Comparing Sonnet 116 And Araby

Love, a concept that differs for everyone, is defined as a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person. In the two texts, “Sonnet 116” by William Shakespeare and “Araby” by James Joyce, imagery is prominent in the portrayal of love. From two ends of the spectrum of love, imagery helps distinguish the unattainable true love in “Sonnet 116” with the North Star, and Grim Reaper from the one-sided love and disillusionment the protagonist has for Manga’s sister in “Araby” with imagery of light and darkness.

In the two texts, the imagery of light, whether in the form of a star or actual light represents the unattainable yet true love while the complete opposite of light, darkness, represents the hopelessness and loneliness that love

The “ever-fixed mark” in the poem, is an image of a lighthouse that “shows the right way to returning sailor” (Aquilina 84). However, the closer a boat is to the lighthouse, the less useful the lighthouse can be. In addition, the “star” that guides is an image of the North Star since it’s the only star that never changes position in the night sky. Similarly, the North Star can also has its celestial navigation to guide in direction, only “if it remains at a distance, unreachable” (Aquilina 84). The imagery of a lighthouse and the North Star is significant in relation to love because for the speaker, the type of love that is constant can only be seen at a distance, a true love that is unattainable in reality. The kind of type in the poem is a love that will stay constant and never change through time and distance through the help of imagery of the lighthouse and North Star. However, even the North Star that seem unreachable can seem fragile in the

A symbol of death, the Grim Reaper appears with “his bending sickle’s compass” (Shakespeare 10) in “Sonnet 116” indicating the continuous love will only end with the appearance of death itself. Despite the long time, with the image of the Grim Reaper, it portrays that love will “bear it out even to the edge of doom” (Shakespeare 12) and love will still exist even if the “rosy lips and cheeks” (Shakespeare 8) fade overtime. The imagery of the “rosy lips and cheek” allows reader to imagine a couple getting old together, their skins fading and despite all that, the couple is still together and in love because “love is not time’s fool” (Shakespeare 8). In the poem, through the images, time and love seems limitless, however in “Araby”, the usage of other images depicts the limit of time due to uncertainty of love. The protagonist at the end of the story is seen “gazing up into the darkness”, “[his] eyes [burning] with anguish and anger” (Joyce 58). The imagery of the protagonist gazing up into the darkness as if he is already consumed by darkness just because he fails to fulfill the one promise he made to Mangan’s sister is significant because it represents how reliant he is on the promise and how quickly he is to give up. Time seems to be limitless in the beginning for the protagonist especially since he follows her “morning after morning” (Joyce 54) until they go