Does the brutal truth in Shakespeare’s ‘Sonnet 130’ and Swift’s ‘A beautiful Young Nymph going to bed’, take away from the beauty of the two poems.
Beauty and aesthetics can be defined as “Nothing more nor less, than sensitivity to the sublime and the beautiful and an aversion to the ordinary and ugly”, this means that beauty can be absolutely anything which is beautiful as long as it is not ugly or ordinary, this may seem harsh, much like the poems by William Shakespeare and Jonathan Swift. In both poems; ‘Sonnet 130’ by William Shakespeare and ‘A beautiful young nymph going to bed’ by Jonathan Swift, aesthetic beauty is explored in a brutal and honest light. Shakespeare’s ‘Sonnet 130’ tells the story of a man describing his mistress
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It may seem romantic of Shakespeare to have kept his lover a secret, but we must remain aware that he did have a wife at home in Stratford upon Avon. The possible occupation of Shakespeare’s ‘Dark Lady’ gives a contextual link to Swift’s poem; ‘A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed’, as the role of prostitution is explored in this poem and there are suggestions that this was the role of the Dark Lady.
The purpose of satire is to show what is bad or weak about something or someone through humour and exaggeration. Jonathan Swift is known as ‘The Godfather of Satire’, Swift himself defined satire as; “satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s faces but their own’. Here, Swift explains how everyone who reads his satire will see how he is mocking everyone else, apart from themselves. The use of satire gives ‘A beautiful young nymph going to bed’ complexity when looking at the meaning, similarly to Sonnet 130, making it eligible for the canon of English Literature, as one of the requirements to be eligible is that the work has “…complexity…”. Swift published ‘A beautiful young nymph going to bed’ in 1734, the poem is satirical, and it satirise women’s artificiality; “Takes off her artificial hair” and their use of the male gaze. He wrote the poem in the 18th century, when around 63,000 prostitutes were working in London, a terrible time, as prostitutes became more popular and more common, sexually transmitted
A key part in everyone’s life eventually, beauty standards and their impact might appear in a person’s youth or later down the line in his or her life. If a gorgeous girl is not extremely quick-witted, people will say that she is in a favorable situation thanks to her looks due to the fact that they will get her ahead in her life. Pleasurable features could also play a valuable part in your career choices or options. These over the top beauty standards can cause a false hope in relationships and life. According to Amanda Mabillard in her analysis of Shakespeare’s “My Mistress’ Eyes are Nothing Like the Sun,” “The ordinary beauty and humanity of his lover are important to Shakespeare in this sonnet.” This tells of how the simplicity of his
Written in the form of a Shakespearean sonnet, one could hardly mistake it for anything so pleasant. Sonnets being traditionally used for beautiful, appealing topics, already there is contradiction between
After a complete analysis of “Beauty” by Tony Hoagland, there are multiple ways he succeeds in writing a meaningful poem. Each of the literary devices used played an important role in perfecting his poem. Hoagland did an excellent job at sending a message and his tone played an important role in making the message more sincere. Hoagland's use of imagery, figurative language, and personification made his poem more entertaining to read. Throughout this poem, Tony Hoagland shows that beauty, along with poetry, goes deeper than the
Satire is a form of literature in which an author tries to demonstrate his or her point of view by ridiculing. The author uses heavy irony and sarcasm in order to criticize a social issue. A perfect example of a work of satire is Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal. In this satirical essay, Jonathan Swift attacks on the issue of the Irish poverty in the 1700s. The essay sarcastically suggests that Ireland’s social and economic problems would be quickly solved by putting the children of impoverished Irish families on the food market. Through heavy exaggeration, Jonathan
As Swift offers his “Modest Proposal” we see how ridiculous it is to even fathom eating children but even worse making money off of it. But we still cannot characterize the essay as satirical because he has made no reference to change or exaggeration, the essential ingredients in determining if an essay is satirical. Swifts continues to employ Rogerian tactics to give the appearance of still being on the side of the English aristocracy.
