An Analysis on the Nontraditional Themes of Shakespeare’s Sonnets

【Abstract】A poems theme is the soul of idea. The traditional themes of Shakespeares Sonnets are “fair， kind， true”， friendship and love. Connecting sonnets contents with the whole creating career of Shakespeare， the author argues that there are other nontraditional themes in his sonnets—times destructiveness and loves disillusionment.

【Key words】Shakespeare； sonnets； nontraditional themes

【作者簡介】馬行天（1994-），女，彝族，云南瀘西人，云南大學外國語學院，碩士研究生，研究方向：英美文學。

1. Introduction

William Shakespeare（1564-1616） was the greatest poet and dramatist in the English Renaissance. He was surpassingly great because his works never failed to bear a kind of closeness to human life and never failed to be the mirror reflecting human nature. His deep insight into society and his unlimited wisdom were embodied in his sonnets which contain valuable thoughts and great artistic values.

A poems theme is the soul of idea. The traditional viewpoints of the main theme are “fair， kind， true”， friendship and love which presents the idea of humanism by terms of the contents of Sonnet 105， but the word “argument” should not be considered as “theme” but “plots” or “contents” in literature works. Strictly speaking， argument means debate and discussion which indicates that the poet just discusses these issues in his sonnets. Therefore， connecting sonnets contents with the whole creating career of Shakespeare， this paper considers that there are other nontraditional themes in his sonnets—times destructiveness and loves disillusionment.

2. Times Destructiveness

Time destroys all， devour all， with wings on his back， flying about maliciously to annihilate all the beautiful things without mercy， whatever natures or human beings. In Shakespeares Sonnets， except the words related to “Time”， the poet describes “Times scythe” ， “Times injurious hand”， “Times fell hand”， “Times chest”， “Times crooked knife”， “Times blending sickle” and so on. All these images reveal times crucial side.

Time is truly destructive and extremely powerful. Sonnet 12 is the first sonnet uses the image of the scythe of time. Shakespeare describes the changes of everything as the times goes by. “the brave day sunk in hideous night”， “the violet past prime”， “sable curls all silvered oer with white”， “lofty trees barren of leaves”， “sweets and beauties do themselves forsake， And die as fast as they see others grow”. Readers can perceive that the day， flower， tree， young people and beauties are declining， wakening and moving toward death. In this scene， the young things are growing old， the beautiful things are turning depressed. Just as the couplet says， nothing can fight against times scythe. Shakespeare argues that one effective way to win this fight against time is to breed a newborn baby or new things which continue the beauty. While in the Sonnets 5， 60， 63， 2， 6， 7， 19， 16， 77， 22， 65 and so on， Shakespeare uses different ways to present the same theme—Time has a strongly destruction force and human beings are prisoners of time.

3. Loves Disillusionment

Considering the writing background of the sonnets， the author argues that Shakespeare same down with a pessimistic mood toward love. Shakespeares sonnets was created at the end of the sixteenth century and seventeenth century when his drama seemed to transform from pessimism even to desperation. Readers can easily perceive theme of loves disillusion in the sonnets.

Making use of puns such as “lie”（share the same bed and the same pillow） and “lie”（tell a lie）， Sonnet 138 shows an understanding the nature of truth and flattery in romantic relationships， and discloses selfish desire and the disillusion of love. This sonnet begins with the speaker discussing how his lover speaks word of truth， but the next line “I do believe her， though I know she lies” sets the tone for the rest of the sonnet because he knows that his lover is lying. According to line 7， he chooses to accept her lie instead of denying it and leaving her. Line 3 “That she might think me some untutored youth” states his lover also chooses to ignore his real age. In other words， he understands that both of them are lying to each other for the sake of their relationship to live. They are hiding their transgression by not bringing to light the issue that they are insecure about. The couple states that they just sleep together and flatter each other. Shakespeare disclose love is full of lies and selfish desire.

4. Conclusion

The traditional viewpoints of the main idea and theme is that Shakespeares Sonnets praises “fair， kind， true” which reveals the center idea of humanism. Combined with the creation background of Shakespeares sonnets， this paper argues that times destructiveness and loves disillusionment are other nontraditional themes in the sonnets which reveals the energy of time and Shakespeares disappointment toward love.

References：

[1]Wu，Di，吳笛.論莎士比亞十四行詩的時間主題[J].外國文學評論， 2002（03）：89.