In the present text I am going to analyse William Shakespeare’s sonnet 20: “A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted”, in order to understand the poet’s message, compare it with the novel “The picture of Dorian Gray” and make my personal considerations about it.

The title itself invites the reader to find out the woman’s identity and why her appearance is so relevant for the poet. Her face alludes to her extraordinary beauty, given her by nature. Shakespeare’s aim is to make immortal the beauty portrayed through his poem. The detailed description of the woman makes her features real, as if the reader is in front of her picture. For this reason the poet insert in the title the word “painted”. The title takes up the first verse, identifying the poem as belonging to a collection. It lets the reader presuppose that the subject of the narration is the same of the previous poems.

The layout makes clear the poem is organized into one stanza where the lines are of different length. After a first reading, the reader understands the poem is arranged into three different parts, according to their function. From line 1 to line 6, the poet portrays the protagonist as a woman with a gentle heart, beautiful eyes and a face of unique features. Nevertheless, the girl differs from the other women because her heart is not fickle and her pretty eyes are not prone to be rolled. The comparison brings to surface a significant qualities of the protagonist that is explained in the following part. There, the reader’s curiosity about the identity of the girl is finally satisfied. She is a young man who is able to attract both men, for his feminine beauty, and women, because of his sexuality. Originally, Nature created the Fair Youth as a woman, until her extraordinary beauty conquered her heart. For this reason, the creator decides to turn the girl in a Youth Male. With her action, she has marked out her beloved both for women’s pleasure and for men’s one, because he belongs to both the sexes. Nature has also defeated the writer, who cannot enjoy the Youth’s love because he is a man. The last two lines are the more relevant in the whole poem. It is not  a case that they are not aligned with other verses. They stand for the solution of the poet to his strong passion. William Shakespeare is satisfied to love the Fair Youth in a spiritual way, while women will be attracted by him physically.

In the ending lines, the use of bawdy puns is frequent. For instance, the verb “pricked” has a double meaning. It is both a synonym of the verb “to choose” and the vulgar term for the penis. A further example is “women's pleasure”, which stands for the sexual act. The wordplay and ambiguity are frequently used in the whole poem, in order to hide the poet’s immoral message. The reader cannot but-noticed the word “nothing”, at line 12, referring to the lack of the female genital, or the “one thing”, with the opposing meaning. Finally, the word “master-mistress” is also a pun. It makes not clear if the Fair Youth is the poet’s master, who has the control over his student, or it is a reference to the double identity of the Fair Youth. A further attempt to feminize the Fair Lord is the rhyme. It is made up of at least two syllables with the final one unstressed. It is named female rhyme on purpose. The language used is partly archaic. It is typical of the time when the poem has been composed. Some words that belongs to the end of the Victoria age’s language are: “master-mistress”, “hast thou”, “thee” and “wert”. Finally, the writer uses the narrative technique of the personification to characterize the Nature as a woman. She has given the beauty to the Fair Youth. Making him the man who could be her beloved. The Fair Youth is unnamed, probably to hide his identity, during an age when homosexuality was not accepted. Perhaps he could be identified with the addresser of the poem, Wriothesley, whose name is hidden in the word “wrought”. Shakespeare’s lover is “a man in heu all heus in his controlling”. The reader but-notice the man can both look pale and blush at the same time, being able to attract each man or woman. In order to reinforce the ambivalence of the character’s attributes, his physical appearance and the role of the nature in his creation, the poet uses many alliterations. For instance, the letter “n” in “nature’s own hand painted” or the letter “t” in the “gentle heart”. The meaning is conveyed not just by what is said, but also by the tone.

After a careful reading, the reader cannot but-noticed the distinction between the platonic love and the carnal lust. Love is not presented as the expression of true feelings. Falling in love has painful emotional and physically consequences for the poet. He equates love as a state of alienation and physical discomfort, when he loses the ability to think rationally. Also the carnal lust can cause problems in human beings. They confuse sexual desire with true love. The most relevant sense to fell in love is the sight, functional to admire beauty. Shakespeare does not portray his beloved using hyperbolic terms but making fun of the conventions, contrasting them with the real. He declares his homosexuality which was considered immoral during the Victorian age. His beloved stands for the beauty. Only young people can be have beauty. Their responsibility will be to make the gift nature gave them immortal. Time is the enemy of love, because it causes beauty to fade.

In these terms, the reader can compare the sonnet with Oscar Wilde’s novel “the picture of Dorian Gray”. Both the writers present the beauty as a power and a responsibility. Whose are beautiful are destined to impress human beings and thus to rule the world. Both the protagonists search a way to be remembered. Dorian Gray sells his soul in order to be forever young, while his portrait will grow older. On the other hand, the Fair Youth is made immortal through the poem. When it is read by somebody, the mysterious male figure will come to life again. The common theme of the two texts is the inevitability of the time’s effects. Soon or after, everyone will die and his beauty will disappear.

In my opinion, the theme of beauty is still meaningful. Nowadays, both men and women try to be more attractive, changing their bodies with surgical interventions. Beauty is becoming an obsession for people who cannot accept the coming of the old age. It is true that the appearance is effective, but people should focus more on their interiority before changing their exteriority. A gentle heart, a good morality and a properly behavior are more useful and will be more appreciated than a pretty face.