Romeo And Juliet Compare And Contrast Pyramus And Thisbe

Love is usually a beautiful thing. Two people fall in love, build a relationship, get married, and spend the rest of their lives together, but these similar stories did not turn out that way because they end in an ironic tragedy. The two stories, Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare and “Pyramus and Thisbe” by Ovid, have immensely similar themes. Both stories are about two lovers that are forbidden to be together, but find a way to be together in the end; by death. Shakespeare used the same theme that Ovid used, but portrayed it in different ways.

“Pyramus and Thisbe” is a fatal story about forbidden love. The theme that Ovid was trying to portray was that love cannot be forbidden because love always finds its way in the end. In

Like the story of “Pyramus and Thisbe”, Romeo and Juliet is a story about forbidden love. In the play Juliet says, “My only love sprung from my only hate...Prodigious birth of love it is to me that I must love a loathed enemy” ( 1. 5. 136-139). Romeo and Juliet were young lovers who were forbidden to be together because of their family rivalry. The rivalry between the families is an example of how Shakespeare used and altered the theme of Ovid’s story. In both stories, the author used a blockade to keep the lovers from being together. In Ovid’s story, he used a physical barrier, such as the wall, but Shakespeare used a cultural barrier, such as the rivalry between the families. Although each story had a blockade that tried to keep the lovers apart, they were together anyways. In the play Juliet says, “ And hide me with a dead man in his shroud - Things that, to hear them told, have made me tremble -And I will do it without fear or doubt, To live an unstained wife to my sweet love” ( 4. 1. 85-88 ). What Juliet means is that she will do anything to get to her husband and be with him, although she is forbidden too. This can relate to “Pyramus and Thisbe” because they were forbidden to be together too, but since their love for eachother was so strong they were together anyways. The theme of forbidden love applies to both of these tragic stories. Two people meet, fall in love, but do not get to be together, and it leads to their ironic