Comparing Ovid's The Tragedy Of Romeo And Juliet

Was Romeo and Juliet’s death a personal decision or was it their destiny? Did Pyramus and Thisbe die by their own will or by their own choice? In the Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, the couple from Verona fell in love almost instantly, but their fate was death. In Pyramus and Thisbe written by Ovid, the couple was not able to get married, so they made their own choice by running off together, which ultimately led to their death. The reason that the two sets of lovebirds perished was by their own decisions, not by destiny. William Shakespeare wrote a famous play about two star-crossed lovers that would do anything to be together. For example, when Juliet drinks the potion she says, “Romeo, Romeo, Romeo, I drink to thee”(Shakespeare 457). Juliet drank the vial because she had no love for Paris and did not want to bond in marriage with him. Romeo cared so much about Juliet that he took his own life. “Come, cordial and not poison, go with me To Juliet’s grave; for there must I use thee”(Shakespeare 469). Romeo wanted to be with Juliet so bad that he committed suicide by drinking the vial of poison from the Apothecary. Romeo and Juliet made their own choices, no matter what destiny had in store for them.

Because their parents forbade them to be together, they thought the best way out was to run away. They agreed to meet at the Tomb of Ninus where Thisbe encountered a lion (Ovid 488). Thisbe dropped her cloak, which made Pyramus think that she had perished, which led to him plunging his sword into his side (Ovid 489). When Thisbe finds herself out of place, she backtracks far enough to find her true love lying there, dead by her cloak. And again, she made her own decision to end her own life through