Shakespeares Idea Between Time and Love Essays

Shakespeares Idea Between Time and Love Essays Shakespeares Idea Between Time and Love Essay Shakespeares Idea Between Time and Love Essay Thesis In Shakespeare’s sonnets, he discusses the conflicts that men have with time, such as time with human being’s body and time with the mind. Although time withers the body and eventually takes away the mind, however, Shakespeare writes that time cannot defeat love, especially when love is written by poems. I. Analysis of Sonnet 18 A. Interpretation of Sonnet 18 B. Discussion of the underlying meaning of time and love II. Analysis of Sonnet 19 A. Paraphrase of Sonnet 19 B. Denotation of the message of love with the comparison of Sonnet 18 III. Analysis of Sonnet 73 A. Summary of Sonnet 73 B. Discussion of the relationship between time and love of this sonnet IV. Analysis of Sonnet 116 A. Summary of Sonnet 116 B. Investigation of the connection of time and love with the comparison of Sonnet 18 V. Conclusion A. Restatement of the key points of the above sonnets B. conclusion Shakespeare’s idea about the relationship between time and love -with the analysis of Sonnet 18, Sonnet 19, Sonnet 73 and Sonnet 116 In Shakespeare’s sonnets, he discusses the conflicts that men have with time, such as time with human being’s body and time with the mind. Throughout his sonnets, especially Sonnet 18, Sonnet 19, Sonnet 73 and Sonnet 116, Shakespeare talks of love and time which expresses his ideas the powers of beauty, time, and love and how each interacts with the other. He examines the relationship between love and time. In several lines he leads the reader to believe that when written and recorded, love can be remembered throughout time. In Sonnet 18, Shakespeare raises a proposal- â€Å"Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? † at the beginning. Then he argues that â€Å"you† are more lovely and beautiful than a summer’s day. Although the wind blowing on the flower buds of May can be felt, still the summer just doesn’t last long enough for the sun dims and sometimes goes away by chance or simply by nature’s doing. After the word â€Å"but† in Line 9, the poem shifts to another statement- as long as â€Å"your† beauty is recorded by this sonnet, â€Å"your† beauty will live forever with the eternity of poetry. In this sonnet, Shakespeare argues that his love for his beloved, whether it’s for a â€Å"fair young man† or a beautiful lady, will never die for it is remained forever in his poem. So does his love. Thus, time cannot take the beauty and the love away. Sonnet 19, which is similar to Sonnet 18, also boasts of the speaker’s writing talent. In this sonnet, the speaker is addressing â€Å"Time† instead of addressing â€Å"You† in Sonnet 18. In the first quatrain, the speaker begins his direct engagement with Time in a battle of wills. He blames Time, saying go ahead and makes the lion’s paws dull and useless with age, let the tiger’s sharp teeth fall out, and let the phoenix die. In the second quatrain, the speaker challenges Time to create happy seasons and sad seasons as he hurries by. The speaker even encourages Time to go ahead and do whatever it wants to whole world. But the speaker forbids Time to touch one particular entity, and he says it with vehemence: â€Å"But I forbid thee one most heinous crime. † In the third quatrain, he commands Time not furrow the brow of his love: â€Å"O! carve not with thy hours my love’s fair brow. Nor draw no lines there with thine antique pen. † In the couplet, the speaker appears to do an about-face. He says, on the other hand, go ahead â€Å"old Time,† do your best to destroy this love, this talent of mine. And even though you try your hardest, â€Å"My love shall in my verse ever live young. † His love, which is in his art, is untouchable by time. Again, in this sonnet, Shakespeare restates his idea between time and love. Although time can take away people’s youth or fades everything, it cannot take away my love as long as it is written in my poem. Sonnet 73 is a poem that emphasizes the strength of love by describing his aging process by the use of three metaphors: a tree, a day and a fire. In the first quatrain, the speaker addresses a beloved, remarking that she may see that he is aging. He compares his body to a tree losing its leaves: â€Å"yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang. † His hair is thinning, and the few strands he has left are turning gray with age. The gray hair that once was brown is just like the yellow leaves that once were green. Even his poetry is becoming â€Å"are ruin’d choirs,† it used to be filled with beautiful expression akin to the songs of â€Å"sweet birds. † After comparing his aging to a tree in late autumn, he then compares the aging process to a day, and the time when the sun â€Å"fadeth in the west†, he is in the â€Å"twilight of that day†. He will not be able to rest after black night has stolen his life. In the third quatrain, the speaker again introduces a new metaphor: this time he compares his ebbing life to a fire that â€Å"on the ashes of his youth doth lie. † His youth once burned brightly, but now his flame is dwindling, and the very things that fed his youth’s flame are being consumed by the low-burning fire of old age. Nevertheless, his beloved still offers him love and that love is even stronger for they know there is not much time left so they have to cherish and love each other even more. In this sonnet, Shakespeare states that love can be much stronger despite the time. Even though the two lovers are growing old, their love for each other is never growing old. On the contrary, time even makes their love stronger and more beautiful. To Shakespeare, love is not only forgiving faults but also invincible in the face of any storm. Whether it is hostility in the marriage or the death of one of the individuals in the marriage, love will continue to persevere between the two involved. This can be best exemplified in Sonnet 116. In Sonnet 116, the first quatrain depicts true love as everlasting and how marriage is a bond that will keep two souls together and never apart. The second quatrain, talks about love as uncontrollable and it guides and goes through with us along our way in life. Love is described as boundless and something that cannot be contained. Furthermore the quatrain also states true love as an intense force that we cannot predict. Finally, the third quatrain describes the amount of time love lasts and that true love is not and cannot be affected by time: â€Å"Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks†. The couplet argues that if the vision of love that has been so accurately depicted is incorrect, â€Å"I never writ and no man ever loved†. Both Sonnet 116 and Sonnet 18 share the similar idea that true love is eternal. Sonnet 18’s main theme is the power of the speaker’s poem to defy time and his love lasts forever in poetry. Sonnet 116 presents the extreme ideal of romantic love; it never changes, it never fades, it survives death and admits no flaw. Another similarity is the structure of the two sonnets. Both of them state the main idea in the couplet. From the analysis of the above four sonnets, it can be told that Shakespeare thinks that love will not fade throughout time and it can live forever in the form of poetry. In Sonnet 18 and Sonnet 19, he states that his beloved’s beauty and his love can live in eternity in his poem. In Sonnet 73, he argues that love can be stronger throughout time. In Sonnet 116, Shakespeare states that love is invincible in the face of difficulty or even death. To sum up, Shakespeare’s idea between time and love is that though time withers the body and eventually takes away the mind, however, he thinks that time cannot defeat love, especially when love is written by poems.