The Cross of Star-Crossed Lovers
William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and Ovid’s Pyramus and Thisbe are two tales of two pairs of lovers whose affection for each other would eventually lead to their deaths. Along with the deaths of the title characters’, there are multiple similarities in the two stories. Location, separation, and communication are all ties between these two tragedies.
The location of the lovers' death in Romeo and Juliet and Pyramus and Thisbe are similar. In Shakespeare’s story, Romeo and Juliet both commit suicide in the Tomb where Juliet’s ancestors are laid to rest. Juliet says, "Yea, noise? Then I'll be brief. O happy dagger! This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die." (5.3.69-70) Ovid’s take on Pyramus’ and Thisbe’s deaths is that The Tomb of Ninus would be the first place they met face to face and also their last with both characters also committing suicide. Ovid says, ”They agreed to meet at a well-known place, the Tomb of Ninus, under a tree there, a tall mulberry full of snow-white berries, near which a cool spring bubbled up.” (Page 947) The characters’ plans to have an innocent meeting in both of these classic tales, would ultimately lead to …show more content…
Romeo and Juliet are not given the opportunity to communicate often, so they use Juliet’s nurse. The nurse is their base of communication and huge help in their plan to run off together. Juliet says, "What says he of our marriage, what of that? " (2.5.45). In Pyramus and Thisbe the two lovers only way of talking to each other is through a chink in the wall. The chink may have been too small for them to see each other or kiss, but it was their way of getting to know each other. Ovid writes, "Our two young people discovered it and through it they were able to whisper sweetly back and forth."(Page 947). Communication is key to having a relationship and these four lovers had it in their own unique
William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and Ovid’s Pyramus and Thisbe are two tales of two pairs of lovers whose affection for each other would eventually lead to their deaths. Along with the deaths of the title characters’, there are multiple similarities in the two stories. Location, separation, and communication are all ties between these two tragedies.
The location of the lovers' death in Romeo and Juliet and Pyramus and Thisbe are similar. In Shakespeare’s story, Romeo and Juliet both commit suicide in the Tomb where Juliet’s ancestors are laid to rest. Juliet says, "Yea, noise? Then I'll be brief. O happy dagger! This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die." (5.3.69-70) Ovid’s take on Pyramus’ and Thisbe’s deaths is that The Tomb of Ninus would be the first place they met face to face and also their last with both characters also committing suicide. Ovid says, ”They agreed to meet at a well-known place, the Tomb of Ninus, under a tree there, a tall mulberry full of snow-white berries, near which a cool spring bubbled up.” (Page 947) The characters’ plans to have an innocent meeting in both of these classic tales, would ultimately lead to …show more content…
Romeo and Juliet are not given the opportunity to communicate often, so they use Juliet’s nurse. The nurse is their base of communication and huge help in their plan to run off together. Juliet says, "What says he of our marriage, what of that? " (2.5.45). In Pyramus and Thisbe the two lovers only way of talking to each other is through a chink in the wall. The chink may have been too small for them to see each other or kiss, but it was their way of getting to know each other. Ovid writes, "Our two young people discovered it and through it they were able to whisper sweetly back and forth."(Page 947). Communication is key to having a relationship and these four lovers had it in their own unique