Analysis of sonnet 130

One hundred and thirtieth sonnet of William Shakespeare, included in the thematic group of sonnets devoted to the dark sweetheart a woman with dark hair and eyes.

Representatives of the autobiographical theory of the creation of the sonnets (Gervinus, Ulrici, Swinburn, Furnival, Dowden and others) saw in the last court lady of Queen Elizabeth I, lady Mary Fitton, whose treason, according to them, painted in dark colors all the works of Shakespeare from 1600 to 1609. Researchers who adhere to the literary point of view the formation of the sonnets (Knight, Staunton, Dyce, Delius), indicate that young lady was bright blonde, and the only prototype of "dark lover" can serve as a collective image of women a number of French and Italian before Shakespeare.

One hundred thirtieth sonnet is a literary parody of the classic love sonnets of Petrarch times (the first time this view was expressed by N. Storozhenko in 1902), in which direct compliments glorified beauty lovers to "put" them to bed (this reference we find in "Sonata key" - the couplet, the final product: "belied" - "slandered" and "laid"). Shakespeare borrows metaphorical images predecessors, but uses them in order to emphasize the earthly nature of the woman he believes is not worse than those "who glory in comparisons of lies" (A. Finkel).

Lyrical mistress "mistress" (mistress) becomes love ("my love") only to the finale. In the sonnets preceding Shakespeare, everything is exactly the opposite the beginning of the seduction compliments, then bodily possession of the beloved.

Modern translations of the one hundred and thirtieth sonnet on the Russian language, to reproduce it in the form of a lyric. Parody is the essence of the sonnet can be seen only with interlinear translation from the original language. The woman described by Shakespeare, is:

  • eyes that are quite similar to the sun;
  • pink lips after the color of red corals;
  • brown Breasts, which in the time of Elizabeth I had to be whiter than snow;
  • hair as black wires;
  • cheeks, not blooming roses;
  • smell, inferior in pleasantness to a number of other smells, pleasing lyrical hero is much more;
  • the heavy tread that it is difficult to compare with easy step goddesses.

The above comparison might seem to be disadvantages if they seamlessly flowed in two undeniable advantages, unrelated to the woman:

  • desire lyrical listen as tells his beloved, born of his own feelings for her;
  • nothing inexplicable love, what it should be, according to Shakespeare.

All that matters to the lyric hero in beloved, it is that craving which he feels to her. The passion of the character makes him not only love, but also anger at the impossibility of overcoming their desire. Negative feelings give the sonnet an additional parody of hue, built on a play on words and the intonation expressed more than in the classical reading from the page: for example, the sound of "dun" ("brown", "dirty grey") in the third line with "du?" ("a prison cell, covered with manure") can be felt only when the auditory perception of the text.

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