My Mistress Eyes by William Shakespeare - Literature review Example

Poetic Representation of the body William Shakespeare “My mistress’ eyes” Introduction The poem begins with the comparison of the speaker’s mistress or lover to various beauties of the world contrary to the lover’s favor. “My mistress’ eyes” is one of the Shakespeare’s most celebrated poems due to its humorous aspect. It is a complicated joke among the collections of love poems ordinary to Shakespeare’s days, and it is written to preserve the joke’s humor to date. Among the Shakespeare’s sonnets, the “My mistress’ eyes” has number 130 (sonnet 130). It is enjoyable to read for its unfussiness and openness of expression. The sonnet is also one of the few Shakespeare's epics with a noticeably funny tone. Its message is easy: the dark woman's beauty cannot be contrasted to the prettiness of a goddess or within nature, for the mistress is but a mortal person. Shakespeare writes this sonnet to compare the human beauty with nature. The sonnet is written in unknown year, and in 1609 it was published. The targeted audience of the poem is married men since it discusses mistresses and lovers. Thesis Beauty is analyzed in regard to human perspective and judgment compared to natural resources and real existence of the character. This involves analysis of the poet’s representation of the body and comparison that contrasts the person to the natural resources. The analysis Shakespeare compares his mistress to various other beauties; however, the comparison does not favor the lover. The comparison of her eyes being “nothing like the sun” and “lips are less red more than coral;” gives the facial appearance of the mistress, though not exactly since exaggeration has been used. Her breasts are referred to as of dull colored, and hair is similar to black wires on her head; the breast is black (Shakespeare 1-4). Shakespeare uses the comparisons to bring out the lover’s beauty in a unique and natural manner. “My mistress’ eye” sonnet is enjoyable to read for its straightforwardness and openness of expression. Shakespeare uses humorous tone in this sonnet to make it look like a joke though describing the lover vividly. His message is very simple and to the point: the dark lady's attractiveness is not comparable to the beauty of a deity or to any existing nature, for she is but a mortal person. The comparison of the lady’s eyes and lips gives us the exaggerative concept of the narrator and compares beauty with nature. Yet, the narrator cherishes her regardless of anything, and in the final couplet says that indeed, she is just as unique as any woman depicted with such overstated or false contrasts (Shakespeare 1-2). The approach of Shakespeare may lead one to speculate, whether it is pure honesty that he is portraying in sonnet 130, or some concealed sentiment exists, maybe that the dark female is not worthy of his fine words or maybe she is worthy. Such utterances, however, are not fitting, as though he feels relaxed enough with the mistress that he is capable of showing such sincerity (Shakespeare 7). The metaphorical structure of Sonnet 130 is significant to its outcome. In the 1st stanza, Shakespeare spends one line on every assessment between his lover and natural or man made resources such as the sun, snow, coral, and wires. In this quatrain, he says he has seen roses estranged by color “damasked” into white and red, but he glimpses no such roses in his lover’s cheeks; further, he utters the breath “reeks” from his lover are less pleasant than perfume (Shakespeare 5-8). In these stanzas, Shakespeare compares the lover with worldly resources; however, still finds her immeasurable. The comparison and contrast of the dark lady gives her image and confirms the adoration of the poet towards her. In the subsequent and third stanzas, he broadens the metaphors to engage two lines each, that is perfume/breath, and music/voice, roses/cheeks, and goddess/mistress - each acquires a pair of unrhymed lines. This generates the consequence of a growing and developing argument, and carefully prevents the sonnet on relying on single aspects. Shakespeare compares the lady with the natural resources, agrees she is beyond that comparison and concludes by saying beauty of women is incomparable to sun, coral, wire or snow. In the third quatrain, Shakespeare confesses that, though he cherishes her tone, music “hath a far more pleasing sound (Shakespeare 9-11),” and that, although he has not seen a deity, his mistress is present in the world. In the couplet, however, Shakespeare declares that, “by heaven,” he believes his affection as unique and valuable “as any she contradicts with “false contrast” that is, any affection in which fake comparisons were created to illustrate the loved one’s loveliness. The sonnet is commonly regarded as a humorous caricature of the characteristic love sonnet. Petrarch, for instance, devoted many of his most renowned sonnets to a romanticize woman named Laura, whose attractiveness he often equated to that of a divine being. In stark disparity, Shakespeare makes no effort at deification of his lover; in fact, he avoids it absolutely, as portrayed in lines 11-12: where he confesses not having seen a goddess; and her mistress exists and walks on the ground. Shakespeare explicitly states that his lover is not a deity. He also contrasts her beauty with things found in nature, another emblematic source of motivation for the regular sonneteer. It is certainly this dull but charming genuineness that has prepared sonnet 130 as one of the most renowned in the series. However, while Shakespeare’s honesty in “My mistress’ eye” may appear praiseworthy, it is recorded that Shakespeare himself is an expert of praise and often makes use of the similar sorts of overstated comparisons satirized in this sonnet (Shakespeare). The comparison gives the analysis a chance to evaluate the work with the thesis and concludes that the sonnet compares the beauty of the lady and nature. Shakespeare uses the association in satire and humorously maintains the message within the poems. In real existence, the lady does not fit the comparison being given by Shakespeare, though comparison mirrors the described images. There are a lot of modes to understand how the poet's emotional condition may have influenced stylistic options in his work; however, this sonnet does not offer definitive proof. In many approaches, Shakespeare’s sonnets undermine and overturn the conventions of the Petrarchan affection sequence: the romanticizing love poetry, for example, are written, not to an ideal lady but to a confessed imperfect gentleman, and affection poems to the dark lady are nothing but idealizing (Shakespeare). Sonnet 130 mocks the characteristic Petrarchan similes by giving a speaker who appears to take them at face worth, and rather bemusedly, make a decision to convey the truth. In the fourth stanza, then, Shakespeare shows his full purpose, which is to be adamant that love does not require these lies in order to be genuine; and ladies do not require appearing like the sun or flowers in order to be gorgeous. The comparison of the lady with the natural resources gives the sonnet the perception of coexistence between the human beings and their environment. The environment mirrors life of Shakespeare, and he gets the concept of comparison. Humorously comparing his mistress to the sun, coral, snow and wire, the author gives contrast in general idea but sets the resemblance in day to day existence of the dark lady. Work cited Shakespeare, William. Shakespeare’s Sonnets; Ed. Stephen Booth, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977. Read More