. These three elements make the acclaimed play, Romeo and Juliet, one of the most timeless stories of our lives.
...rs a resemblance to the works on which it is based, it is also quite similar in plot, theme, and dramatic ending to the story of Pyramus and Thisbe. Shakespeare was well aware of this similarity, he includes a reference to Thisbe in Romeo and Juliet and one can look at the play-within-a-play in A Midsummer Night’s Dream as a distortion of the story that Shakespeare tells in Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet in full knowledge that the story he was telling was old, clichéd, and an easy target for parody. In writing Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare unreservedly set himself the task of telling a love story despite the considerable forces he knew were stacked against its success. Through the incomparable intensity of his language Shakespeare succeeded in this effort, writing a play that is universally accepted in Western culture as the ultimate love story.
the play is not solely about love but also a lot of hatred is involved
In the tremendous play of ‘Romeo & Juliet’, Shakespeare’s ways engages the audience straight away. The astounding methods he uses hooks the audience into the play and allows them to read on, wondering what will happen. The tragic love story of Romeo & Juliet, as mentioned in the prologue, sets a variety of themes throughout Act 1 Scene 5. Many of the recognisable themes are: youth and age, revenge, forbidden love, fate, action and hate. The main idea of the play is a feud that had been going on between two families, The ‘Montagues and Capulets’, the son of the Montagues and the daughter of the Capulets fall in love and the story tells us how tragic, death, happiness and revenge find them throughout the play.
However, the protagonists do not win in the end. This is yet another melodramatic quality found in both "Pyramus and Thisbe" and in Romeo and Juliet. It seems that they should, and will, be together in the end and be allowed to love each other freely, but that is not the way it turns out. Instead, the young lovers are dead by play's end because of pride and hate. The entire audience watching this spectacle is left feeling the same way and asks, "But why couldn't they just be together?
In the play “Romeo and Juliet”, Shakespeare shows that love has power to control one’s actions, feelings, and the relationship itself through the bond between a destined couple. The passion between the pair grew strong enough to have the capability to do these mighty things. The predestined newlyweds are brought down a rocky road of obstacles learning love’s strength and the meaning of love.
Have you ever been in love before? Many would say that love is hard to come by, and even harder to maintain, while some would say the opposite. In Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Romeo & Juliet, he explores similar concepts related to love and infatuation. Although the reader never directly hears from Shakespeare, one could infer that his own thoughts are similarly mirrored in his characters, with the play serving as a warning tale of sorts, and the various roles echoing different dangers when it comes to love, which of there are many. More specifically, Romeo Montague and his actions in the play are very intentional, as they help explain Shakespeare’s intentions and his own personal thoughts on the topic of love and its hazards, as well