The Scorned Lover of Sir Philip Sidney's "Sonnet 31"

Sir Philip Sidney’s “Sonnet 31” paints the portrait of a lover scorned. Sidney examines the subject of unrequited love through the sonnet’s male persona, Astrophel. Rather than using a precise enumeration of the sequence of events that led to Astrophel’s painful rejection, Sidney instead leaves the reader to infer the condition of the speaker based on a scene in which Astrophel projects his sorrows onto the moon. Unable to accept the cruelties the “beauties” of his world perpetrate against those who love them and moreover unable to make his particular “beauty” reciprocate his feelings, Astrophel seeks to delineate his understanding of the injustices of unrequited love to an audience devoid of the capacity to either disagree with his assessment or further injure his already wounded pride.

The sonnet begins with Astrophel’s viewing the moon rise “with how sad steps.” The rejection Astrophel has suffered has altered his perception of the moon, leaving him to ponder if perhaps the moon’s “wan” appearance can be attributed to its own misfortunes in love, misfortunes brought about by a “busy archer”. Were Astrophel’s love not unrequited, he might describe the moon as a glowing white orb lending itself to the joy of a midnight stroll; given that his love is unrequited, however, the face of the moon presents itself not as beautiful and radiant but as wan, suggesting that its pallid color owes its explanation to illness and despair. Astrophel’s reference to the “busy archer” he holds accountable for arbitrarily influencing man’s emotions is undoubtedly a reference to Cupid, the god of love who, with his arrows, can inspire feelings of love and admiration so intense the person affected finds himself unable to act in his best interest, regar...

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...literally—be defined as a virtue in that it possesses the ability to bring about a desired result.

Sir Philip Sidney’s “Sonnet 31” might, at first glance, appear to be a man asking a series of questions to no real end. Closer examination, however, reveals that this is a work that delves deeply into its speaker’s—and perhaps the author’s—psyche, offering its readers as much insight into human nature today as it did when it was written in 1582. Astrophel, failing at effectively communicating to or winning the affection of his desired, seeks to better understand the circumstances of his existence. Perhaps too afraid to gaze into his own reflection and seek those answers from himself, Astrophel instead consults the moon, which promptly comes to embody the plight of the speaker and perhaps anyone who has gazed at the moon longingly searching for answers but finding none.