The Concept Of Beauty In Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18
Shakespeare’s sonnets are replete with themes of beauty. Shakespeare’s love is generally expressed as a muse, an undefined figure. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 is one of the strongest expressions of Shakespeare’s love for beauty. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 pays tribute to his muse, whose beauty is described as being more beautiful than the seasons of nature.
In order to immortalize Shakespeare’s Dark Lady or muse beauty, it is necessary to first understand its magnitude. Shakespeare’s first line is strategically framed to be a question. This allows him to quickly convey the beauty. Shakespeare answers this question immediately in line 2, “Thou art lovely and more temperate.” It’s clear that the Sonnet is to answer the question. This is why Shakespeare starts the poem with that line. The theme of the poem is the rhetorical-dialectic form.
Shakespeare goes on to say that the summer lease is too short and has “rough winds” in May.
Shakespeare, in his diction, uses words that have a polar opposite meaning to describe the sun. Shakespeare is implying that the sun’s behavior is inconsistent by using this notable diction. Shakespeare suggests that the sun is often at either extreme.
Shakespeare’s two next lines are based on this idea of inconsistency. Line 7 declares that “every good from good sometime declines”, which means everything beautiful will eventually fall from its beauty. Shakespeare suggests that his Dark Lady and his muse are both beautiful by comparing them to summer. Shakespeare is basically pointing out that beauty does not last forever. Therefore, neither the beauty or his muse will ever be able to endure. This thought shows the opposite of a dialectic form in the Sonnet. If Shakespeare’s Dark Lady’s beauty and magnificence is greater than that of the seasons, why is it then possible for them both to “By…nature’s Changing Course” undergo a decrease of beauty.
Shakespeare knows that this is impossible, so he adds immortality to his Dark Lady, a beauty that comes from his lines. Shakespeare introduces the immortality of the Sonnet in line 9, while creating a dramatic shift in tone. Shakespeare’s muse is described in line 10 by Shakespeare as a woman who “owns” or “owns” the beauty or “fairness” that she “owest.” Shakespeare’s beautiful muse is immortalized in line 11. Shakespeare describes death as being arrogant – as someone who would “brag”, that Shakespeare’s “muse” “wand’rests under his shade.” The line is in direct contrast to Shakespeare’s description of suns that are “too intense,” or “too bright.” Shakespeare’s beauty will not be as bright or as dark as the sun in summer, nor will it be obscured by death. It lies in the happy middle, between lightness and darkness. This is the perfect representation of true beauty.
The beauty of this poem is most powerful because it has survived as an immortal work. Subjectively, if Sonnet. 18 wasn’t timeless, Shakespeare’s beautiful muse might have long since been forgotten. Shakespeare must have known this, because he cleverly expresses this in line 12: “When eternal lines to the time thou growst.” This line seems to indicate that Shakespeare’s woman is growing in beauty, and that this growth runs parallel to the passage of time. As well, line 12, can be interpreted to refer directly to Sonnet 18’s composition. This will forever remain in the reader’s mind as a “line” of verse.
The couplet of the Sonnet supports this second interpretation:
As long as there are eyes or men,
This is the life that you will have for as long as this lives.
The couplet closes sonnet number 18 with its perfect dialectic synthesis. Shakespeare’s muse tells him that as long as people are still alive and can understand, they will keep reading his sonnet, imagine it, and thus preserve its immortality.
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