Topic > Depiction of Love in Shakespeare's Sonnet 116

William Shakespeare offers his definition of what makes love true in his untitled sonnet that begins, "Suffer me not the marriage of true minds." Shakespeare does not deny other views of love, but instead insists on a certain characteristic of love: love is rigid and crucial to enduring life. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayWith the very first line of the Sonnet, Shakespeare indirectly acknowledges that there may be obstacles in true love: “Let me not marry true minds / Admit impediments.” Recognizing that it is possible to have “obstacles” in a solid relationship, Shakespeare may be trying to get the audience's attention by bringing out a realistic and attainable love. Furthermore, marrying real “minds” rather than simply two people suggests that Shakespeare carefully chose the “minds” for a deeper meaning “minds” has been used to illustrate the thinking behind true love. Without thinking, a person would be more primitive and with primal instincts come physical urges and desires. Shakespeare's selection of words proposes that love is more that physical, it is reasoned. The next part of Shakespeare's sonnet expresses the unyielding characteristic of love. The line “Love is not love / Which changes when it finds an alteration” creates a sense of stability for love as Shakespeare argues that love is false if it changes with a change in situation. Shakespeare goes on to say that love is not true if it “bends with the removing instrument.” Shakespeare describes love as strong and rigid. Shakespeare describes true love as stubborn in a way. The lack of flexibility he mentions may contradict the analogy Sophocles creates in his play Antigone about Creon's arrogant actions: “You have seen trees by a rushing winter torrent / How many sway with the flood and fetch every twig, / But not the stubborn : they are torn up, roots and all / Bent or broken.” By contrasting the nature of love with Creon's personality, Shakespeare creates a distinction between the willfulness of love and other incarnations of willfulness. Shakespeare even seems to mirror Sophocles' work in the next section of his sonnet. Instead of the inhibiting nature of obstinacy exhibited in Antigone, Shakespeare makes the obstinacy of love encouraging. Shakespeare writes “Love looks upon storms and is never shaken,” meaning that love endures through difficult times – the opposite fate of the stiff trees described by Sophocles. The line is also notable for its metro change. The line breaks away from the iambic pentametric form of a sonnet by ending the line with an anapesto. The inclusion of an extra unstressed syllable might emphasize steadfastness as important to the overall meaning of love. Shakespeare goes on to metaphorically compare love to the North Star: “Love is the star of every wandering bark, / Whose worth is unknown, though his height be taken.” Shakespeare considers love a guide to all barking ( metaphorically people) through life. Comparisons between the North Star persist because the guidance they give is priceless, whether it is successful sailing by the captain of a ship or a happy life with a loved one divides the idea that the value of love is unknown, from the idea that love can still be measured The North Star can be measured to determine location, while love can be measured to determine its magnitude through actions that express affection. The next section of the sonnet/10.1007/978-1-349-05443-5_12)