Between reason and passion: the Ovidian myth of Pyramus and Thisbe revisited in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet

Abstract

This work aims to analyze two literary works: Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare and the myth of Pyramus and Thisbe, present in Book IV of The Metamorphoses, by the Latin poet Ovid. Comparing both, we investigate their tragic aspects in the light of Stoicism, according to the Latin philosopher and tragedian Seneca. The theoretical background includes Seneca, Cicero, and Brun (1986) for discussions regarding Stoicism; Aristotle, Brait (1980), and Ubersfeld (2010) for remarks concerning the character and the tragic; Bate and Rasmussen (2007) and Heliodora (2016) for discussions on Shakespeare; Closel (2011), Lucas (1922), and Lohner and Freitas (2014) to guide considerations about the Latin influence in the Elizabethan theatre. We believe that the characters responsible for moving the plots in the two works allow themselves to be influenced by affect us and, driven by passion, contrary to
reason, they make imprudent decisions that result in catastrophes. Similar catastrophes in Shakespeare and Ovid portray the consequences of the soul which allows passion to settle, setting aside its rationality. As a result of non-restraint, tragic death functions as a pedagogical resource in the action for the readers of the tragic texts in question.