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Critical analysis of Shakespeare's sonnet 116
What are shakespeare's viws on love
Critical analysis of Shakespeare's sonnet 116
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In today's society, not many books or songs describe the true value of human relationships. Most popular songs and books are all about partying and doing things that make us forget about morals. However, if you were to read some of Shakespeare's sonnets, you would find that human relationship's are very much valued.
By showing that friendship can mend a persons sorrows, that love could and should be immortalized, and that marriage between two individuals can be strong and true, Shakespeare's sonnets 55, 30, and 116 truly explain the real value of human relationships.
In most of Shakespeare's sonnets, he appears to write about his insecurities in relationships, or his own self-worth. However, in sonnet 55, Shakespeare expresses a tremendous amount of confidence in his relationship by showing how much he values their love. This statement says that until his judgment day, when they are lifted into heaven, they will live in this poem, and in the eyes who read it. This sonnet truly expresses the real meaning of friendship because he is telling his friends that he wants to keep their memory alive forever. According to Ox quarry books Ltd, “Sonnet 55 shares a theme with that of many others, which oppose the power to verse death and Times cruel knife, and promise immortality to the beloved.”
For example, in the two last stanza's of sonnet 55, Shakespeare states, “So till the judgment that yourself arise, You live in this, and dwell in lovers eyes” (Shakespeare). Shakespeare loves his sweetheart so dearly, he puts it in a poem, telling his beloved that when they pass on, their memory will live in his writing, and will be remembered by anyone who reads it. This shows how much Shakespeare valued his r...
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... or no one can help you? Well after reading about Shakespeare's sonnets, does it now occur to you that there are people such as friends and family who are always willing to help you through whatever it is you are going through. That is the power of love, and what makes up a true relationship. In Shakespeare's sonnets 30, 55, and 116, the meaning of what a true relationship is, and why it should be valued is expressed in a way that today's society does not express it. Love, whether it be through friendship or marriage is such a valuable thing in a relationship. Shakespeare shows his readers this through these sonnets. I hope now you too may understand the true value of a human relationship.
Works Cited
http://nfs.sparknotes.com/sonnets/sonnet_116.html http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/55.html http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/55detail.html
It speaks about not allowing anything to break the marital bond not even old age or sickness. The united couple must stand together and not allow their hearts to wander. In the beginning of the poem, the first question asked of the bride and groom is if there are any admitted impediment that would hinder or corrupt this union. Shakespeare even allows the reader to understand that he truly believes the words that he writes by stating, “If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved” (Sonnet 481). Shakespeare interjects his personal beliefs by telling the reader that if this poem is not true, then he was never was a writer, and that no man has ever
Sonnet 130 is Shakespeare’s harsh yet realistic tribute to his quite ordinary mistress. Conventional love poetry of his time would employ Petrarchan imagery and entertain notions of courtly love. Francis Petrarch, often noted for his perfection of the sonnet form, developed a number of techniques for describing love’s pleasures and torments as well as the beauty of the beloved. While Shakespeare adheres to this form, he undermines it as well. Through the use of deliberately subversive wordplay and exaggerated similes, ambiguous concepts, and adherence to the sonnet form, Shakespeare creates a parody of the traditional love sonnet. Although, in the end, Shakespeare embraces the overall Petrarchan theme of total and consuming love.
Throughout the toughest times of a relationship, true love will always be there to hold the relationship together. The poem, “Sonnet 18” by William Shakespeare, compares the beauty of a summer’s day to the beauty of a woman. “Sonnet 30” by Edna Millay, explains that love is not perfect, but is longing for something more. Both of these poems are about love but one is about the heartbroken , sad side of love and the other is the romantic happiness. These two poets are illustrating a theme of romantic love within the literary similarities and differences of the two poems.
Physical separation is a powerful obstacle that is sometimes faced by those bound to each other in love. It brings about intense emotional pain and can hinder any relationship with which true love is at its core. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 56 involved two lovers that experienced physical separation as a stumbling block in their kinship. The “sad interim” with which the lovers found themselves suffering caused the intensity of their love to vanish. With their love fading quickly, the two desired for “sweet love” to “renew thy force.” They wanted their love for each other to be “blunter be than appetite, / Which but today by feeding is allayed, / Tomorrow sharpened in his former might.” They wished for a love like hunger, constantly returning and needing to be quenched. However, due to their separation, the people’s “spirit of love” had become “a perpetual dullness.” The “hungry eyes” of their love would “wink with fullness” and had lost its potency and strength. In order to repair the love that had waned, the lovers longed to “Come daily to the banks” of the ocean so that the “Return of love” could come to their relationship, and they desired “this sad interim” to be “winter, which being full of care / Makes summer’s welcome thrice more wish’d.” Sonnet 56 was a sad story in which separation caused two people’s love to become dull and boring. The obstacle of separation was also evident in the relationship between Hero and Claudio found in the play, Much Ado About Nothing. At the beginning of the play, Don Pedro and some of his men returned to Messina after battling in war. One of the men that Don Pedro brought with him was young Claudio. Claudio was highly respected in the eyes of Don Pedro and had exceptional war performan...
When he writes "And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare as any she, belied with false compare." (lines 13-14) in the final couplet, one responds with an enlightened appreciation, making them understand Shakespeare's message that true love consists of something deeper than physical beauty. Shakespeare expresses his ideas in a wonderful fashion. Not only does he express himself through direct interpretation of his sonnet, but also through the levels at which he styled and produced it. One cannot help but appreciate his message of true love over lust, along with his creative criticism of Petrarchan sonnets.
