William Shakespeare Diction Analysis

In an article about deciding on diction, the author wrote, “For writer's, diction is always purposeful, always a costume donned for one effect or another. In each new work, it proclaims the narrator's intended personality and point of view. It spins characters out of thin air, shades everything that is spoken, leads readers between the lines, sets the mood of the performance and shapes emotional responses to it” (Plotnik). This is a very good explanation on how Shakespeare not only picked his wording for this sonnet, but also all of his other famous writings. Word choice is essential to making a poem come to life, and Shakespeare was a master at it. Shakespearean itself, has become a special language of its’ own. It has classes dedicated to deciphering exactly

Another great use of diction to support the theme is when Shakespeare wrote, “Me from myself thy cruel eye hath taken,/ And my next self thou harder hast engrossed”. What he is saying, is that his mistress has taken him from himself . The word choice, and the placement of the “me” from the “myself”, really emphasises how trapped the speaker is. Shakespeare also emphasises in those lines, that it is notjust the speaker that is trapped. He writes that his best friend (he calls it his second self) is trapped by the mistress even more than he is. They are both under the control of this women because of how much they love and desire her. Words like “forsaken”, “perforce”, and “prison” also bring out the theme of the trappings of love and desire. They are harsh words, having a heavy negative connotation, and they bring out the desperation the speaker had for wanting to get over the woman, even though he can not. As Shakespeare has prove., word choice can make a poem so powerful. The theme of “Sonnet 133” would have never been as compelling if Shakespeare would have chosen different words and placement for