Paired Texts > The Pied Piper of Hamelin

by Robert Browning 1888

We've identified these texts as great options for text pairings based on similar themes, literary devices, topic, or writing style. Supplement your lesson with one or more of these options and challenge students to compare and contrast the texts. To assign a paired text, click on the text to go to its page and click the "Assign Text" button there.

The Necklace
The Necklace
Guy de Maupassant

In "The Necklace," a poor woman borrows an expensive necklace for a fancy ball. When the necklace goes missing, the woman and her husband spend years living in poverty in order to pay back the debt.

Pair “The Necklace” with “The Pied Piper of Hamelin” and ask students to discuss how the theme of greed develops in each text. How does each text portray material wealth? Who is the true victim of greed in each text?

9th Grade Short Story 890L
My Last Duchess
My Last Duchess
Robert Browning

In Robert Browning's renowned poem "My Last Duchess," a speaker laments the transitory nature of his relationship with his previous partner, allegedly the result of her excessive sociability.

Pair these two texts by the same author and ask students to consider similarities and differences in structure, form, and theme. Robert Browning was particularly well known for constructing dramatic monologues, of which “My Last Duchess” is a prime example. How does “The Pied Piper of Hamelin” deviate from this niche? How does its content reinforce the themes expressed in Browning’s other work?

11th Grade Poem
The Dancing Plague of 1518
The Dancing Plague of 1518
Doug MacGowan

In "The Dancing Plague of 1518," the informational text explores the medieval case of sudden, violent dancing in a small French village.

Sometimes, history can inspire fiction, particularly when it comes to folk stories and fairytales. Pair “The Pied Piper of Hamelin” with “The Dancing Plague of 1518” and ask students to compare these two events. What similarities do they share? What historical evidence lies behind both stories? What theories can students devise that might explain both events?

8th Grade Informational Text 1120L