The plots of Romeo and Juliet and Othello are both tragic. These plays focus on destroying the main relationships within the plays. In Othello, the main relationship of the play revolves around Othello and his wife Desdemona. Othello, because of his jealous rage, murders his wife who he later discovers is innocent. Romeo and Juliet, named after the featured couple, commit suicide to be together in an afterlife. They commit suicide because the world around them does not allow them to be together. It would seem that the marriages in these two plays are primarily based on love and should last, but they both end in death due to the couple's internal pain and suffering. Throughout the story, Romeo and Juliet are often portrayed as an ideal of romantic love, but this is not always how contemporary readers perceive it. In fact, according to the source that Shakespeare used to base his play, "The Tragic History of Romeus and Juliet," Arthur Brooke describes the characters' deaths as punishment for their neglect of authority and their dishonest desires. This is clearly expressed in the following passage: a couple of unhappy lovers, indulging in dishonest desire; neglecting the authority and advice of parents and friends; conferring their chief counsels with drunken gossips and superstitious brethren (the naturally appropriate instruments of unchastity); attempt all perilous adventures to achieve their desired desire; use ear confession as the key to prostitution and betrayal, to advance their goal; abusing the honorable name of legal marriage to hide the shame of stolen contracts; finally, by all the means of a dishonest life, rushing towards a most unhappy death. (Brook... middle of paper... more in common than most people think. They are both tragedies, both main couples die, and sins such as gluttony and jealousy can destroy love. Works cited Brooks, Arther. "THE TRAGIC STORY OF ROMEUS AND JULIET." Canadian Shakespeare Adaptations Project Np, 1562. Web December 13, 2013. .DiYanni, Robert. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2008. Print. Johnson, Ben. “The Holloway Pages: Ben Jonson: Works (1692 Folio): Love Freed from Ignorance and Folly.” The Holloway Pages, 2003. Web. Shakespeare, William. “Romeo and Juliet: Complete Play” The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, nd Web... 2013. .