The duality of meaning in Shakespeare's Sonnet 138 jumped out at me initially as the subject for my next blog post but when I began to consider writing about it I decided to discard the idea for another since the sexual interpretation seemed to outshine the other. After reading it for a third time I decided that any greater emphasis on the one interpretation was due to human nature and the footnote's lead and I decided to analyze the text more closely for clues that would support an interpretation beyond that of an older man lamenting his younger lover's lack of faith.
The two interpretations that I will support with the text are 1) that the author of the poem's lover is proving unfaithful and 2) that the woman in the poem regrets being with such an older man. The double interpretation relies not only on multiple meanings of the numerous uses of the word "lies" but also on the notion in lines 3-6 that his lover thinks him young. On the one hand the lines can be interpreted as a man stating that he is not young and therefore not foolish. This interpretation supports the notion that the woman thinks she is fooling the author by having another lover. The other possible interpretation of these lines is keyed by the line "Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young." The duality of this sentence rests in who is doing the thinking here; if it remains that she is vainly thinking that she thinks him young then the first interpretation holds, but if he is thinking this then the first two lines can be interpreted differently. That rather than lying to him about being unfaithful she is lying to him by pretending to feel that he is not too old for her. The third quatrain continues the duality, does the author muse that both he and his lover keep the "simple truth repressed" about their age difference or about illicit actions by the woman? Again it is left up to the reader's interpretation. Just as strong as the suggestiveness of a love affair is the reiteration of the subject of age in lines 10 and 11. The final couplet has little polarity concerning these two interpretations but leaves the couple lying together with their deceit. The woman about age or adultery and the author about his knowledge of his woman's deceit.
The two interpretations that I will support with the text are 1) that the author of the poem's lover is proving unfaithful and 2) that the woman in the poem regrets being with such an older man. The double interpretation relies not only on multiple meanings of the numerous uses of the word "lies" but also on the notion in lines 3-6 that his lover thinks him young. On the one hand the lines can be interpreted as a man stating that he is not young and therefore not foolish. This interpretation supports the notion that the woman thinks she is fooling the author by having another lover. The other possible interpretation of these lines is keyed by the line "Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young." The duality of this sentence rests in who is doing the thinking here; if it remains that she is vainly thinking that she thinks him young then the first interpretation holds, but if he is thinking this then the first two lines can be interpreted differently. That rather than lying to him about being unfaithful she is lying to him by pretending to feel that he is not too old for her. The third quatrain continues the duality, does the author muse that both he and his lover keep the "simple truth repressed" about their age difference or about illicit actions by the woman? Again it is left up to the reader's interpretation. Just as strong as the suggestiveness of a love affair is the reiteration of the subject of age in lines 10 and 11. The final couplet has little polarity concerning these two interpretations but leaves the couple lying together with their deceit. The woman about age or adultery and the author about his knowledge of his woman's deceit.
posted by Nathan at 5:46 PM
1 Comments:
Nathan, this is another solid post. I particularly like the pronoun / antecedent that you point out; that's a very good observation though I wish there were a couple more examples of that type of analysis in your post. Still, this is a very good job.
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