Compare And Contrast Pyramus And Hebe

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Authors may either create a work that is completely original or they may borrow some themes and plot lines from other authors. One example of an author borrowing material from another is William Shakespeare and Ovid. Shakespeare borrows the theme of desperate and powerful love from Ovid’s “Pyramus and Thisbe” and keeps several plot elements that cause the theme of Romeo and Juliet to be analogous to that of Ovid’s poem but alters several other elements of the story, causing the theme of desperate love to be more intense in the play. The theme of desperate love overwhelms readers as they read both Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet and Ovid’s myth told as a narrative poem “Pyramus and Thisbe.” One way this theme is portrayed in both works …show more content…
By making the play cover a short amount of time, Shakespeare creates an even deeper theme of desperate love in Romeo and Juliet. The two characters fall in love as soon as they set their eyes on each other. When Romeo sees Juliet at the Capulet’s party, he states, “Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! / For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night” (1. 5. 50-51). The rest of Romeo’s speech, along with this excerpt, is written in rhyming couplets which creates emphasis on the fact that Romeo is awestruck by Juliet’s beauty, which leads to his willingness to do anything for her. On the other hand, Pyramus and Thisbe live next to each other and talk through a crack in the wall. The poem states “... They owed their first encounters to their living close / beside each other—but with time, love grows (7-9). Pyramus and Thisbe had been planning on getting married for a period of time before leaving to meet at Ninus’ tomb. This lessens the intensity of their love because they fall in love over a longer period of time. Because Romeo and Juliet met spontaneously and their love develops quickly, the theme of …show more content…
The great loathing between families only deepens Romeo and Juliet’s desire to see one another in private. They can not openly express their love because they will most likely be punished by their respective families. Also, the disagreeing families are known to the city. It is a public feud, and the Prince, as well as the citizens of Verona, is aware of it and involved in it. However, in “Pyramus and Thisbe,” the feud between the lovers’ families does not seem to be as great as in Romeo and Juliet. Ovid’s narrative poem states, “but marriage was forbidden by their parents / yet there’s one thing that parents can’t prevent: / the flame of love that burned in both of them” (11-13). The parents of Pyramus and Thisbe could not have been in as strong a feud as the families in Romeo and Juliet because they live in houses that share a wall and must have known their children conversed through the crack in it. In addition, there are no societal influences on the feud or known physical conflict. The intense conflict between Romeo and Juliet’s families only increases their love for one another because they are so determined to see one each

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