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A Midsummer Night's Dream

by William Shakespeare

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Student Question

Can you paraphrase the story of Pyramus and Thisbe from A Midsummer Night's Dream?

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The story is very similar to Romeo and Juliet, two young people in love and denied the right to marry by their parents who happen to live next door, and some say this is one of the sources Shakespeare used for his famous play.

The play within A Midsummer Night's Dream doesn't go into all of the plot lines of Pyramus and Thisbe, but the characters of Pyramus and Thisbe actually do meet in the play within a play of Midsummer Night's Dream and kiss each other through a hole in the wall.  Much of the gory stuff has been taken out by the players for fear that the fine ladies watching the play would be frightened half to death.  It is all quite humorous and awkwardly done as you can imagine, since the men performing the play are all without finesse or intelligence.  The play is performed at the wedding ceremony of Theseus and Hippolyta.

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Pyramus and Thisbe were lovers whose parents wouldn't let them marry.  Their parent's properties were adjoining, and there was a crack in the wall between the two where the lovers could talk to each other.  Through this crack, they finally arrange a midnight meeting to see each other.

Thisbe is the first to arrive, and when she gets to their meeting place, she sees a lion feeding nearby.  Scared, she runs away dropping her head-piece in the process.  The lion, after feeding, is curious about the piece of clothing and muzzles it before moving on (leaving blood stains on it in the process).

When Pyramus arrives later, he sees the lion's footsteps and the bloody veil and assumes the worst.  In grief, he kills himself.  Later, when Thisbe comes back, she sees the dead Pyramus with her bloodied veil and understands what happened, so she, too, kills herself.

This is a well-known story throughout mythology also involving the color of mulberries - Pyramus's blood stained them red.

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