SONNET 20 - Shakespeare
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,
Much 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 prick'd thee out for women's pleasure,
Mine be thy love and thy love's use their treasure.

Analysis of the sonnet 20

The sonnet belongs to the collection of 154 Shakespearean sonnets. Right from the title, the intelligent reader can see that the poet compares the Fair Youth’s face to a woman’s one indeed the reader may be curious to find out the reasons why the poet has made such choice. The sonnet is organized into 3 quatrains in alternate rhyme and a rhyming couplet according to the structure of the English sonnet. The rhyme scheme consists of: ABAB CDCD EFEFE GG.
In the first quatrain the sonneteer compares the Fair Youth’s face to a woman’s beauty. The image of “a woman's face with Nature's own hand painted” marks the natural beauty and perfection of the man. The Fair Youth is “master-mistress of my passion”at the same time. Therefore he has a lot of influence on the speaking voice’s existence. But even if he has a “woman’s heart” (line 3) he is not as false as women because his heart doesn’t shift his object of love as women are used to do. Such women’s feature is marked by the alliteration of the sound “f” in line 4. Indeed the poet thinks the Fair Youth is more desirable than a woman.
In the second quatrain the poet goes on exalting the perfection of the Fair Youth. He has a more bright eye than a woman’s one, indeed his eyes are “gilding the object whereupon it gazeth”. The image of the “eye” is a metonymy which stands for all the Fair Youth’s beauty. Such beauty is also marked by the expression “more bright” which makes the reader think that the Fair Youth has the best good qualities; there is none better than him from the point of view of physical appearance, behavior, qualities… . The intelligent reader is able to understand that in this quatrain the speaking voice magnifies him. Indeed the poet says: “more bright, less false, master-mistress, gilding, controlling”. Furthermore the poet says the Fair Youth is nice looking and his beauty reflects on the other things. Therefore he makes people more appreciable thanks to his good qualities. The lines 7 and 8 “a man in hue, all hues in his controlling, much steals men's eyes and women's souls amazeth” make the reader think that the Fair Youth is an attractive person who is desirable both by women and men. His good qualities provokes “men’s eyes and women’s soul”, indeed all the people are subjugated and dominated by him. The word “hue” which is underlined by its repetition (in line 7) refers to his complexion; the Fair Youth’s complexion is as perfect as one including all complexions. Such presentation of the Fair Youth reflects on Renaissance ideology of physical love; the passionate love is not considered a sin.
In the third quatrain the poet tells about the birth of the Fair Youth;”and for a woman wert thou first created; till Nature, as she wrought thee, fell a-doting”. The Fair Youth was firstly born as a woman, therefore nature felt in love with her and decided to turn her into a man. Such metaphoric image of love underlines the aspect of passion; indeed nature, which is a female gender, wanted the Fair Youth to be a man. In addition the speaking voice reveals his despair because he would like to get him as if he were a woman. In this quatrain the speaking voice explicit the aspect of passionate love which is the physical approach. In the rhyming couplet the speaking voice begs the Fair Youth to let him his love since his body is addressed to women. The frequent use of the comma inside the line makes the rhythm slower creating an effect of despair which is a typical aspect of love. Therefore the poet conveys the message that “beauty” is not linked to a specific gender and love is not necessarily bonded to the physical appearance. The speaking voice is magnifying an “ideal Fair Youth” which is too perfect to be a real person. Therefore true love makes people mad till they fall in love with somebody who is not real. To sum up, the sonnet explains how both men and women really love their lover.