(Interesting hook) William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 138 depicts the relationship of a couple, who many believe to be Shakespeare and his mistress, a woman referred to as, The Black Lady. Throughout the sonnet the vast use of imagery causes the reader to imagine the sonnet as if it were a play where the characters are covered by a mask of lies. (Put a clever transition in here) Although Sonnet 138 depicts the speakers’ willingness to settle for false love and put on a mask, Sonnet 138 depicts a relationship that its very survival is based on this deceit. Sonnet 138 illustrates that through lies characters hide themselves, which illustrates the importance of being true to yourself and not giving into mediocrity, and deciding to put on a mask to be like everyone else, which compels an individual to put on a mask and be something they are not.
Shakespeare uses the tool of paronomasia, more commonly known as puns, throughout the Sonnet 138 to demonstrate the idea of duplicity, and if one carefully analyses these puns then the truth that hides behind the mask will be understood. Shakespeare uses the word “lie” as a pun to try to subtlety show the reader what really is going on between him and the Black Lady and to emphasis how comfortable they are with each other’s constant lies that it even seems like second nature. “Lie”, can mean to deceive or to lie down, which in this case means to lay down which most likely refers to sex ;therefore by using this pun the reader now knows that he knew she slept with other man. With this pun Shakespeare demonstrates how comfortable the male protagonist in this sonnet is with the Black Lady cheating on him, furthermore this perfectly sums up their relationship, one in which both individuals are conte...
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... line because like clothes mask cover you and in this case the mask that individuals wear is one of lies. Your hiding who you are really by wearing a mask essentially becoming another person. On line 12 if one looks at this line in more detail then one can see that this line refers to the theme saying that in this relationship they don’t want to be told the truth, just as the person does not want to be unmasked to truly see who they are, and it is the inability to remove tour mask that makes you mediocre. The masks the characters wear help them transform and forget about their faults and not deal with tings make you mediocre.
(Find a good way to transition to conclusion)
Conclusion:
Works Cited
"subtle, adj.". OED Online. June 2011. Oxford University Press. 12 September 2011 .
Behind a Mask is a book that demonstrates the power a woman possesses. During a time in which those who are not rich are considered mere human beings, Louisa May Alcott creates a character by the name of Jean Muir who surpasses the society she lives in. Muir is a woman who seeks to have a prestigious title that will give her the recognition she desires. As governess to the Coventry family Muir puts in play a plan to marry Sir John, the old uncle in the family, whose title she wants. In the process of getting sir John’s tittle Jean causes controversy in between the family which results as a positive thing for the family as a whole. While stepping over the boundaries set by her society, Muir takes a journey which she must face with intelligence and courage.
Behind a Mask is a book that demonstrates the power a woman possesses. During a time in which those who are not rich are considered mere human beings, Louisa May Alcott creates a character by the name of Jean Muir who surpasses the society she lives in. Muir is a woman who seeks to have a prestigious title that will give her the recognition she desires. As governess to the Coventry family Muir puts in play a plan to marry Sir John, the old uncle in the family, whose title she wants. In the process of getting sir John’s tittle Jean causes controversy in between the family which results as a positive thing for the family as a whole. While stepping over the boundaries set by her society, Muir takes a journey which she must face with intelligence and courage.
"Poetry is the revelation of a feeling that the poet believes to be interior and personal [but] which the reader recognizes as his own." (Salvatore Quasimodo). There is something about the human spirit that causes us to rejoice in shared experience. We can connect on a deep level with our fellow man when we believe that somehow someone else understands us as they relate their own joys and hardships; and perhaps nowhere better is this relationship expressed than in that of the poet and his reader. For the current assignment I had the privilege (and challenge) of writing an imitation of William Shakespeare’s "Sonnet 87". This poem touched a place in my heart because I have actually given this sonnet to someone before as it then communicated my thoughts and feelings far better than I could. For this reason, Sonnet 87 was an easy choice for this project, although not quite so easy an undertaking as I endeavored to match Shakespeare’s structure and bring out his themes through similar word choice.
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.
Everyone at some point in their lives lies even when they know that they should be telling the truth. Deception is a key element in William Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet are both deceptive to their parents when they do not tell them about their marriage. They then continue to lie, Juliet telling her parents she would marry Paris when she secretly arranged to fake her death and Romeo deceiving Friar Laurence by going back to Verona. All of the deceiving in the play leads to conflicts, which eventually ends in death of both Romeo and Juliet. By showing how Romeo and Juliet being deceptive to their parents and role models led to pain and conflict, Shakespeare shows that you should always be honest if you want to maintain
...e speaker admits she is worried and confused when she says, “The sonnet is the story of a woman’s struggle to make choices regarding love.” (14) Her mind is disturbed from the trials of love.
