Jan Kolek (B AJ-ZSV) johnny.midgey@gmail.com English Literature I PhDr. Petr Chalupsk, Ph.D.

Conventions in Shakespeares sonnets

My task is to choose one of Shakespeares sonnets and demonstrate how he both engages and subverts conventions of the Elizabethan sonnet. Even after reading the submission for the first time I knew it is not an easy target. His theatre plays made Shakespeare the best known English Renaissance playwright and surely one of the best known writers of all time, too. That is most likely the reason why we sometimes call the English sonnet the Shakespearean sonnet, even though Shakespeare was not its inventor. Some of his contemporaries even claim his sonnets far worse than his plays. On this account we need to say that his very existence was doubted many times. That would mean that one (or more) of his contemporaries actually was Shakespeare himself. I chose Sonnet 66 as the topic of my essay. It is a member of the Fair Youth sequence depicting authors platonic love towards a young handsome man (but maybe also fathers love towards his newly adult son) which was published in 1609 in Shake-speares sonnets. At first sight, Sonnet 66 belongs to the most individual ones. It features an extreme case of anaphoric repetition and it is written in an unusually desperate tone. Contrary to Petrarchan sonnets having two quatrains and two tercets, the English sonnet has three quatrains and one couplet. Both feature a turn (or so-called volta) which brings a notable shift in the mood of the sonnets, it finds itself in the ninth line. It is Shakespeare who generally postpones the volta to the penultimate line there is a conclusion instead of a turn. This conclusion may, typically for Shakespeare, offer a completely new view of the sonnet.

The most obvious deviation from the sonnet conventions is probably the sonnets simplicity. While most authors of sonnets tried to show their best skills through excessive use of metaphors, Shakespeare simply begins with stating that he is sick and tired with the whole world and basically prays for merciful death. He criticises the whole society for being in decay, he is also unsatisfied with the government and complains that art [is being] tonguetied by authority and lastly, he is diappointed with unfairness of life, generally. In the third line, Shakespeare writes: And needy nothing trimm'd in jollity, which does not really match the rest of the sonnet. It can be understood as the one in need is wearing merry and multi-coloured (and therefore expensive) clothes. Considering the fact that Shakespeare criticises something corrupted in every line brings us to the conclusion that needy nothing is actually someone who is needy in virtues and who is nothing mentally and who doesnt deserve to be trimmed in jollity. This way of expressing something in seemingly opposite words turns to be very typical for Shakespeare. We see something similar in the fifth line where he states that gilded honour shamefully misplaced. At first it may seem to be saying golden honour treated badly but we mustnt forget that gilded means not only made of gold but also coated with gold. Upon knowing this, the true meaning reveals to be the sugarcoated hypocrisy overlooked (Oxquarry). Finally, Shakespeare breaks even his own rule of using the volta in the penultimate line. Where the final couplet begins he states that death would actually be salvation from his suffering. But it is the very last line where he turns completely and seems to be changing his mind because he realizes that if he really died (or, as I understand it, commited suicide) he would leave his love alone (which is obviously the thing he would regret the most and what keeps him alive this addiction is on the other typical not only for the rest of his sonnets but also for most of all sonnets.)

In conlusion, it is obvious that Shakespeare deserves his exclusive position among other Renaissace-era writers. Even if his sonnets really were considerably worse than his plays, he managed to write several extremely peculiar and remarkable sonnets (apart from S. 66 the others being i.e. S. 53, 144 and especially 130) which alone would be enough to illustrate both Shakespeares deviations and obedience to the Elizabethan sonnet.

Works Cited

Oxquarry Books Ltd. Sonnet LXVI. Shakespeares sonnets. 2001. 28 June 2011. <http://www.shakespeares-sonnets.com/sonnet/66>