Swift does this by proposing slaughter houses to be built and to have butchers be hired to slaughter the children. Swift continues by elaborates that the children are just like pigs and they should be roasted. Swift clearly knows that the proposal will reach the minds of many people because no one wants their children to be butchered like pigs. On line 16 and 17 paragraph five it says ‘prevent those voluntary Abortions, and that horrid practice of Women murdering their Bastard Children’ which he uses to catch the emotion of the readers. Swift uses a lot of irony in his proposal. In paragraph 6 line 19 to 20 ‘I calculate there may be about two hundred thousand couple whose wives are breeders’ this shows irony because he is insolating woman by pretty much calling them a child maker. Another example of irony would be in paragraph 6 line 23 ‘how this number shall be reared and provided for’ both examples Swift compares women to animals. The reason this makes a good argument for a satire is because Swift is dehumanizing human
When a writer decides to use satire in an essay, the author uses different components such as: humor, ridicule, irony, and sarcasm in order criticize and prove a point. Jonathan Swift uses sarcasm and harsh irony in order to criticize or disapprove social issues. Jonathan Swift is the author of “A Modest Proposal”; this is the perfect example where satire is used. In this essay, Jonathan Swift is unhappy with the current situation of the Irish who are going through hard times facing poverty and they are being exploited by the English. ”I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted,
Satire is the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity and vices; particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues. Jonathan Swift’s, “Modest Proposal”, is a satirical work piece that gives a sarcastic solution to the issues that Ireland was facing such as poverty and starvation in the 1700s. He gives a sequence of impractical and foolish solutions to the problems that include the severe treatment of children. The title of Swift’s work, "A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a burden to Their Parents, or Country, and For Making Them Beneficial to The Public”, gives the readers an idea on the strange bits of insights that the author
Humor is a literary tool that helps make the viewer laugh or have amusement. There will be two poems that was written by a man named named Shakespeare. I will be able to show humor in both of these poems which are; “Sonnet 130” and Midsummer’s Night Dream. My goal in this essay is to show the comparisons in humor between these two poems, while explaining identification and explanation of the author’s… choices on the audience imperative.
One may contend that Sexton rejects the appalling degradation of women as being witches, foul-fiends and tempting creatures in literature, too. She admits that men’s “dead body did not feel the spade and the sewer as [her] live body felt the fire” (92). Shakespeare depicts Joan, in Henry VI, as “a ‘troll,’ ‘witch,’ ‘strumpet,’ ‘foul fiend of France’ (qtd. in Sarawsat 90). Likewise, Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales represents the ‘wife of Bath Tale’ as bawdy. The protagonist Alison “still submits to the rule of patriarchal world”, she suffers because she is oppressed to the bone. She “struggles for respect in her own household”. That is why; she needs an inner upheaval to dispel any sense of dejection. She is
Beauty has been a word that people use to described objects, things and most important people. Beauty can be defined in so many ways. The play “Beauty” written by Jane Martin has more than just one meaning. The author uses beauty to be her main objective that makes almost every situation in the play revolve around “beauty.” Being that beauty is considered something almost all women want and it can lead to devastation when you get greedy and envious about it, as it did to both Carla and Bethany.
The word “beauty” can mean different things to different people depending on their experiences and opinions. In “Letter One” of Letters to a Young Poet and in the chapter “Solarium” from Black Swan Green, both authors discuss the concept of beauty. Firstly, in “Letter One”, author Rainer Maria Rilke gives advice to a young Franz Kappus about his poetry. The two form a special connection, and their correspondence lasts for six years. Moreover, in “Solarium”, writer David Mitchell describes an encounter between thirteen year old Jason Taylor and wealthy Madame Crommelynck about poetry as well.
Even though many of Swift’s readers see a harsh attack on women as one of his major poetic themes, both his poetry and prose strongly satirize the ill nature
During the Renaissance period, most poets were writing love poems about their lovers/mistresses. The poets of this time often compared love to high, unrealistic, and unattainable beauty. Shakespeare, in his sonnet 18, continues the tradition of his time by comparing the speakers' love/mistress to the summer time of the year. It is during this time of the year that the flowers and the nature that surround them are at there peak for beauty. The theme of the poem is to show the speakers true interpretation of beauty. Beauties worst enemy is time and although beauty might fade it can still live on through a person's memory or words of a poem. The speaker realizes that beauty, like the subject of the poem, will remain perfect not in the
William Shakespeare is recognized for being one of greatest poets of all time. His works are still popular to this day. Many of his works included extended metaphors and similes with rhetorical language and were rooted in the nature of love. Two of his poems that are rather alike, but also very contrastive are “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” and “My mistresses’ eyes are nothing like the sun.” They both contain a core theme of love or anti-love in some aspects. While these two poems are built around the same type of subject, their interpretations come across in separate ways. In contrast to Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 18” which is a serious love poem that contains imagery and metaphors, Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 130” is more negative and humorous but contains imagery and similes.