What Does Sonnet 116 Mean In The Great Gatsby

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Every day, we hear the term ‘love’ in several different situations. So, what is love? According to Shakespeare, in sonnet 116 - The first quatrain describes love as an unchangeable force in the lines “Love is not love / Which alters when it alteration finds, / Or bends with the remover to remove: / O no! it is an ever-fixed mark.” Shakespeare enforces the fact that true love always perseveres, no matter what it’s up against by using the metaphor, “That looks on tempests and is never shaken” in the second quatrain. In the third quatrain, he asserts that love doesn’t care for outer beauty that fades with time because true love goes beyond such boundaries. Thus, love can completely change one’s life and happiness. This leads to the question, is love worth fighting for?
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby inspired my question. The Great Gatsby is a novel, filled with romance and drama, exploring the decadence of the roaring twenties. It features Jay Gatsby and his rags to riches journey for the love of his life, Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby was training to be a military officer when he met Daisy. He adored her beauty, grace and luxury and fell in love when he first met her, so he fabricates his past to prove he was good enough for her. Although she …show more content…

Their commitment to each other has no boundaries, as described in Sonnet 116. Their rebellion against their families proves their determination to preserve their love, at all costs. In the play, Juliet fakes her death so she can run away with Romeo. However, Romeo thinks she’s actually dead because he doesn’t receive her message and in response, kills himself using poison. When Juliet sees Romeo dead beside her, she tries to kiss his lips so she’s poisoned by the same poison as him but it doesn’t work so she stabs herself with the help of his dagger. This is a perfect example of fighting for true love, no matter how hard it