In the present text I am going to analyze the sonnet 20 by William Shakespeare to see what are the elements in common with the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.

The title is ‘’A woman's face with nature's own hand painted’’. it suggests a compliment, a person's face is compared to that of a woman but is more beautiful because it was painted by nature and not artificially. The title creates expectation in the reader, curiosity about the person described , the reason of this compliment and how he is like.

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., there is one extra syllable in every line, 11 syllables rather than 10. This further emphasizes the meaning of the sonnet of adding one thing. Each line has an important role, the first eight lines are all a tribute to the youth's beauty and gentle spirit in which Shakespeare says that the Fair Youth is so very attractive that he attracts men and women alike. Instead in the following lines the poet complains that nature at the time of creating this person, firstly had in mind to create a woman and successively created a man. In the last two lines the poet concludes with a contrasting saying since the nature equipped you for the pleasure of women, let me have your love and them your body. The sonnet testifies the homosexuality of Shakespeare, he is in love with this person and he only thing who is wrong is that he has an extra thing which creates the difference between a man and a woman. Shakespeare is disappointed knowing that his lover is a man 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 really wants is his soul and he is satisfied to love the young man in a spiritual way. The message that Shakespeare wants to convey is that beauty hasn’t got a specific genre because you can be attracted both by a man or a woman.

As regards figures of speech, there is a personification in the first line because the poet explains how nature’s hand was painting. In the first lines there is an anaphora consisting on a repetition of the expression “a woman”,with this figure of speech the poet underlines the importance of the man's particular beauty. Moreover 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.

Now focusing on the common aspects with the Oscar Wilde’s novel , firstly in both there is the love of a man to another man, indeed the painter Basil Hallward decided to portray Dorian Gray because he was fascinated by his beauty, on the other hand Shakespeare wrote the poem to convey his love for the man. Furthermore in both there is the theme of double because in Oscar Wilde’s novel there is the contrast between good and devil, instead in the sonnet there is the ambiguity between male and female. Finally in both is present the theme of beauty and youth.