Preview

My Mistresses Eyes Are Nothing Like The Sun Figurative Language

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
699 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
My Mistresses Eyes Are Nothing Like The Sun Figurative Language
“My mistresses eyes are nothing like the sun” sonnet analysis, by William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare is a legendary and controversial historical figure and he became widely known not only in Great Britain but also in whole Europe thankfully to his plays and intimate sonnets. Generally, he wrote approximately one hundred and fifty-four sonnets that were found and mentioned originally, however exactly the one hundred and thirtieth is one of the most alluring and absorbing. The ideals of beauty have transformed throughout the different epochs and the establishment of specific norms and understandings of women’s beauty during Shakespeare’s times were no different. However, the famous poet in his sonnet dedicated to his uncomely mistress refuted
…show more content…
While reviewing the description of the mistress, the reader can notice a negative overtone, throughout the whole sonnet. Shakespeare states that her eyes cannot be compared to the sun and coral truly is redder than her lips. This way he breaks the illusions of being delighted by her unbelievable beauty. With dark hair and her skin rather brown than white, she is the absolute antipode of the exaggerated allure of the women described in poems. However, he uses figurative language to describe his lady as not a flawless and perfect goddess, that he states he had never seen, but rather as an earthly woman, that is pleasant and lovely by her personal, unique charm. When Shakespeare wrote that he enjoyed hearing his mistress speak, but: “Yet I know that music hath a far more pleasing sound”, the readers could notice that the author is being realistic and to some extent is trying to break the traditional poetic stereotypes. Furthermore, a turning tone could be found at the end of the sonnet, when the author finishes it by the phrase: “ And yet, I think my love as rare, as any she belied with false compare”, at the same time stating that the dame of his heart is still magnificent into comparison with other misrepresented muses sublimed by other

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    At the surface, Shakespeare uses juxtaposition to compare two contrasting images of women. He uses juxtaposition in either every couplet or individual line. Shakespeare contrasts the qualities of the ideal woman and the qualities of the woman whom he fancies. He starts the poem by saying: “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” (1). The poem kicks off by completely degrading part of the Mistress’s appearance by saying she looks nothing like what would be an idea look. Shakespeare compares how her lips are not the desired ideal shade of red, like coral (2). When fair hair is considered attractive, he ridicules her for having hair that is thick “like wires” and black (4). The poem follows up with a comparison of how her breasts are not white as snow, but rather “dun” or of a grayish color (3). At this place, he compares her to what could be the purest white, only to degrade her. A person during this time period would be found more attractive, by how paler his or her skin was. This emphasizes why he compares her breasts to the symbolic color of snow white, often considered…

    • 1786 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    * Marvin Hunt, “Be Dark But Not Too Dark: Shakespeare’s Dark Lady as a Sign of Color,” in Shakespeare’s Sonnets: Critical Essays, ed…

    • 4830 Words
    • 20 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    By looking at Shakespeare’s similes and the descriptions of the mistress, we can see that the beauty standards of the time are haunting the mistress and giving her a corpse-like appearance. Shakespeare’s sonnet consists of similes used to describe the mistress in unpleasant ways in order to show how different she is from the typical woman one would see during the Elizabethan Age: “If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun / […] / I have seen roses damasked red and white, / But no such roses see I in her cheeks;” (3, 5-6). These similes serve a dual purpose of painting a picture that this woman has haunting or corpse-like features; the mistress is characterized as having a “dun” skin tone, which is a dingy gray color that is commonly…

    • 366 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Shakespeare’s sonnet, My Mistress’ Eyes, explores the common and oft-heard comparisons created concerning one’s love to the material objects of beauty, and considers the value within such correlations. As the essay explores these associations, it ultimately comes to the conclusion that such comparisons can not properly depict the love that is present towards a close other.…

