Love In Pyramus And Thisbe

Since Pyramus and Thisbe were not love at first sight and had loved each other for a long time, maybe

Although the root of most conflict in the play is the trouble of romance and the play involves many romantic elements, I could rightfully not tell you that is truly a love story. You see, my goal was to distance the audience from the emotional aspect of the play in order to make fun of those in love and suffering. The tone of this play is meant to be lighthearted to the point where the audience does not even doubt that all will end well and can thus freely enjoy the comedic aspect of the play without worrying about what might happen next. Once again, this is reflected in the play-within-a-play. Although the plot of Pyramus and Thisbe is meant to be one of tragedy and love, the product is quite comical and therefore the story does not seem quite as tragic to the

Lysander and Hermia also portray true love. Refusing to marry her suitor, Demetrius, she willingly gives up everything and runs away from Athens with her lover, Lysander, “There my Lysander and I shall meet, and thence from Athens turn away our eyes.” In the play within the play, Pyramus and Thisbe also present us with true love. Their situation

In the mythology story “Pyramus and Thisbe,” by Edith Hamilton, Pyramus and Thisbe live next door to each other. They are in love, but their parents do not approve. They make a plan to meet under a mulberry tree. While Thisbe is waiting, she sees a lioness with blood on her mouth from a kill. As Thisbe runs away, she drops her cloak. The lioness tears the cloak, so when Pyramus comes, he sees the bloody cloak and thinks that Thisbe is killed by the lioness. Pyramus kills himself with his sword because he could not protect Thisbe. Thisbe returns to find Pyramus dying and uses his sword to kill herself. Their blood turns the white mulberries a deep red for their everlasting love.

Pyramus and Thisbe and Romeo and Juliet are two tragic romance stories that are comparable in many ways. The similar concepts and elements reflected in the two works portray themes of love and tragedy, while also expressing the same types of characters and events. The works of the two writers, Ovid and Shakespeare, were written in completely different time periods, but are remarkably comparable in the senses of character purpose, elements, theme, and events.

Throughout A Midsummer Night’s Dream, while the story involving Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia, Helena, Oberon and Titania is developing, the rustic gentlemen (Bottom and his friends) are shown rehearsing for a play that they will perform in honor of the upcoming wedding of Theseus (the Duke of Athens) and Hippolyta. The play, “Pyramus and Thisby,” is based on a story that was told by the ancient Roman writer Ovid and retold by Chaucer. The “Pyramus and Thisby” play is not performed until the fifth and final act of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. By then, as Barton points out, the major problems of Lysander, Demetrius and the rest have all been neatly resolved. As such, the “Pyramus and Thisby” play-within-a-play “seems, in effect, to take place beyond the normal, plot-defined boundaries of comedy” (Barton 110).

The play of Pyramus and Thisbe is about two lovers whose families do not approve their love. “Be it so she; will not here before your grace consent to marry with Demetrius, I beg the ancient privilege of Athens, As she is mine, I may dispose of her.” Egeus, Hermia’s father, wants Hermia to marry Demetrius instead of Hermia’s lover, Lysander. Automatically we see a resemblance. “Wilt thou at Ninny's tomb meet me straightway?” Pyramus and Thisbe decide to run off to Ninnus’ tomb to be together in secret, just like Hermia and Lysander run off to the wood beyond Athens. “Steal forth thy father's house to-morrow night; and in the wood, a league without the town, where I did meet thee once with Helena to do observance to a morn of May. There will I stay for thee.”

Ovid’s Pyramus & Thisbe, and William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet are both stories about ill-fated love. With each story we can see that there is a tragic couple, the female, Thisbe represents Juliet, while the male, Pyramus represents Romeo, vise versa for each. In Pyramus & Thisbe, the two lovers communicate through the small chink in the wall. In Romeo & Juliet, the two lovers communicate through the Nurse by sending messages back and forth. In Romeo & Juliet, the meeting place is Friar Lawrence’s Cell, this represents the Tomb of Ninus in Pyramus & Thisbe, which is where they met up. Lastly, the deceiver in both stories is the main reason the tragedies happened.

The plots of Pyramus and Thisbe and The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet are very similar to one another. For example, it says directly in Pyramus and Thisbe: “But marriage was forbidden by their parents. Yet there’s one thing that parents can’t prevent: The flame of love that burned within them” (Ovid’s Pyramus and Thisbe 11-13). This directly correlates with the plot of The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, with Shakespeare writing “The exchange of thy love’s faithful vow for mine. I gave thee mine before thou didst request it” (Shakespeare II.ii. 127-128). This shows that both couples in each story are in love, which shows a parallel in plot structure. Furthermore, Pyramus and Thisbe also has another plot similarity with The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet: the death of each couple in the

Hence, this part of conversation is a microcosm of their unhappy and unhealthy mode of relationship. Theseus would arbitrarily express a personal opinion and impose it on Hippolyta, without considering her protests. According to John Cutis, moreover, the episode of Pyramus and Thisbe acts “as a satirical contrast with the Theseus-Hippolyta relationship, as they are both unable to ‘see the need of poetry’” (Cutis 183). A love life without conflicts, or a life without love, might not prove the happiest— this couple solve their discords with Hippolyta’s absolute obedience and Theseus’ lack of love and consideration. This is why they need no compromise.

Last but not least, in both texts of Romeo and Juliet and Pyramus and Thisbe, they are very similar as they both end with terrible, terrible tragedies. Both these readings are known for being tragedies, which make them both so memorable. In Romeo and Juliet, Act V Scene III lines 307-310 the Prince says these concluding words, “Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things; some shall be pardoned, and some punished; for never was there a story of more woe, than this od Juliet and her Romeo.” That itself sums up that it is one of the greatest tragedies known to man. The same ending through misunderstandings leads to Pyramus and

A ridiculous parallel case of young lovers so subject to passion that, after disobeying their parents' law, they take their own lives, is provided by Pyramus and Thisbe. Lysander and Demetrius laugh at the mechanicals' exaggerated portrayal of these unfortunates, but the audience has seen the same excessive passion in earnest from these two.

Aristotle is known widely for developing his ideas on tragedy. He recorded these ideas in his Poetics in which he comments on the plot, purpose, and effect that a true tragedy must have. The structure of these tragedies has been an example for many writers including Shakespeare himself. Many of Shakespeare’s plays follow Aristotelian ideas of tragedy, for instance Macbeth does a decent job in shadowing Aristotle’s model.

Some of the greatest writers of all time actually found the start of their best ideas and works from other artists. William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, for example, used the same archetype that the Greek writer Ovid used in his short story, “Pyramus and Thisbe.” In each story, two star-crossed lovers meet against the will of their parents, which soon leads to the pair’s demise. However, more than just the archetypical plot is shared between these two masterpieces. The tragedies of Romeo and Juliet and “Pyramus and Thisbe” both have their own representations of lack of communication, misinterpretation, and impassable obstacles for crucial information.

Tragedy as an element of the human experience has been the subject of many of the great works of literature written in the Western tradition. For some, tragedy embodies the highest form of humanity. It is through suffering that we are able to reveal ourselves most completely. Others see tragedy as an element of morality where we are to learn well the lessons of those who tempt the gods. The Ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle, outlined a theory of tragedy as archetypal drama in his classic work, the Poetics. He uses the play by Sophocles, Oedipus the King (hereafter "Oedipus"), as the standard model by which all other tragedies are measured. In Aristotle's view, a perfect