Love in Deception
William Shakespeare’s sonnet 138, is centered on the poet and his compelling love for his mistress. It is a love poem where the reader is offered a bewildering viewpoint. Stylistic rhetorical tools are used to its advantages serving as a framework for describing the poems emotionally enthralling love story. Sonnet 138 emphasizes the artificial affection and faith between the poet and his mistress, who both equally approve that their relationship is based on deception. Both the poet, and his supposed mistress, decide never to reveal the reality about how their relationship is on terms of unspoken truths. Though the majority of the poem is about the constraints of the poet and his mistress’s outlandish relationship, it also
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Throughout the sonnet, the connotations of the word “truth” manipulate the perceptions of the relationship. In the first quatrain, the poet’s love “swears that she is made of truth,” (1). Immediately, the reader speculates upon the meaning of truth. It could mean that the narrator's love swears she is honest with him or the word “truth” can also be seen to suggest fidelity. Through the second quatrain, the poet exaggerates upon “truth” (fidelity) in the relationship through two other connotations of the word. The narrator suggests that the woman’s affectionate external affairs are truths, and the narrator's hidden knowledge of this fact is another truth. Through the three truths, a paradox is created: “simple truth,” (8) is “suppressed,” (8) to preserve the truth of fidelity. In the third quatrain, the narrator further solidifies the paradox by labeling …show more content…
When analyzing the sonnet further one can say that Shakespeare purposely personifies the speaker’s mentality as a woman to identify his own uneasiness towards old age. The speaker’s mentality can be referred to as a woman because women tend to be more self-conscious of their age: “And wherefore say not I that I am old?”(10).Within this statement the speaker can’t admit that he is old. That is why his mentality can be referred to the woman that he loves. The “woman” keeps his way of thinking young. He doesn’t consider himself to be old, even though he knows it. Personification in the poem reflects the mentality that women and men feel when they get to a certain age. This helps one understand and wonder if Shakespeare feared of getting
The poem’s structure as a sonnet allows the speaker’s feelings of distrust and heartache to gradually manifest themselves as the poem’s plot progresses. Each quatrain develops and intensifies the speaker’s misery, giving the reader a deeper insight into his convoluted emotions. In the first quatrain, the speaker advises his former partner to not be surprised when she “see[s] him holding [his] louring head so low” (2). His refusal to look at her not only highlights his unhappiness but also establishes the gloomy tone of the poem. The speaker then uses the second and third quatrains to justify his remoteness; he explains how he feels betrayed by her and reveals how his distrust has led him
Lastly, not only does the shift of pronouns emphasize the intimate setting, but it also creates the lingering feeling of a third party. The poem’s title and structure promote the initial tone of nonchalance in order to disguise the severity of the author’s adulterous
In sonnet 95, the speaker depicts a paternal feeling while speaking to the addressee, where indeed the poet reminds his audience about way appearance can be so deceiving. The young man is relying on his good appearance to veil his sexual immorality. Being that he is handsome and attractive, people are reluctant to disapprove his behavior. In the first quadrant, the poet employs different stylistic devices, which include simile, as the young man is likened to a fragrant rose, and on the other hand, he is compared to a destructive worm, but all his dark side of life is hidden under his good looking and charming nature. What is important about this poem is the manner in which the speaker reminds the young man about his bad behavior and draws examples that makes him feel sorry about what he does behind his good-looking nature. By the use of diction, imagery, diction, images, metaphors and other figures of speech, such as tone of voice, allusions, syntax and structure of the speech, the speaker warns the young man against his sexual immorality, and reminds him that there are detrimental risks associated with his behavior if he does not change.
The third and fourth stanzas offer the poems greatest paradoxes. The author speaks of the lovers being "At this unique distance from isolation" which is to say they are in the one place where they can truly be themselves, in their natural habitat, doing that which is only natural to human instinct. Despite these circumstances, however, the two are at a loss: "It becomes still more difficult to find / Words at once true and kind, / Or not untrue and not unkind." It is through this final stanza that the author conveys the ultimate paradox of human relationships: Relationships are not built upon true love for one another; rather they are built upon the absence of hatred.