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
Sonnet 130 openly mocks the traditional love sonnets of the time. This is, perhaps, made most apparent through the use of subversive comparisons and exaggerated similes. The intention of a subversive comparison is to mimic a traditional comparison yet highlight the opposite purpose. Whereas his contemporaries would compare their love’s beauty to alabaster or pearls, Shakespeare notes, “If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun” (3), therefore intentionally downplaying the beauty of his mistress. Later he states, “...in some perfumes there is more delight / than in the breath that from my mistress reeks” (7-8). Both of these exemplify that Shakespeare ridicules the traditional love sonnet by employing the same imagery to convey opposite intentions.
There is a defining complication in the sonnet. “This centers on the ambiguity of the term “mistress” which could refer to a husband’s wife, or, as the Oxford English Dictionary suggests, could also mean “[a] woman loved and courted by a man; a female sweetheart” or “[a]woman other than his wife with whom a man has a long-lasting sexual relationship” (Gregory, 2). The poem does not specify if “my love” refers to the speaker’s mistress or to the speaker’s love, his feelings. Shakespeare could be implying that his feelings and his love, are equally as sacred as the supposed love of other lovers that his mistress wrongly compares him
In addition to revealing Hamlet's plot to catch the king in his guilt, this soliloquy uncovers the very essence of Hamlet's true conflict. Characters such as Polonius, Rosencrantz, and Claudius are all hiding behind a mask of fallacy. Yet they appear to others as exactly what they are not. Hamlet, in his soliloquy, coincides with the idea of appearance differentiating from what is actually the truth. Hamlet portrays himself to be something far worse than he really is.
Throughout Shakespeare’s Hamlet, deception is the most predominant theme recognized during the play. Characters within the play are notable for their use of deception of one another in order to achieve their own personal goals. The constant theme of appearance versus reality and deception is seen as a consequence of lying, manipulation and shown largely through the act of keeping secrets. In Shakespeare’s most distinguished work, he reveals the momentousness of deception, manipulation and dishonesty all for the sake of supremacy and revenge.
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”.
Even though both poems discuss the topics of law and love, Shakespeare approaches this connection differently than Auden. Shakespeare shows through his sonnet a relationship between himself and someone who he loved. The speaker battles through self-doubt and betrayal within the sonnet, giving off a darker side to his perception of love. Although the speaker feels betrayed, he demonstrates that there was an equal distribution of guilt: “All men make faults, and even I in this,/ Authórizing thy trespass with compare,/ Myself corrupting, salving thy amiss,/ Excusing these sins more than these sins are:/For to thy sensual fault I bring in sense—/ Thy adverse party is thy advocate—/ And 'gainst myself a lawful plea commence./ Such civil war is in my love and hate”( Shakespeare 5-12). Not only is the speaker blaming himself, but he is also blaming the other person in the relationship who betrays him. Shakespeare shows the audience that he is insecure, but assumes equal guilt because he has made the same sins as his lover. They are both responsible for the sins that they have committed together. Shakespeare explains this further by explaining that “no more be grieved at that which thou hast done./Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud;/ Clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun,/ And loathsome canker lives in sweetest
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.
The first line is “When, in disgrace with Fortune and men’s eyes.” The very first word shows that the condition which will be explored in the sonnet is a temporary thing. It comes and goes like a beggar or like an outcast. Shakespeare used the word “when” to put the reader into the time that will be referred to. It automatically calls to mind an occurrence, and it makes the reader continue into the piece, trying to find out what Shakespeare will make occur. The next words are “in disgrace with Fortune and men’s eyes.” It seems that Shakespeare’s persona is down on his luck. Fortune, noticeably, is capitalized. This makes it a proper noun, a name perhaps. Shakespeare, on the other hand, could be trying to show the reader that fortune is something important, something that has power and meaning. Continuing into the line, “men’s eyes” appears. Notice that it is men’s eyes, not women’s eyes or man’s eyes. The latter, man’s eyes, would make it seem as if the persona was in disgrace with all of mankind, yet Shakespeare specifically chose to have disgrace in “men’s eyes.” This sh...