Discussion Topic
Comparing and Contrasting Romeo and Juliet with Pyramus and Thisbe
Summary:
Romeo and Juliet and "Pyramus and Thisbe" share themes of forbidden love and tragic misunderstandings. Both stories involve young lovers whose families disapprove of their union, leading to secret meetings and ultimately, a double suicide. Differences include the nature of the family feuds; in Romeo and Juliet, it is a violent, town-splitting feud, while in "Pyramus and Thisbe," the feud is less intense. Misunderstandings drive the tragedies, with Pyramus mistaking Thisbe's veil for her death and Romeo misinterpreting Juliet's feigned death.
What are the differences between Romeo and Juliet and Pyramus and Thisbe?
The main difference between the plays is that Pyramus and Thisbe’s parents hated each other, but there was no feud.
It is a tale as old as time. Boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, boy and girl are forbidden to be together. Shakespeare uses Pyramus and Thisbe as a play within a play in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, so he was obviously familiar with it. There are some similarities to Romeo and Juliet, but also some clear differences.
Pyramus and Thisbe lived next to each other, which is different. Their parents were feuding, but it does not seem to be one of those town-splitting feuds where everyone is on one side or the other. Their parents just didn’t like each other and didn’t want their offspring marrying. In Romeo and Juliet , however, the families just live in the same town and the feud is tearing...
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the town apart.
Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace,
Profaners of this neighbour-stained steel,--
Will they not hear? What, ho! you men, you beasts,
That quench the fire of your pernicious rage
With purple fountains issuing from your veins … (Act 1, Scene 1)
The difference is a significant one, because it is really the prince's proclamation that leads to Romeo and Juliet's deaths.
The prince gets fed up with the feud and orders the families to stop killing on pain of death. This is a difference between the stories, because this doesn’t happen in Pyramus and Thisbe. It is actually because of this proclamation that Romeo and Juliet die. Romeo is banished when he kills Tybalt, which leads Juliet to fake her death to avoid marrying Paris.
Pyramus and Thisbe looked at each other and kissed through a wall. However, it is a misunderstanding that leads to their deaths too. There is no intentional death-faking. It is an accident. Pyramus thinks that Thisbe got mauled by a lion when he sees a lion with her shawl, and Thisbe returns and finds Pyramus has stabbed himself with his sword. (Romeo drank poison.) Thisbe then takes the same sword and kills herself. That part is the same—they both end up dead!
How do the stories of Pyramus and Thisbe and Romeo and Juliet compare?
"Pyramus and Thisbe" was a source for Romeo and Juliet. It also appears in A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was originally published by the Roman writer Ovid in his Metamorphoses.
This story stars two lovers whose families are feuding, like Romeo and Juliet. The two are forbidden to love each other, so they communicate through a chink in the wall separating their houses. They arrange to meet by a tomb and mulberry tree to declare their love, but, as at the end of Romeo and Juliet, a mix-up occurs. Thisbe arrives first but runs off after she sees a lion. She leaves her veil behind. When Pyramus arrives, he finds Thisbe's veil, which has been torn and bloodied by the lion. He thinks Thisbe is dead, so he stabs himself. When Thisbe returns and finds Pyramus dead, she too stabs herself.
Thus, both stories end with a double suicide based on a misunderstanding. In Romeo and Juliet,the confusion arises when Romeo fails to get a message saying that Juliet has taken a potion that makes her appear dead but is not really dead. When Romeo thinks he sees her dead body, he kills himself, and Juliet stabs herself to death when she finds the dead body of Romeo.
How does the story of Romeo and Juliet mirror Ovid's "Pyramus and Thisbe"?
These two stories mirror each other in a number of ways. Firstly, Ovid's characters Pyramus and Thisbe fall in love and want to marry, but, as the text tells us, their marriage is “forbade.” The same scenario is played out in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The lovers cannot marry, because their families, the Montagues and Capulets, are enemies. A further similarity between the two stories is that both couples continue to meet in secret. Pyramus and Thisbe spoke to each other through a “chink in the wall,” for instance, which we could compare to the famous balcony scene in act 2, scene 2 of Romeo and Juliet.
As the stories progress, we find further examples of mirroring, most notably in the location. Both stories, for instance, end in places associated with death. For Pyramus and Thisbe, Pyramus commits suicide by stabbing himself in the heart, because he believes that Thisbe has been eaten by a lioness. This happens in the tomb of Ninus. Similarly, Romeo commits suicide inside a crypt by drinking poison, because he also believes that his love is dead.
Ultimately, both stories share the common theme of young lovers who are unable to be together due to parental influence and so thus take matters into their own hands. Sadly, their love for one another ends in their deaths.