Homer's Pyramus and Thisbe & Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

Man has this brilliant tool called imagination allowing them to think up ideas and concepts that didn’t exist before. Although everyone’s imagination is different, sometimes the same idea can be used and transformed into another person’s work. This is the case of Homer’s Pyramus and Thisbe, and William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. To the normal person several similarities are obvious between the two works. Some similarities between the texts of Romeo and Juliet and Pyramus and Thisbe are: the two pairs of lovers wanting to run away together, the parents ignorance of the subject, and the lovers killing themselves thinking the other was dead.

The first way that Romeo and Juliet is similar to Pyramus and Thisbe is the two lovers wanting to run away together. With Pyramus and Thisbe, the lovers couldn’t be together and therefore were willing to leave everything behind to be together for the remainder of their lives. In the case of Romeo and Juliet, they were under much more pressure and stress to come to their decision. After Romeo was banished, Juliet was to feign death and then when Romeo came to get her they were to leave Verona and never come back. It is said so in Act IV, Scene i, lines 116 and 117, “Will watch thy waking, and that very night Shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua.” These words are spoken by Friar Lawrence explaining his plan to Juliet. This was supposed to get them out of Verona without anyone pursuing and bringing her back to marry Paris. Surely, the couples’ decision to run away from their homes and leave everything was a common thought in their minds.

Another reason why Romeo and Juliet is similar to Pyramus and Thisbe is their parents’ ignorance and obvious dislike to their child’s chosen partner. In Pyr...

... middle of paper ...

...ken by Juliet in Act V, Scene iii, line 170, “This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die.” She says this just before she plunges it into herself, killing herself to have eternal life hopefully with Romeo. Certainly, the couples’ suicide scene was similar to the others.

Imagination is a crazy wild creature that cannot be contained or restricted, only embraced and honed to your specifications and thoughts. William Shakespeare obviously was inspired by possibly the same thing as Pyramus and Thisbe’s author. What the influence was, we may never know. However we will know that the authors were incredibly gifted and used the ability of literature to give their gift to the world. This leaving everyone to wonder, what inspired two different stories, very similar in plot, to the writers, and how the inspiration was carried over thousands of years in between the two men.