Text: Shakespeare, Sonnet XX
Task: Writing A Textual analysis
OBJECTIVES
Cultural: Learn about different sonnet forms
Intertextual: single out similarities and dissimilarities between sonnet models
Linguistic: improve writing skills
W. SHAKESPEARE - SONNET XX
A woman's face with nature's own hand painted
Hast thou, the master-mistress of my passion;
A woman's gentle heart, but not acquainted
With shifting change as is false women's fashion;
An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling,
Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth;
A man in hue, all hues in his controlling,
Which steals men's eyes and women's souls amazeth.
And for a woman wert thou first created,
Till nature as she wrought thee fell a-doting,
And by addition me of thee defeated
By adding one thing to my purpose nothing.
But since she pricked thee out for women's pleasure,
Mine be thy love and thy love's use their treasure.
ANALYSIS
The speaking voice says the object of his passion was painted with the face of a woman by nature. He also hints that his love sums up male and female beauty in a single individual (the Master Mistress of my passion).
In portraying his fair youth Shakespeare says that he has got the gentle heart of a woman even if his heart is not used to shifting and changing the object of love as women do like chameleons. Talking about the fair youth's eyes he says that they are more shining than women's ones and, in addition, they are less false because they do not roll around so often.
His eyes make the object of his look look nicer. The colours of his fair youth control all hues. As a matter of fact he captures all women's souls, at the same time managing to steal men's eyes.
The speaking voice underlines how at first nature wanted to create him as a woman but since his creation was so attractive and nature is a woman herself , she fell in love with such beauty and therefore added something that was without value for a man but guaranteed a woman's pleasure.
The sonnet ends with an invocation the poet makes, he wants to enjoy the fair youth's "spiritual" love and leaves his body's use to women.
CONNOTATION
The powerful emotions the poet presents here are indicative of a deep and sensual love. The poet's lover is 'the master-mistress of his passion' which indicates that the fair youth is almost near perfection.
He has the grace and features of a woman but he is not mean as women often can be. There are different semantic areas in here, such as the one of the body which represents sensual love and is underlined by "face", "hand", "heart", "eyes", "hue", "pleasure"; the area of feelings' a which are more interesting for the poet who explains them by "passion", "gentle", "false", "bright", "change", "gazeth".
Moreover the sonnet is a kind of blame to women; Shakespeare would like them to know that their behaviours are false and less sincere than the fair youth's.
Shakespeare is disappointed knowing that his lover has man's shape but his love cannot be stopped by appearance. The poet does not want to 'have' him physically, he leaves that treasure to women, what he jreally wants is his soul and he is satisfied to love the young man in a spiritual way.
But even if in this sonnet, the poet is refraining from physical intercourse with the young man, the thought of such relations sometimes appears to consume and please his imagination ("passion", "pleasure", "a man in hue, all 'hues' in his "controlling").
In my opinion the poet wrote the sonnet to celebrate beauty and to let people know that ideal love shoould blend both male and female aspects and shapes. Moreover he shows how spiritual love is uncompleted if there isn't physical love ("mine be thy love and thy love's use their [women] treasure") and he wants to let people understand that this is painful for him.