    • 875 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The poet and playwright synonymous with poetry and romance, William Shakespeare “often portray[ed] with some approval an idealism that is not too saintly to compromise itself,” as Klause describes in his article (Klause 310). In his sonnets, Shakespeare, or the narrator in the sonnets, wrote of a partner that he loved, his beloved. More specifically, in sonnet 130, Shakespeare described how his partner, his mistress, is perfect in every way for him. With every description of how his mistress’s eyes “are nothing like the sun,” to make them seem as if they were not as bright, actually portrays both the mistress and the partner (the narrator) an as ideal. The narrator is seen as an ideal for praising their mistress in such a high regard that can be seen through the couplet, the final two lines of the sonnet, as his love described “rare” and the other woman he compared his mistress to were all of “false compare” because his mistress is perfect in his eyes (Damrosch 1088). In the same way, the mistress is seen as more ideal when compared to conventional ‘ideal woman’ that the narrator refers to throughout the sonnet. It is when she is compared to these other standards of beauty that the narrator emphasizes not only the mistress’s uniqueness in terms of beauty. She is a woman with lips not as red as any other woman and dull eyes however she remains loved by the…

    • 1619 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “Sonnet 130: My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun,” William Shakespeare uses the literary devices of imagery and figurative language to show that people should be judged based on who they are, not on their looks or what society says one should be like. To begin with, the text states, “If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.” (I.iv) The author uses figurative language to show how his mistress’ hair looks like. He compares her hair to wires which aren’t typically compared to hair. It shows how he thinks her hair isn’t that pleasing to look at. This connects to the theme because he’s judging her on her looks and says that her hair isn’t appealing, but in the end he still loves her despite that. In addition, the author says, “And…

    • 349 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Elizabethan period in which William Shakespeare wrote was a time of cultural renaissance in England. Sonnets were written for the entertainment of the court, and often expressed highly artificial representations of love. Elizabeth I popularised the convention of courtly love by positioning herself as the Virgin Queen, a goddess to be worshipped from afar. The discourse of masculinity positioned the man as the hunter in pursuit of the unattainable. Women were idealised as physical objects of beauty, virtue and perfection. It was part of the tradition of courtly love to declare through exaggerated and effusive poetry that one’s beloved had virtually no human qualities. All her qualities were divine. Poets privileged the physical and the aesthetic in representations of romantic love, and thereby failed to recognise the mind and intellect of the woman. In this environment, Shakespeare wrote ‘Sonnet 130’ to directly contest courtly love.…

    • 1487 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    "Sonnet 130" compares William Shakespeare’s mistress to typical, natural beauty; each time drawing attention to his mistress’ obvious imperfections. He addresses her as if she cannot compare to the ideal appearances women are expected to look like in that of the natural world. The comparisons Shakespeare addresses highlight aspects of nature, such as snow (3)or coral (2) yet; each comparison proves to be unflatteringly about his mistress. However, in the final rhyming couplet, Shakespeare claims his love for his mistress by professing; that even though his mistresses has a great deal of flaws, he accepts them and loves her as much as any man could love a woman. In Shakespeare's, "Sonnet 130" he illustrates a true depiction of his mistress by emphasizing her flaws instead of her beauties, which provides emphasis on his sincere adoration and unconditional love for her through the line, "And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare" (13).…

    • 918 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Shakespeare's sonnet leaves the reader pondering, "What is beauty?" It can be assumed by the reader that the mistress is ugly, but the speaker never says that she is ugly. He only shows that she is different. The speaker deems his mistress worthy of comparison with these great things in nature. The comparison alone does not say how the reader feels about the things he compares his mistress to. In the end the speaker expresses his love for his mistress. He does not say that he…

    • 363 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    A sonnet is a poem of fourteen lines that rhyme in a particular pattern. William Shakespeare’s sonnets were the only non-dramatic poetry that he wrote. Shakespeare used sonnets within some of his plays, but his sonnets are best known as a series of one hundred and fifty-four poems. The series of one hundred and fifty-four poems tell a story about a young aristocrat and a mysterious mistress. Many people have analyzed and contemplated about the significance of these “lovers”. After analysis of the content of both the “young man” sonnets and the “dark lady sonnets”, it is clear that the poet, Shakespeare, has a great love for the young man and only lusts after his mistress.…

    • 1528 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    An Analysis of Sonnet 130

