Krystienne Delarosa
Ryan Wander
ENL 3
January 16, 2015
Sonnet 130 Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 130” uses imagery to compare his lover to other objects in order to convey his true feelings towards his mistress. With this idea, one can make the assumption that Shakespeare’s argument is accepting the normality of women by understanding that they don’t all look like supermodels or goddesses. His views about his mistress can relate to how present day men look at their significant other. Shakespeare’s view towards women shifts between his sonnets. Comparing to “Sonnet 18”, it seems as if Shakespeare has gained a more respect towards his counterpart and with this change in view, it is interesting to see this change and how even though with his time period, that some men looked at women with respect and acceptance. Comparing to today’s world, Shakespeare has thought of ideas that some men still have to grasp about women’s beauty. Today, some men still think that women need to live up to certain values and they have to look a certain way in order to be loved. This does not apply to everyone, but there are still the few men that think they have a power to throw upon these ideas into society, making many girls self-conscious, feeling unappreciative, or even like they will never be good enough. Upon first glance in the sonnet, it appears that Shakespeare is one of these men, but upon finishing the sonnet, it isn’t the case. This sonnet is ironic because Shakespeare spends the whole
Current stereotypes and of Shakespeare’s time are similar in manifold ways. These stereotypes thrust upon girls at such a young age can cause them to compare themselves to one another. One might want the other’s nose, while one might want to be shorter like the other. When I was younger, I just wanted to be thinner. To look like those girls on the magazine covers I what I desired, which is an unattainable goal in my everyday life. Just like how these girls, and even myself, compare themselves to each other, Shakespeare compares his lover to the ideal woman of his own time. Stating another way that his lover varies from the ideals of the time, Shakespeare compares her hair to those of others lovers when he states the following: “If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.” In the public today, women want long, silky hair. Over the years, it seems that society believes that blonde hair is more attractive, and women with blonde hair have bounteous amounts of fun and act more impromptu. I, on the other hand, have shorter, dark brunette hair, but this does not mean I cannot have fun or be just as attractive as a “bombshell blonde.”
Many men compare try to make their mistress feel special like they are no other by comparing them to false comparisons. The speaker was not afraid to be blunt about his mistress instead of how other men use false comparison and fill their mistress head up. William Shakespeare gives the speaker a blunt tone in Sonnet 130 to convey that he was not bragging on his wife saying she is all this and that. He said things that others compare their mistress to. That is what make his love for his mistress unconditional and very special.
The theme for honour and fidelity apply for both men and women in Shakespeare’s play ‘much ado about nothing’. Honour and fidelity is represented very differently for men and women as it would have been for the people in Elizabethan times. In this first section of the essay, I will be exploring double standards and Shakespeare’s awareness of the double standards between sexes and his feminist approach, the differences of honour and fidelity for men and women and upper class and lower class comparisons.
Not just does this represent the inferiority of women to men, it likewise expresses that ladies are seen as a commodity to be given, transported and purchased. Moreover, it highlights the characterisation of Desdemona and how submissive she is. This accentuates that Shakespeare was a man who saw ladies simply the same as a man. His emphasis on gender equality permits viewers to get a look at how ladies are dealt within society and how men ought to treat ladies. He underscores that gender equality should be valued in society.
Imagine living 400 hundred years ago and you were thought less of a man. Man that would be hard for us 20th century girls! During the time of Shakespeare women were be seen as the weaker sex. They had little control over there destinations and always depended on males. Men on the other hand were seen as tough beings and expected to take care of everything. Shakespeare's prove these gender roles wrong throughout his writings. One of his writings is Macbeth. All through this play women were looked as fragile and insulted each other not being manly enough. Over all Shakespeare saw women as extremely powerful beings even if society neglected them. He act knowledge them throughout his work and proved they were not always scapegoats or the tools
Everyone's perception of beauty differs, but all women are beautiful in their own way. We as a society have set a standard for women that is not only unattainable but also leaves women who take these standards seriously, feeling inadequate or invalid. This has been an issue in society for many centuries and even a topic famous writers like William Shakespeare have acknowledged. In his Sonnet 130, Shakespeare gives examples of the preposterous comparisons women have been subjected to and how the love he has for his mistress can overshadow these imperfections. Shakespeare uses a judgemental tone and contrasting word choice to suggest that even though this woman is by all means flawed, he still has feelings for her.
Although Shakespeare’s writing is not solely a dialogue on women’s studies, it does nonetheless share and consists of issues in women’s studies and gender ideology. Not only does Shakespeare reflect, he occasionally supports the English Renaissance stereotypes of men and women and the
An example that shows how most men thought if women in Shakespeare’s time is in Act 2, Mercutio begins to describe Rosalind’s body parts “quivering thigh/and the demesnes that there adjacent lie,” (1.21-22). When Mercutio is describes Rosalind he begins to objectify her as if she were not human like them. This is substantial evidence to Shakespeare’s view point because anybody who believes in women equality would not be describing a woman in this way.
