Compare and Contrast two sonnets by Shakespeare 'Shall I compare thee' and 'My mistresses eyes'.

Authors Avatar

Alison Yang House 3 Lower 5 English

Compare and Contrast two sonnets by Shakespeare ‘Shall I compare thee’ and ‘My mistresses eyes’

I am going to compare Sonnet 130 (‘My mistresses eyes’) and ‘Shall I compare thee’. They are both sonnets about love and appearances. Even though both sonnets have similar subjects they have differing themes. My mistress’s eyes is a realistic sonnet about the depth of Shakespeare’s love for his mistress. He uses his mistress’s faults to prove how deep his love is. He criticises her features instead of criticising the objects he is comparing her too. This is not like other Shakespearean sonnets. However, in ‘Shall I compare thee’ the poet is idealistic. He uses hyperbole and excessive imagery to create an image of his lover’s perfection. Instead of listing his lovers faults he states faults with what he has compared his lover too. In both sonnets Shakespeare’s lovers are being compared to objects in nature or natural things. This is because nature creates objects that are not entirely perfect and this helps Shakespeare to find faults with the object or with his lover.

‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s Day?’        (Shall I compare thee)

Join now!

                                                

‘My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun’        (Sonnet 130)

However similar these lines may be both have different meanings. They are both the opening lines to each sonnet. The words ‘Shall I compare thee’ are asking the lover directly (in 2nd person) but ‘My mistress’ eyes’ is addressing the reader directly (therefore talking about her in the third person). At the beginning of each sonnet this gives the effect that Shakespeare is not trying to flatter his mistress and is criticising her but by addressing his lover directly he uses compliments to flatter his lover . This makes ‘Shall I ...

This is a preview of the whole essay