SONNET 116
(William Shakespeare)
, Renaissance (1300-1660)
- Love as an idealised, almost sacred emotion
- Love as a source of suffering and inner conflict
- Love was connected to social order and marriage
- Love as physical and erotic, driven by desire and attraction
,1. Petrarchan sonnet= often shows conflict in love but here Shakespeare
presents love as unchanging and absolute, suggesting Shakespeare actively
challenges and redefines traditional Petrarchan ideals of love as unstable or
conflicted
2. The fixed 14 line structure reflects order, control and completeness. This
mirrors the poem’s message that true love is stable and perfectly formed. The
tight structure contrasts with the chaotic, unreliable nature of human emotion
3. The iambic pentameter gives it a steady rhythm mirroring that love is constant
and unchanging, reinforcing that love is enduring
4. The final rhyming couplet provides a forceful and authoritative conclusion
allowing the speaker to assert his definition of love with absolute certainty
5. ultimately, the regular ABAB CDCD EFEF GG rhyme scheme reinforces the
speaker’s unwavering conviction
, L.O.A= Shakespeare presents true love as an unchanging and enduring
force that remains constant despite the passage of time and external
problems
(William Shakespeare)
, Renaissance (1300-1660)
- Love as an idealised, almost sacred emotion
- Love as a source of suffering and inner conflict
- Love was connected to social order and marriage
- Love as physical and erotic, driven by desire and attraction
,1. Petrarchan sonnet= often shows conflict in love but here Shakespeare
presents love as unchanging and absolute, suggesting Shakespeare actively
challenges and redefines traditional Petrarchan ideals of love as unstable or
conflicted
2. The fixed 14 line structure reflects order, control and completeness. This
mirrors the poem’s message that true love is stable and perfectly formed. The
tight structure contrasts with the chaotic, unreliable nature of human emotion
3. The iambic pentameter gives it a steady rhythm mirroring that love is constant
and unchanging, reinforcing that love is enduring
4. The final rhyming couplet provides a forceful and authoritative conclusion
allowing the speaker to assert his definition of love with absolute certainty
5. ultimately, the regular ABAB CDCD EFEF GG rhyme scheme reinforces the
speaker’s unwavering conviction
, L.O.A= Shakespeare presents true love as an unchanging and enduring
force that remains constant despite the passage of time and external
problems
