In both The Wife of Asdrubal and The Bride of the Greek Isle, tragic situations arise and young women overwrought with emotion concerning their husbands immolate themselves. Asdrubal's wife, enraged by his disloyalty to his country is similar to the character Myrrha in Sardanapalus because of her strong sense of national identity.What I found most interesting is that there are hints of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet in both texts. The heroine of the play also kills herself, though not by fire, when she is grief stricken by the death of Romeo. In The Wife of Asdrubal, the line "But mark! from yon fair temple's loftiest height" seems to echo the famous line "But soft! What light through yonder window break?" It is easy to see the similarities of the husbands/lovers looking upward toward their beautiful women who seem surrounded in light--one in flames.
Really creative and interesting perspective drawing this back to Romeo and Juliet. I think another interesting connection to this could be the breaking of family obligations and control. In my post I talked a lot about how the Bride becomes masculine once separated from her family's expectations of her and her stereotypical roles. Her acts conclude the breaking of her roles as first a daughter than a wife, highlighting the issues in fulfilling those positions. Juliet and Romeo (although I must say I think that characterization and purpose of Romeo and Juliet vs. the Bride are quite different) also highlight the issues with family obligations and responsibilities being that is was because of family dispute that Romeo and Juliet could not be together. I think the works both suggest the problems with being tied down to what you are supposed to be and who you want to be and have the potential to be.
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