SONNET XXX In our class we have been discussing sonnet c xxx. Many of my classmates believe that Shakespeare was saying that, although this girl is ugly, he still loves her. While others claim that he was not making any statements about her looks, but instead being realistic. It is my view that he was making a point of claiming that his girlfriend was a regular person and not a mythological goddess. Most people have heard on television or in movies, some guy tell his girlfriend that she has eyes as deep as the ocean or lips as soft as velvet.
Although these all sound very romantic they are probably not true. In the first line of this sonnet, Shakespeare says ‘his mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun’. then he says that her lips are not as red as coral, and that her skin is not as white as snow. of coarse she doesn’t have white skin no person has truly white skin. So to assume that he was stating that she was then dark and pail lipped would be wrong.
One cannot claim, that since he says she is not one thing, that he must be implying she is the opposite. He goes on to say that perfume smells better than her breath. never says that In our class we have been discussing sonnet c xxx. Many of my classmates believe that Shakespeare was saying that, although this girl is ugly, he still loves her.
While others claim that he was not making any statements about her looks, but instead being realistic. It is my view that he was making a point of claiming that his girlfriend was a regular person and not a mythological goddess. Most people have heard on television or in movies, some guy tell his girlfriend that she has eyes as deep as the ocean or lips as soft as velvet. Although these all sound very romantic they are probably not true. In the first line of this sonnet, Shakespeare says ‘his mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun’.
The Essay on Sonnet 73 , William Shakespeare – Analysis
This is a traditional sonnet comprised of fourteen rhymed lines of ten syllables. Each line has five feet consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one, indicating the poem was written in iambic pentameter. The seven rhyming pairs are set out in the scheme introduced by Surrey; ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. The opening line is an example of enjambement. It is only by continuing to the ...
then he says that her lips are not as red as coral, and that her skin is not as white as snow. of coarse she doesn’t have white skin no person has truly white skin. So to assume that he was stating that she was then dark and pail lipped would be wrong. One cannot claim, that since he says she is not one thing, that he must be implying she is the opposite. He goes on to say that perfume smells better than her breath.
never says that she has bad breath. In Shakespeare’s time people would cover themselves in perfume to mask their body odder. Most people didn’t brush their teeth. So it seams obvious that to them perfume smelled better that any part of a person. He then says that music sounds better than her voice. This was probably true as well, unless she was an opera singer who’s every word sounded like an aria.
Some people will claim that he likened her breasts to excrement (dun).
I think that he was making an analogy. He was saying that her skin is closer to the color brown than to white. I think that Shakespeare was making a contention against the style of poetry of the time which was of the romantic movement, particular to the Elizabethan era. This sonnet and most of his other sonnets seem to be of the realist movement, which leans toward stating things as they are and not as they appear to be. In conclusion, I don’t see any evidence that he was saying that she was ugly.
I see that he was making a literary stand against what was popular at the time (and what is still popular in our culture).
It is a fallacy of reason to state that since an author says that something is not true, that the opposite must be true. It think that he was making point to keep his view of this girl in perspective.
The Essay on Looking Beyond “Black Skin, White Masks”
In recent years the world’s toleration for different cultures and races has increased, however in light of this, the issue of black and white has not faded. There is still a large division between both races due to the sentimental and resentful anguish that the past has brought. I recently read the essay “Black Skin, White Masks” by Franz Fanon, in which the author discusses psychological and ...