    • 538 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Final Couplet: In Sonnet 130, the persona describes the woman with unflattering terms such as “black wires grow on her head” and “in the breath from that my mistress reeks”. However, even though he points out her numerous flaws he still declares his love for her, suggesting that he embraces all her traits and characteristics and loves her nonetheless. This is further exemplified in the final couplet of the poem, “And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare; as any she belied with false compare.” This sudden contrast, despite being contradictory to the previous lines of the poem, is significant in showing that regardless of her flaws he is still wholly in love with her. Throughout the poem, the persona compares his mistress to that of an imaginary, perfect woman. However, in the last lines we see that the persona chooses the real woman with all her imperfections over the “goddess” he has never seen.…

    • 538 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    ‘Sonnet 130’ is a pre 1914 poem, by William Shakespeare, about love although it is not a traditional love poem. The poem is not a flattering poem but is more insulting. The opening line of Shakespeare 's Sonnet 130 is a simile "My mistress ' eyes are nothing like the sun". Unlike other poets who may exaggerate on describing the one they love, Shakespeare tells it as it is. Shakespeare continues to describe his mistress in terms of the senses of sight, smell, sound and touch. Shakespeare describes his mistress’ lips as “Coral is far more red than her lips’ red” This is giving the impression that lips of his mistress’ are a very pale colour. He continues to say "her breasts are dun" In Shakespeare’s time pale skin would have been more admiring, but his mistress’ is describing to have dun-coloured breasts, dun being a brown colour. His mistress’ is described as having wire like hair as he says "If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head" Shakespeare is saying that his mistress does not have soft, sleek hair. Shakespeare also picks up on the facial appearance of his mistress saying that in her cheeks she has no colour “No such roses see I in her cheeks” He also describes his mistress’ as in having bad breath “ Breath that from my mistress reeks”. In line nine he gives the first compliment “ I love to hear her speak” however then admitting follows he would rather listen to music “ That music hath a far more pleasing sound” In the last two lines of Sonnet 130 they end with a rhyming couplet. This is also a change in the content, Shakespeare says that in spite of all the bad things about his mistress that he does love her “I think my love as rare” and “As any she belied with false compare” Shakespeare is saying how appearance is not what matters when it is true love, but infact inner beauty. ‘My Last Duchess’ is also a pre 1914 poem, but is about a man who killed his wife or so…

    • 1543 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sonnet 130

    • 453 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Shakespeare is the speaker of this poem. It’s easy to see through the last few lines of the sonnet that he really loves this girl. It’s obvious that he can see through her non-attractiveness, but it’s also obvious that he does acknowledge the fact that she is very unattractive. In the first twelve lines of the sonnet, he is describing her appearance, which would leave you to believe that he would have no interest in this girl. I think he went onto such detail just to show you that it doesn’t matter. Regardless of her appearance, his feelings for her are very strong.…

    • 453 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    William Shakespeare was a well known poet and play writer who lived from 1564-1616. In 1609, He wrote the poem, My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun, Sonnet 130. In the poem, Shakespeare describes the woman he loves, in a way that would seem not as complimentary as Petrarchan sonnets would have been. The Dark Lady, who is featured in this poem, is also featured in sonnets 127-154, but this time there is a twist. At first, Shakespeare sounds critical of his mistress, but in the last two lines of the poem, he talks about how he genuinely loves her. This poem can be taken the wrong way at first, but with a closer look at purpose, form, and content, the meaning of this poem becomes much clearer.…

    • 1338 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    sonnets

    • 544 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In Shakespeare’s sonnet number 130 it speaks highly different about another woman. His wife perhaps, “My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun” (Sparknotes.com, 2014) Sun being bright and golden also called light. Comparing his wife’s eyes looking nothing like the sun must mean she has no life with in her. Some people might say the eyes tell you everything about a person. If Shakespeare says her eyes looks nothing like the sun it must mean the opposite of like darkness, dull. “her breasts are grayish-brown” (Sparknotes.com, 2014) His mistress must have been really old to have breasts as grey as hers. She must have not taken good care of her body. Let herself go. Another reason why Shakespeare doesn’t find any interest in…

    • 544 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays