Plagiarism In Romeo And Juliet

Within the academic and literary worlds, the most heinous crime a writer can be charged with is plagiarism. Stealing someone else’s words or ideas and passing them off as one’s own and submitting it for publishing is comparable to trying to sell a forgery of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa —an act of monstrosity that can permanently ruin one’s good name. For example, if one were to publish a dramatic play about two star-crossed lovers who take their own lives because they are separated by their families hate for one another, anyone who had a high school English class in the United States would be quick to declare that it is a rip of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. However, what if Shakespeare himself, one of the greatest writers of all

However, the fact that Juliet chooses to end her life with Romeo’s own dagger, much like Thisbe had done with Pyramus’ sword, blatantly showcases Shakespeare’s unoriginality. It was Thisbe, not Juliet, who first followed through on her heartfelt proclamation to prove her true love by following her beau in death, choosing her own lover’s blade as the deliverer. Overall, this goes to show that William Shakespeare was not the mastermind behind the overall plot and denouement of Romeo and Juliet, seeing as how Juliet’s declaration to follow Romeo in death and dramatic choice of weapon had already been done before in Ovid’s “The Story of Pyramus and Thisbe.” Despite this fact that the storyline and denouement of Romeo and Juliet is not an example of his originality, many would hope that Shakespeare’s timeless characters and choice of location is enough to redeem him from charges of

However, given Shakespeare’s current track record regarding his personal originality in Romeo and Juliet, this is not only unanticipated but also highly unlikely. In fact, according to the section titled “A Note on the Source of Romeo and Juliet” written by J.A. Bryant and Sylvan Barnet for the Signet Classics edition of Romeo and Juliet, there are three more authors Shakespeare derived his tale from in addition to Ovid and da Porto. Immediately following da Porto’s “La Giulietta” is Matteo Bandello’s adaptation titled Novelle. According to Bryant and Barnet, in this expansion on da Porto’s story, “Peter is there (but as Romeo’s servant), the Nurse has a significant part in the plot, and the rope ladder comes into play” (Bryant and Barnet 128). This means that not only did Shakespeare fail to at least personally create who is arguably one of the most flat characters in his work, but it was also not his idea to use the Nurse as the mediator for the young couple. Furthermore, when Romeo declares to the Nurse, “Within this hour my man shall be with thee / And bring thee cords made like a tackled stair” (Shakespeare 2.4.194-195), it was not “the Bard” who devised Romeo’s plan to use a rope ladder to gain access to Juliet at night, but rather