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Representation of women in Shakespeare
Critical analysis of sonnet 130
Characterization of women in Shakespeare
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Although many people find flaws in others, there always comes a time where one seems to let go of these imperfections and replace the defects with love Sonnet 130 is a unique love poem in which William Shakespeare describes the women he claims to love, in many critical ways. Although the first twelve lines describe the women to be distasteful and vile, the last two lines create a shift in which Shakespeare explains that despite her unsavory ways, he still loves her. Shakespeare illustrates that there is not a perfect person in the world, but that one day everyone will be able to find someone who will look past their faults and love them the way they are. Shakespeare’s poem “Sonnet 130” describes that love is looking past the flaws of someone in which …show more content…
Renaissance readers would understand the way Shakespeare was describing this woman and why he was. He wasn’t they only who saw these women in such ways. Shakespeare is parodying the already hackneyed views of “beauty” as defined by society and the outlandish metaphors use to describe the beauty of the person, Shakespeare “ sonnet 130” is basically saying “look , my love is not perfect and her lips aren’t as red as roses and her eyes are not as blue as sapphires, but she is beautiful to me simply because I love her”(Educator Emeritus 2007).
He is slightly making fun of all the poem who use those incredibly unrealistic comparisons to declare the depth if their love. He truly has a sense of humor, and this is still so true today.
Everyone knows when a boy is mean to a girl he obviously likes her.
“Sonnet 130” is one of Shakespeare’s few simplicity and frank expression poems he’s ever written. This women is not as beautiful as things found in nature, however while
Shakespeare honesty may seem commendable he frequently. Her eyes, do not shine like the sun; nor are lips as red as coral, when compared to the whiteness of snow his beloveds breasts
The speaker never had the chance to experience her as a human and therefore, she’ll always be the perfect love that is unmarred by human flaw.
...ive more information into themselves than into their subjects, and it is presumed that Shakespeare is no exception. At the time he wrote this, Shakespeare clearly felt hopeless to love, which is evident in the themes of the play, the scenes that occur, and the motivations of his characters. His personal interpretation was that hate wins, but that isn’t always true in the real world. People all interpret the world differently, and while Shakespeare’s outlook was negative, not all view it so. Some people would argue that in real life love wins, showing the importance perspective can play, and the fact that the outlook often has more effect than the events themselves, and that interpretation is up to the individual.
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.
William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 130”, was published in the mid-1590, and published with the rest of Shakespeare’s sonnets in 1609. The sonnet has fourteen lines, and divided into three quatrains and one couplet at the end. The rhyme scheme is cross rhyme, with the last two lines being couplets that rhyme. The sonnet compares between nature and the poets’ lover or mistress. He shows a more realistic view of his lover. Needless to say his significant other wasn’t physically attractive, yet he loved her inside beauty. Today we may use the term, “It’s not all about looks, but what’s inside”.
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.
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.
Shakespeare and Petrarch, two poets popular for their contributions on the issue of love, both tackle the subject of their work through sonnet, yet there are key contrasts in their style, structure, and in the way, each approaches their subjects. Moreover, it is clear that 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). Shakespeare seems, by all accounts, to mock the exaggerated descriptions expanded throughout Petrarch’s piece by giving an English poem portraying the speaker’s love in terms that are characteristic of a flawed woman not a goddess. On the other hand, Petrarch's work is full of symbolism. In reviewing "Sonnet 292" from the Canzoniere, through “Introduction to Literature and Arts,” Petrarch’s utilization of resemblance and the romanticizing of Petrarch's female subject are normal for the Petrarchan work. The leading major contrast between the two poems is the piece structure utilized (McLaughlin).
Shakespeare’s sonnet 130 is a sonnet much different than the normal love sonnets of that time. A well-known re-occurring them in Shakespeare’s sonnets is love. Shakespeare’s sonnet 130 can be interpreted many different ways. Sonnet 130 describes what love is to Shakespeare by making the poem a joke in order to mock other poets. In sonnet 130, Shakespeare spoke of a courtly love. Shakespeare goes against the usual style of courtly love writing in this sonnet. “In comparison to Petrarch’s Sonnet 90 and Shakespeare’s own Sonnets 18 and 20, Sonnet 130 is a parody of courtly love, favoring a pastoral love that is austere in its declaration, yet deep-rooted in sincerity” (Dr. Tilla Slabbert 1). Sonnet 130 mocks the men who use the traditional
Steele, Felicia Jean. "Shakespeare's SONNET 130." Explicator 62.3 (2004): 132-137. Academic Search Complete. Web. 22 Nov. 2013.
The author talked about the poem, forms and devices, and themes and meanings. The author talks about the poem as a whole when he breaks down each line for better understanding. Furthermore he explains what the poet is saying so that it seems less offensive than what is shown. The second main idea the author use is forms and devices he uses line from the poem to tell how the poet felt his mistress was still beautiful even though she didn’t have traditional standards of beauty. Also the author tells how the poet feels the woman would be so caught up in her appearance that she wouldn’t see the beauty her beloved one sees. “Sonnet 130 provides logic instead of metaphor, objectivity instead of hyperbole” is what the author believed (Hale 3).
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.
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 depicts that of love still there, but tainted by age and reality. There we in music “A Rose is a Rose”, telling of a mother’s words of wisdom to her daughter where finding love, is not losing who she is; and “Black Bird”, about a love yet to fly due to being forbidden. Both show symbolic ways we can communicate over feelings or perceptions about society, love, and ourselves.
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
This description is not of lustrous beauty, but of the true love he felt for her. This statement and