English Coursework

The first 200 words of this essay...

English Coursework

Draft 1

Although both sonnets are talking about love, both have different approaches towards love: Shakespeare reveals love in modern terms whereas Barrett Browning reveals love as eternal and kind. Shakespeare presents his love in modern terms and views love as a game that both play. Barrett Browning, on the other hand, concentrates on the nature of love and the power and feelings, more than on her lover.

Shakespeare's attitude to love is less idealistic than Barrett Browning's as he has a more realistic approach to love. Shakespeare's attitude to love displays a mixture of precise sophistication and passionate expression. Shakespeare also sees love as mutual flattery, "On both sides thus is simple truth suppress'd," this quotation shows mutual flattery from both Shakespeare and his mistress. They both spin the truth. Yet it is understood by both Shakespeare and his mistress that this flattery is based on trust and that he thinks that love partly works, because of lies and that love's best disguise is the pretence of truth, "O, love's best habit is in seeming trust." Barrett Browning's attitude to love displays a more fantasy style, which in an ideal world, everyone would