Line 6 in the second quatrain is the thesis of the speaker’s second attempt to rationalize and shows yet another contradiction. The form of this line does not match with the rest of the sonnet in its iambic pentameter form. Shakespeare uses this particular form to set the line apart from the rest of the sonnet. The line’s emphasis is on the fact that the young man only desires the speaker’s lover because he knew the speaker loved her as well. This has a double meaning which may be why Shakespeare intended for it to stand out from the rest of the sonnet. First, the meaning could be just as it reads; this is most likely the true motivation the young man had to in seeking the lover in order to take her away from the speaker. Yet, the speaker attempts to excuse the young man’s behavior by giving a second meaning to the line saying in lines 7 and 8 that the betrayal was done for his own sake in order to test the lover’s faithfulness. This rationale is flawed here because in the event that the
This sonnet serves to invoke a strong sense of realism in love, arguing that as strong an intensity of emotion as may be held, may be held, without the need for delusions of grandeur, taking the view that trying to reconcile two essentially different and diverse things as equal is to do true justice to neither. The beloved in this case thus represents more the need for a character developed to challenge stereotype than an actual real-life woman,
People deceive their lovers quite often through the course of their relationship. They do this because, they think they are protecting their loved one, or that a little white lie will not impact their relationship. A study was conducted about humans and how often they deceive their lovers. This study was done by a psychologist named Bella DePaulo at the University of Virginia. DePaulo discovered, “dating couples lie to each other in about a third of their interactions—perhaps even more often than they deceive other people” (DePaulo, n.d.). Many humans crave the attention of someone and deceive them more often than any other person, because they are the person they want to satisfy the most. In “Sonnet 138”, William Shakespeare creates this
"Oh! What A Tangled Web We Weave When First We Practice To Deceive" -Sir Walter Scott. Shakespeare is one of the most celebrated authors in history, weaving deception throughout his writings. As he wrote about love, deception was seen over and over within his pieces. An example of Shakespeare’s work is from Sonnet 138, “O, love's best habit is in seeming trust.” This sonnet was based around a man and his mistress. The man knows that she lies about being faithful, but he also is aware that they do it in order to protect each other and their relationship. Later in Sonnet 157, the audience sees the outcome of the deception in Sonnet 138, as they are told that the man and his mistress are no longer. In the story of Romeo and Juliet, Romeo quotes, “O, how may I call this lightning? O my love! My wife! Death, that hath suck’d the honey
The situation presented in “Sonnet 13: My Mistress’ Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun”, written by William Shakespeare, is that a man has a mistress who he finds less attractive and uninteresting but who he loves. Shakespeare writes the poem about his dull mistress. This poem triggers realization through relatability. Once I really figured out what this line could mean, it clicked that there was no affair, but that in everything he described he really loves his mistress. The overall message of this poem is that, when someone doubts any type of relationship, they should realize that it will not benefit them in any way to continue it.
The majority of Elizabethan sonnets reflect two major themes: time and love. William Shakespeare, too, followed this convention, producing 154 sonnets, many of which deal with the usual theme of love. Because the concept of love is in itself so immense, Shakespeare found several ways to capture the essence of his passion. Therefore, in his poetry he explored various methods and used them to describe the emotions associated with his love for a mysterious "dark lady." These various ideas and views resulted in a series of sonnets that vibrantly depicts his feelings of true, undying love for his lady. Instead of making the topic less interesting, as some might expect, Shakespeare's myriad approaches
The title of the poem “My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun” suggests that the speaker is not in love with his ‘mistress’. However, this is not the case. Shakespeare uses figurative language by using criticizing hyperboles to mock the traditional love sonnet. Thus, showing not only that the ideal woman is not always a ‘goddess’, but mocking the way others write about love. Shakespeare proves that love can be written about and accomplished without the artificial and exuberant. The speaker’s tone is ironic, sarcastic, and comical turning the traditional conceit around using satire. The traditional iambic pentameter rhyming scheme of the sonnet makes the diction fall into place as relaxed, truthful, and with elegance in the easy flowing verse. In turn, making this sonnet one of parody and real love.
Shakespeare examines love in two different ways in Sonnets 116 and 130. In the first, love is treated in its most ideal form as an uncompromising force (indeed, as the greatest force in the universe); in the latter sonnet, Shakespeare treats love from a more practical aspect: it is viewed simply and realistically without ornament. Yet both sonnets are justifiable in and of themselves, for neither misrepresents love or speaks of it slightingly. Indeed, Shakespeare illustrates two qualities of love in the two sonnets: its potential and its objectivity. This paper will compare and contrast the two sonnets by Shakespeare and show how they represent two different attitudes to love.
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.
The Sonnet 18 “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day “ is around the most admired and prominent of the 154 poems of William Shakespeare . Most researchers concur that the true recipient of the lyric, the mate of pleasant toward oneself, whom the artist is composing, is a man, however the sonnet is generally used to portray a lady. In the piece, the pleasant toward oneself contrasts his adoration with a June through August, and contends that his affection is superior to summer (Kennedy & Gioia). He additionally states that your beau will live everlastingly through the expressions of the lyric. Researchers have discovered parallels between this poem and sonnets Tristia and Amores of Ovid . A few interpretations have uncovered
The poem opens by stating that his lover must behold him at the time of life corresponding to late autumn, when almost no leaves remain on the trees and the birds have flown south. The poet’s calling attention to his old age might seem incongruous, since many lovers might try to hide the fact from their companions. Yet, in this relationship, William Shakespeare not only is being forthright but also seems to be seeking the sympathy of his dear friend. (Lord 3569)