William Shakespeare Research Paper

Shakespearean Sonnets

William Shakespeare is one of the world’s most famous playwrights. Historians aren’t sure exactly when he was born, but most agree that it was probably April 23, 1564 (Andrews v). He not only was successful writing plays, but also with writing poetry. From 1592 to 1595, the theater Shakespeare presented his plays in had closed, which left him with no means of income (Rowse 198). To compensate, Shakespeare wrote sonnets instead. Over his lifetime, Shakespeare wrote around 154 sonnets about several different topics, with incidents and people in his life sometimes being the main focus (Andrews). A writer from John F. Andrews’ Shakespeare’s World and Work states that “it is tempting to read the 154-poem sequence as a description

A. L. Rowse in his William Shakespeare: A Biography agrees that “with Shakespeare, there is nothing that he does not tell us about himself; everything is exposed: his humiliations…fears…sins…remorse…and yet his weakness, his inability to free himself from subjugation (162).” He most often wrote sonnets about two unidentified people: a dear male friend, and a “dark” woman. Sonnets 76, 116, and 130 are notable examples of Shakespeare writing about his own life in his sonnets.

Shakespeare’s sonnet 76 was written for his dear male friend. Dr. Michael Delahoyde, a professor at Washington State University, writes that sonnet 76 “praises the friend as the inspirer of the verse.” The poet is complaining in the first few lines of the sonnet that his poetry is always the same; that “it avoids variation and change.” In line 1 the poet writes that his verse is “barren of new

Pale skin was regarded as beautiful and women would powder their faces to adhere to the style. Shakespeare, however, wrote several of his sonnets in inspiration of a “dark” woman. Dr. Michael Delahoyde speculates that Shakespeare could “mean anything from an African woman to simply an English non-blonde.” Shakespeare refers to her several times as his mistress in sonnet 116, so he could simply be referring to her as “dark” because of his need to keep her out of the light. Shakespeare was married with three children, so a mistress would obviously have been scandalous. Shakespeare acknowledges that she was a real woman in the last few lines of his sonnet 116: “My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground: And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare/ As any she belied with false compare (lines 12-14).” A writer from John F. Andrews’ Shakespeare’s World and Work writes: “Instead of idealizing his female lover, the speaker comments on her bad qualities and bemoans his inability to escape from her spell (Andrews 94).” Again, Shakespeare is being transparent about his feelings and letting his poetry be his