Pyramus and Thisbe by Ovid

14^th July 2009, Tuesday

In my point of view, the story of Pyramus and Thisbe is very similar to Romeo and Juliet. The story is about a love relationship between Pyramus and Thisbe. Due to the strong affections between the lovers, they died together by Pyramus killing himself first and next Thisbe killed herself. The story of Romeo and Juliet in the last scene reflects this sad ending as well between the two lovers.

A brief content of Pyramus and Thisbe is introduced. Pyramus and Thisbe were neighbours and they came to know one another. As their friendship begun, their love grew deeper. However, their parents forbade them from marriage. Meanwhile, nothing could stop the blazing love between the two lovers. One day, as Pyramus slipped out of his house and wanted to meet up with Thisbe at a shade of a tree, he found Thisbe’s veil under a tree was tore into shreds and stained with blood. He thought Thisbe was dead and was so upset until he killed himself with a sword which hung at his waist. In reality, Thisbe was still alive. When Thisbe knew that Pyramus was dead, she was very upset and used the same sword as Pyramus used to kill herself. Both of them lied dead under the tree. I see this as a sad story because the ending is death of two lovers. Meanwhile, it is also true love and the impact of love is so great until the lovers were willing to die together.

In class, Miss Dzeelfa assigned us to produce a dialogue in the form of a play about the last scene of the story where Pyramus killed himself for the love of Thisbe’s and Thisbe killing herself for the love of Pyramus. This activity was fun and interesting because it made us think creatively and working together as a group. Each group presented their dialogue creatively. For example, a group named themselves as China 5 used the Chinese slang and intonation to speak English. There was also some addition of Hokkien with English translation. It really made the class laugh.

I think play is a very useful activity to be used in a class. Besides being fun and interesting, students are able to think creatively, cooperate with one another in a group and train up their confident to act in front of the class.