As humans, we are quick to judge. If someone looks different or acts different than us, we call them names or make fun of them. The bible teaches us not to judge. Everyone is beautiful within the beholder’s eyes, but our nature is to judge. When William Shakespeare wrote Sonnet 130, he was being judgmental of his mistress. He told all of the flaws of her body, smell, and even the sound of her voice. But at the end of the story he described her as no comparison to the beauties of this world, but even so, he still loved her. Shakespeare used a judgmental and critical tone to convey the idea that his love for his mistress is rare and the outer appearance is not what makes his relationship work, but instead it is the intangible feelings that he has for her. …show more content…
In the quatrains of the sonnet, Shakespeare compared his love to many cliche beautiful things, saying that she does not compare.
But unlike most love poems, instead of saying she was more beautiful, he says that these things are much more beautiful than she. For example, in the first quatrain, the speaker says, “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun, / Coral is far more red, than her lips” (lines 1-2). The speaker says these things to show that the love for his mistress is unique and even though her eyes are nothing like the sun or her lips are bland without lipstick, he still loves her. He compares her the way any man would in today’s society. Men tend to overlook what is on the inside, but judge a woman by her looks. Another example, is in the second quatrain, he says, “Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks”(8). He constantly criticizes her and uses harsh words like reeks to show that even though he judges her for her outer beauty, he still loves
her. Although the speaker seems critical in the quatrains, he reveals why he is being critical in the couplet and shifts to a more sincere tone. In the first line of the couplet the speaker says, “And yet by heaven think my love as rare”(13). The speaker says this to show that no one is perfect. Everyone has their imperfections. He compares his mistress to all the cliche things to show they are incomparable. Just because she does not compare to them does not mean she is not beautiful. The outer appearance of a woman does not mean everything when one is in love. It is the inner beauty and personality that matters the most. The speaker uses a harsh tone to show his audience that his love for his mistress is not cliche. He loves her for far more reasons than her beauty. It is rare because he loves all her imperfections. Love is something that is not seen, but rather something that is felt. Loving her the way she was created is a perfect love to him and should not be compared to anything else.
The speaker uses metaphors to describe his mistress’ eyes to being like the sun; her lips being red as coral; cheeks like roses; breast white as snow; and her voices sounding like music. In the first few lines of the sonnet, the speaker view and tells of his mistress as being ugly, as if he was not attracted to her. He give...
At the start, the first stanza of the poem is full of flattery. This is the appeal to pathos. The speaker is using the mistress's emotions and vanity to gain her attention. By complimenting her on her beauty and the kind of love she deserves, he's getting her attention. In this first stanza, the speaker claims to agree with the mistress - he says he knows waiting for love provides the best relationships. It feels quasi-Rogerian, as the man is giving credit to the woman's claim, he's trying to see her point of view, he's seemingly compliant. He appears to know what she wants and how she should be loved. This is the appeal to ethos. The speaker seems to understand how relationships work, how much time they can take, and the effort that should be put forth. The woman, if only reading stanza one, would think her and the speaker are in total agreement.
Compared to the first few lines in the second sonnet: "My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun coral is far more red than her lips red" And this shocking feeling of offense and harshness continues through to line twelve in the second sonnet. However, there are some dark points in the first sonnet as well, as death is mentioned in line eleven "Nor shall death brag thou wandr'st in his shade" And "rough winds" in line three. However, how harsh and sincere these sonnets may be, both have the conclusions with the similar idea that Shakespeare loves his woman so much that he doesn't need to give her false comparisons to do with beautiful items or beautiful things that don't last forever - his love lasts for eternity in the sonnet: "So long as men can breath, and eyes can see So long lives this, and this gives life to thee."
...uty which is impossible for any woman or man to match. Campion's poem reflects this impossible ideal that society inflicts on us. This woman in There is a Garden in Her Face could never really live up to the image that the speaker has created of her. The image is false, and so is his love because he is only focusing on her outward appearance. The speaker in Shakespeare's sonnet clearly is not in love with his mistress' looks. Everything about her is contrary to society's standards, but he understands the absurdity of these standards and rejects them. There is more to his mistress than meets the eye, and that is why he truly loves her.
William Shakespeare’s sonnets are considered to be some of the most beautiful poems in English literature. Although little is known about the poet, many seem to put their focus on Shakespeare’s inner life; wondering why he wrote the things he did. William Shakespeare is mostly known for his plays; however, he did accomplish a lot in poetry. William Shakespeare was powerful with his words, and knew how to express things in great depth. Why or who he wrote about is still a mystery. Scholars only know so much about his life, and are still trying to put the unknown pieces together.