Sonnets written in Elizabethan England were usually after Petrarch’s works. Petrarch was a man who was in love with a girl name Laura de Noves. He wrote 366 poems about his love for this woman from the year 1327 all the way until 1368. His works were very stereotypical love poems that included lines like, “She ruled in beauty o'er this heart of mine, / A noble lady in a humble home, / And now her time for heavenly bliss has come, / Tis I am mortal proved, and she divine.” Petrarch wrote in such a way to charm a woman, as did many other writers of his time. However, there is one writer who took a different approach when writing about the woman he admired. This man considered on the greatest writers in the English language; William Shakespeare's “Sonnet 130” is a reverse portrayal of Petrarch’s ideas of a love sonnet and what it should be.
William Shakespeare wrote several of his most famous plays during the Elizabethan Era. During this period of time, the men are seen as the dominant gender while on the other hand, the women are seen as weak and inferior. In this Era, a woman’s role is to obey orders and serve their superior without any hesitations, they depend on the men completely and they would have no will or choice of their own. During the late fifteen hundreds to the early sixteen hundreds, this behavior is completely acceptable in numerous areas and is seen as the proper way of living. In his work, Shakespeare depicts the reality of what the women would deal with during the Elizabethan Era and how men would act in order to get exactly what they want. A closer examination of several details
Imagine a world where women were completely subservient to men. Imagine what it would be like to live in a society where women were home-schooled, and not allowed to attend any type of university. What would today’s society be like if women lawyers, doctors, actors, and military soldiers were nonexistent? It would be a modern day version of the Elizabethan era in England. This was a time period where women had little rights, but the dramatic arts flourished due to Queen Elizabeth’s appreciation for them. It was during this time period that literary genius William Shakespeare wrote his many plays including The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. Living in this time period caused him to look at women in a somewhat submissive way and portray them as
Shakespeare's time is considered a more conservative time era than what it is today. During Shakespeare's era women were greatly respected for being chaste which is considered honorable to their families. Not like today world that being honorable is barely even noticed especially for a pure hearted woman. If honor wasn't brought
Due to this patriarchal society prevalent in Elizabethan literature, women were often seen as dangerous. While the Twelfth Night is more obvious, “Sonnet 130” is more subtle about the dangerous woman. By describing his mistress as defying all of society’s beauty standards, the speaker’s mistress is leading to the downfall of male control. Historically, women have gone to great lengths to meet a beauty standard which men helped create and enforce since they have to meet male standards in order to find a partner. Due to this, the speaker in “Sonnet 130” is describing his mistress as breaking out of the standard which many men interpret as heresy since she is not putting forth an effort to conform to what men say is beautiful. Since she is unique, the speaker loves her for that and this idea that men can love someone for not conforming is something that would have been frowned upon in the late 1500’s to early 1600’s. Likewise, the Twelfth Night uses Viola to warn about the dangers of women. Since Viola was impersonating a man, she deceived everyone in Illyria and from there, she used her position to manipulate people like Olivia and Orsino into doing what she wanted. Men would commonly interpret Viola as a dangerous woman because of that and also because she was stubborn and individualistic. These traits were not commonly accepted among women in the 15-1600’s though they became more prevalent during the enlightenment when women were gaining political power. Viola was created to
Throughout the Elizabethan era the roles of women in society were very limited. Men were considered superior and women were considered inferior and significantly dependent on the male figures in their life. In today’s society women have come a long way and have even surpassed their male counterparts in the process. Women are no longer considered property or expected to maintain the household and bear children. For women to have a career at all in the Elizabethan era was unheard of. Meanwhile, today women hold some of the highest positions in government, run their own companies, and can pretty much do anything they set their minds to. A majority of the plays and stories written in this time period portray the female characters as weak and, at times, deceitful. One of the world’s most renown writers, William Shakespeare, expresses these stereotypes through his play “Hamlet.” Shakespeare incorporates misogyny within this play to show the way women were viewed in his time and how women helped drive the madness of many of his characters including Hamlet. The cynical opinion Hamlet develops towards the women around him is similar to the one King Shahzaman has in “The Thousand and One Nights.” In this story, the King is betrayed by his wife and seeks solace in the despair of others. The actions of these two men give us insight to the way women were regarded in that era. William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” and “The Thousand and One Nights” illustrate the
Shakespeare and the members of the Elizabethan era would be appalled at the freedoms women experience today. The docility of Elizabethan women is almost a forgotten way of life. What we see throughout Shakespeare’s plays is an insight into the female character as perceived by Elizabethan culture. Shakespeare’s female characters reflect the Elizabethan era’s image of women; they were to be virtuous and obedient and those that were not were portrayed as undesirable and even evil.