I May Be Sick, But It's Not Because of the Blood and Gore

The blood and gore in Pyramus and Thisbe, as bloody and gore-ifying as it may be, is completely necessary to Ovid' s  story.
The place where the gore becomes most necessary is in the change of the color of the mulberries. This change is caused by the pulsing of the blood high into the air, and the change of the berries causes Thisbe to become confused. (arborei fetūs... pomi color) This change of the color of the mulberry is the change that takes place in the all of Ovid's stories in his Metamorphoses. Without the blood and gore described in the story, this change would not have been able to occur because it would not have made sense.
These sometimes disturbing images are also necessary to help set the tone of this part of the story. At first, the story is light and sweet; the story of two young lovers trying to make their love a reality. But now, the tone of the story has changed to be dark and serious. The description of all of the blood and gore (i.e. "dum dubitat, tremebunda videt pulsare cruentum membra solum") helps to reset the tone of the story. Without this new tone, the serious nature of the story that Ovid is trying to convey would simply not exist.
Overall, I find Ovid's use of the dramatic gore helps to drive home the mood of Pyramus and Thisbe, and also helps the reader to understand the change taking place with the mulberry tree. As disturbing as it may be, without the blood and gore, Pyramus and Thisbe would not be the story of change that it is.

A Blog on Onomatopoeia!? Eek!

Oh, onomatopoeia...what a rhetorical device. A word that imitates a sound, things like "achoo" and "eek." And it is this rhetorical device that Ovid uses in line 83 of Pyramus and Thisbe.

"...ad solitum coiere locum. Tum, murmure parvo..."

First, notice the alliteration with the M's. (solitum, locum, tum, murmure) Now, pay attention to one word: murmure. Pyramus and Thisbe are MURMURING!!!!!! The use of the M's in line 83 help us to "hear" the soft murmur the two share on opposite sides of the wall. Here, the use of other soft sounds such as the S in solitum and the C's in coiere and locum also help to convey this image of soft, loving murmurs between Pyramus and Thisbe.

This is a wonderful example of how Ovid uses rhetorical devices in his work to help convey the story. By using the onomatopoeia in line 83, we get a more vivid picture of the two lovers. It helps us not only to see what is going on, but hear it as well. The soft sounds of M's, S's and C's imitate the soft sounds created when Pyramus and Thisbe are talking quietly, whispering, murmuring, to each other through the crack in the wall. And it is this imagery that helps to make Ovid's Pyramus and Thisbe such a wonderfully vivid work.