"My Mistress' Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun" uses comparisons to express Shakespeare's idea of love as opposed to lust. A lustful man would focus on a woman's pleasing physical characteristics, such as white breasts, beautiful hair, red lips, and fragrant breath; however, Shakespeare's mistress possesses none of these great characteristics. Shakespeare, instead, uses metaphors to express her physical shortcomings. "Coral is far more red than her lips' red" (line 2) describes his mistress' faded lips. "If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head" (line 4) shows the coarse, unkempt and dark color of her hair. "
This poem speaks of a love that is truer than denoting a woman's physical perfection or her "angelic voice." As those traits are all ones that will fade with time, Shakespeare exclaims his true love by revealing her personality traits that caused his love. Shakespeare suggests that the eyes of the woman he loves are not twinkling like the sun: "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun" (1). Her hair is compared to a wire: "If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head" (3). These negative comparisons may sound almost unloving, however, Shakespeare proves that the mistress outdistances any goddess. This shows that the poet appreciates her human beauties unlike a Petrarchan sonnet that stresses a woman's cheek as red a rose or her face white as snow. Straying away from the dazzling rhetoric, this Shakespearean poem projects a humane and friendly impression and elicits laughter while expressing a truer love. A Petrarchan sonnet states that love must never change; this poem offers a more genuine expression of love by describing a natural woman.
Truth and honesty are key elements to a good, healthy relationship. However, in Shakespeare's Sonnet 138, the key to a healthy relationship between the speaker and the Dark Lady is keeping up the lies they have constructed for one another. Through wordplay Shakespeare creates different levels of meaning, in doing this, he shows the nature of truth and flattery in relationships.
“Deep down, beneath all our insecurities, beneath all our hopes for and beliefs in equality, each of us believes we're better than anyone else. Because it's our beliefs that are right, our doubts that are allowable ones, our fears which are legitimate (Stein, 2010)”
Shakespeare’s themes are mostly conventional topics, such as love and beauty. Nevertheless, Shakespeare presents these themes in his own unique fashion, most notably by addressing the poems of beauty not to a fair maiden, but instead to a young man: ‘‘shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate” (book). Shakespeare points out that the youth’s beauty is more perfect then the beauty of a summer day. It is also “more temperate”, in other words more gentle, more restrained whereas the summer’s day might have violent excesses in store. At first glance of sonnet 18, it’s pretty much certain that one would think Shakespeare is referring to a woman, not a man. The idea of a man describing another man with such choice of words is always seen with a different eye. Several even stated that Shakespeare is homosexual. Whichever the case may be, Shakespeare painted beauty in the most original matter. He dared to do what everybody else didn’t, or maybe feared to, and accomplished his goal with flying colors. Besides, in his sonnets, Shakespeare states that the young man was made for a woman and urges the man to marry so he can pass on h...
Through the form of sonnet, Shakespeare and Petrarch both address the subject of love, yet there are key contrasts in their style, structure, and in the manner, each approaches their subjects. Moreover, in "Sonnet 130," Shakespeare, in fact, parodies Petrarch's style and thoughts as his storyteller describes his mistress, whose "eyes are in no way as the sun" (Shakespeare 1918). Through his English poem, Shakespeare seems to mock the exaggerated descriptions expanded throughout Petrarch’s work by portraying the speaker’s love in terms that are characteristic of a flawed woman not a goddess. On the other hand, upon a review of "Sonnet 292" from the Canzoniere, through “Introduction to Literature and Arts,” one quickly perceives that Petrarch's work is full of symbolism. However, Petrarch’s utilization of resemblance and the romanticizing of Petrarch's female subject are normal for the Petrarchan style.
The love that a person has for someone is not the same for other people. They can look at their love through nature or just by their beauty. Shakespeare has the ability to explain his love for someone by using nature as a reference. Looking at two of Shakespeare’s sonnets 18 and 130 explore the differences and similarities between one another. In Sonnet 18 and 130, both show Shakespeare’s knowledge in developing his love and respect.
Thou art more lovely and more temperate" (18.1-2). The first few lines of this sonnet place vivid images in the readers mind about a beautiful and sweet tempered person. Most readers believe this person to be a beautiful woman because of the preconceived notions about the dynamics of love.... ... middle of paper ...
That means, the approaches of poet’s love remain the same. In one place, he portrays beauty as conveying a great responsibility in the sonnets addressed to the young man. The poet has experienced what he thinks of as "the marriage of true minds," also known as true love, that his love remains strong, and that he believes that it’s eternal. Nothing will stop their love, as in the symbols like all the ships, stars and stormy seas that fill the landscape of the poem and so on what can affect to their love. The poet is too much attracted with the young man’s beauty, though this indicates to something really bad behavior. But in another place, Shakespeare makes fun of the dark lady in sonnet 130. He explains that his lover, the dark lady, has wires for hair, bad breath, dull cleavage, a heavy step, pale lips and so on, but to him, real love is, the sonnet implies, begins when we accept our lovers for what they are as well as what they are not. But other critics may not agree with this and to them, beauty may define to something
Shakespeare's sonnet, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" is a poem that enhances the idea of beauty higher then that of nature. Shakespeare uses what most would think to be flawless beauty, nature, and makes it seem dull compared to the beauty of the beloved. Shakespeare uses figurative devices effectively to enhance the idea of eternal beauty by comparing the idea that beauty in summer comes and goes but the beauty in his beloved will be preserved through the readers of the poem eternally.