Death In Romeo And Juliet And The Book Thief

Death in life Death is very serious. It plays a huge role in people's lives. Romeo and Juliet and The Book Thief are works that portray death very well. In each of the pieces , the theme is centered around death. Both works deal with a fair amount of death that plays a significant role to the storyline. Characters die in both stories and that has an affect on the readers. In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, and Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, both stories share the similar theme of death, people we come to love will die someday. First, in The Book Thief this theme is seen when Liesel becomes aware that everyone is dead on Himmel Street and discovers that her best friend Rudy she fell in love with is dead. “Rudy, please, wake up,

“What’s here? A cup, closed in my true love’s hand? Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end. O churl, drunk all, and left no friendly drop To help me after? I will kiss thy lips. Haply some poison yet doth hang on them, To make me die with a restorative (kisses ROMEO) Thy lips are warm.”(a5,s3). Romeo and Juliet loved each other. If one of them died the other had to be dead with them. Romeo was the one who died. Juliet killed herself to show that she truly loved Romeo and would be with him forever, alive or dead. Second, this theme is also seen when Paris is killed by Romeo and he wanted to lay next the “dead” Juliet. “(falls) Oh, I am slain! If thou be merciful, Open the tomb. Lay me with Juliet.”(a5,s3). Paris loved Juliet but he was not aware that she was in love with Romeo. Paris knew he was on the verge of dying and he wanted to lay next to Juliet's unconscious body to show his love for Juliet. As shown above, in Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, people we come to love will die someday is a theme seen throughout the

One difference in the stories is they have different endings of death. In The Book Thief everybody besides Liesel dies in the raids while Romeo and Juliet ends with suicide. Both works portray death differently. By ending with suicide in Romeo and Juliet it leaves the readers with different feelings. Shakespeare makes death a positive thing because Romeo and Juliet purposefully kill each other for long lasting love. On the other hand, in The Book Thief, Zusak and Death, the narrator, implies death as a negative thing. The narrator implies death is harsh which is completely opposite of Shakespeare's thoughts. In The Book Thief Liesel and Rudy are rebellious. They rebel against what is expected by the Nazi party. When the Jews were parading through town Rudy and Liesel went between the people and gave bread to them. Also, Liesel and her family were hiding a Jewish person, Max Vandenburg. Similarly, in Romeo and Juliet, Romeo and Juliet rebel against their families. The Montague's and Capulet's are rivals and have great hatred for each other. Romeo a Montague and Juliet a Capulet fall in love and later on get married without their parents permission. The two main characters in both works rebel against something. As a final point, there are many differences and similarities in both pieces of