Anyone who has been in love, especially if the love object is scornful or infidelitous, has been able to turn to any station and say “every pop song on the radio is suddenly speaking to me,” as Ani DiFranco sings in her song “Superhero”. 1 Petrarchan love sonnets, the antiquated predecessors of the modern “pop love song”, depict love with some sense of perfection, sweetness, and chastity, with the beautiful, infallible blonde as the love object, however both with a sense of unattainability. Shakespeare’s later sonnets, 127-152, dealing with the “dark lady”, the antithesis of the Petrarchan model of love, however, may be a more accurate predecessor, nearly all dealing with the torments and imperfections of love and its source, after its having been attained. Sonnets 141-142 are a pinnacle of the later part of the sequence, summarizing the emotions and the object depicted in the other sonnets.
Shakespeare uses many different methods of discourse to examine this theme of love. In both sonnets the lover is exerting his control over the narrator, but the narrator does not really mind being controlled in either sonnet. Both sonnets include many elements and references to time and waiting and all of these references relate to love by showing love’s long lifespan and varying strengths over time. The only major difference between the two sonnets lies in their addressing love. Sonnet 57 talks directly to it in a personifying manner, whereas sonnet 58 merely refers to it through other means. Through this variety of explorations of the theme of love, Shakespeare shows that love has many faces and ways of expressing itself.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) lived in a time of religious turbulence. During the Renaissance people began to move away from the Church. Authors began to focus on the morals of the individual and on less lofty ideals than those of the Middle Ages. Shakespeare wrote one-hundred fifty-four sonnets during his lifetime. Within these sonnets he largely explored romantic love, not the love of God. In Sonnet 29 Shakespeare uses specific word choice and rhyme to show the reader that it is easy to be hopeful when life is going well, but love is always there, for rich and poor alike, even when religion fails.
Poetry is continously seen as a way of leaving a mark in various poems, especially those of Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare, as well as Sonnet 75 by Edmund Spenser. Spenser states to his love, that his “verse your virtues rare shall eternize,” basically declaring that through his poetry she will live forever (Spenser 11). It seems vain of the speaker to say that his poems will live forever, since he seems to regard himself in such a high standard. Shakespeare was also confident of his skills, as proven when he writes; “When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st” (Shakespeare 12). He seems to also be giving the ultimate proclamation of love to his special one by implying that he will have her in the history books with amazing poems about her.
While Shakespeare and Spenser have their own sonnet forms and different rhyme schemes, the topics in which they write about in “Sonnet 18” and “Sonnet 75” possess many similarities. A major theme in both of the sonnets is the idea of immortal love. Both sonnets straightforwardly mention the idea of love eternalizing, defying all of time, and conquering all obstacles. Spenser unmistakably mentions that “whenas death shall al the world subdue, our love shall live, and later life renew”. Correspondingly, Shakespeare declares that his and the subject’s love “shall not fade,” but continue to grow. When it comes to a matter of love defying time, both sonnets remain in synchronization, expressing that even with death, love will go on and remain forever, through poetry and memory. Spenser conveys his lover as one who “shall live by fame”, because through “[his] verse [her] virtues rare shall eternalize”. Evidently, Shakespeare believes that as history writes itself, he and his subject’s love will become one with time because “when in et...
...ays him. He tricks himself into believing that he and his friend are such kindred spirits that they are truly one in mind, body and spirit, when in fact, they are not. The final line of the sonnet begins with an initial spondee, "Sweet flattery" (14) in which Shakespeare himself is admitting how sweet delusion really is, and ends in a terminal spondee, "me alone" (14) showing that the young man and Shakespeare were really never more than acquaintances that loved the same woman.] Through a figment of his imagination, he developed a mythical relationship with the young man when in fact, the only really loving relationship he had was with his own pretentious subconscious.
In the 16th century Shakespeare's 154 sonnets, also known as "The Lover's Quarrel" was circulated in London. The sonnets are written as personal address from a man to his love and it is debatable whether or not the set is autobiographical of his own life. The first 126 Shakespearian sonnets are concentrated on a young man and the last 28 refer to a shady lady. Sonnet 71 specifically focuses on the speaker's aging and impending death in relation to his young lover. In sonnet 71, the man is now fixed on his own death and how his love is to mourn for him after he has passed. The man tells his lover not to mourn for him when he has died, and that she should only think about him for as long as it takes her to tell the world. The speaker then tells his love that if reading this sonnet will cause her to suffer, she needs to forget him. This sonnet shows the effect time can have on love and remembrance through the use of sound, meter, and events.
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.
Almost four hundred years after his death, William Shakespeare's work continues to live on through his readers. He provides them with vivid images of what love was like during the 1600's. Shakespeare put virtually indescribable feelings into beautiful words that fit the specific form of the sonnet. He wrote 154 sonnets; all of which discuss some stage or feature of love. Love was the common theme during the time Shakespeare was writing. However, Shakespeare wrote about it in such a way that captivated his reader and made them want to apply his words to their romances. What readers do not realize while they compare his sonnets to their real life relationships is that Shakespeare was continually defying the conventions of courtly love in his writings.
Shakespeare’s sonnets include love, the danger of lust and love, difference between real beauty and clichéd beauty, the significance of time, life and death and other natural symbols such as, star, weather and so on. Among the sonnets, I found two sonnets are more interesting that show Shakespeare’s love for his addressee. The first sonnet is about the handsome young man, where William Shakespeare elucidated about his boundless love for him and that is sonnet 116. The poem explains about the lovers who have come to each other freely and entered into a relationship based on trust and understanding. The first four lines reveal the poet’s love towards his lover that is constant and strong and will not change if there any alternation comes. Next four lines explain about his love which is not breakable or shaken by the storm and that love can guide others as an example of true love but that extent of love cannot be measured or calculated. The remaining lines of the third quatrain refer the natural love which can’t be affected by anything throughout the time (it can also mean to death). In the last couplet, if