Shakespeare Sonnet 130 Tone

William Shakespeare was a very influential man in the world of literature, and he is most famous for the plays he wrote. Plays, such as Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Beowulf are some of the works he is known for. However, Shakespeare was also highly revered as a poet. He wrote sonnets, which are 14 line poems with a set rhyme scheme that are written in iambic pentameter,and have deeper meanings than what some simply may read on the page. In sonnet 130, Shakespeare uses a criticizing yet kind tone to show how rare his love is, even through his mistress’s flaws. Within the 3 quatrains, or three groups of four lines, of this sonnet, Shakespeare uses a critical tone to set apart his love from the rest of the other women. He says that his “mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun/ coral is far more red than her lips red” (line 1-2). He is saying with these lines that her beauty is not like anything else. Shakespeare is saying that because of these things, his mistress is set apart from all of the stereotypical women that

Shakespeare says that he “thinks his love as rare”(13). There is an old saying that goes “true love is rare.” When someone truly loves another, they turn their gaze through the other’s flaws and chooses to love them despite their many mistakes or many discomforts. This kind of love is not well seen in any society today, nor apparently, back in Shakespeare’s time. Shakespeare also said that “she belied with false compare”(14). Even though he loved her through her flaws, she hated those flaws and did not feel loved because of the flaws he listed whenever he chose to set her apart from other stereotypes. Every girl feels this way about themselves, and they are not willing to see past their own flaws. Shakespeare saw through this woman’s flaws and fell in love with her, despite the flaws he saw with her physical