Riassunti letteratura inglese: Shakespeare - Sonnets

SHAKESPEARE

Philosophical way to investigate : philosophical kind of mind + flexible mind

Need to rely on the critical

that lead to multiple interpretations.

interpretation and not on translation

A poet and not only a playwriter his sonnets are very famous in English

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literature.

A sort of microcosm of what he does in his plays. He means to say sth very

complex in a few words. Romeo and Juliet,

Sonnets also in his plays (ex. the beginning of in which he

anticipates what is going to happen to the two lovers)

Some sonnets are difficult to read and understand: they’re not reducible to a

particular interpretation because poetry plays with multiple suggestions and

meanings. Petrarchan sonnet

Origins of English sonnet: (octave and sestet=14 units),

posing a problem – volta between the two sections – resolving a problem

This structure is always there even if it’s not seen explicitly.

… but then introduced into English literature and so modified: 3 quatrains + a

rhyming couplet that ends the poem and use of the pentameter (play with

stressed and unstressed syllables)

Shakespeare plays with the rhythm (even if it seems to be on the background)

and it gives a musical tone to the composition.

Sonnets: very common poetic writing and they tell a story.

Astrophil and Stella

Ex. by Philip Sidney: 1531, a popular circle of stories that

tells his love for Penelope, but she’s inaccessible because she’s already

married.

And then some people started writing stories of love and passions in series.

1592/1594: theatres were closed to prevent the spreading of the plague and

S may have written now his poems because he’s got no job at that moment

he worked very hard (this is signalled by

Two narrative poems on which Venus and Adonis Lucrece,

the fact that there are only a few errors): and

both dedicated to a man of Southampton, who lend him some money in this

period.

Sonnets

His were published by T. Ford in 1609:

- 154 poems and some of them were already circulating before (references to

some of these poems that circulated privately)

- two questions: the order of the sonnets and did Shakespeare authorised this

publication? (there are many errors, so maybe not)

Structure: it’s not a random order and there are elements that remind other

poems

ex. Poem n° 12 and n°60 are about time

1 to 17 poems: procreation theme (marriage sonnets)

first 126 poems: references to a young man

other 26 poems: references to a woman

Try to read a story (autobiography) in these sonnets: why? first person writing

fair youth,

Man: aristocrat, no name and known as the blond and beautiful,

strong feeling for him from the poet

Woman: the dark lady, dark hair and maybe all her complexion, the mistress of

the poet, sexually promiscuous **

… but… Who are they? And who is writing of them and to them?

will

Shakespeare plays with the word that may indicate also his name

(William).

So: is he talking about himself? : why this doubt? Because it’s common to tell

a story and to disguise himself in the story and consequently it’s difficult to

consider everything obvious

However: one hint year (1609, his mother dies in 1608) and dedication

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(“To Mr W. H.”: he may be his patron, the heir of Southampton and his friend

even though their social role (deeper and deeper and very warm feeling

between them))

Procreation sonnets: all encourage the man to get married … but not out of

love or to only satisfy his needs. He’s growing old and his beauty’s going to

disappear, and his future children would be his only way to perpetuate his

beauty. Duty of marriage in order to have children

but then he changes idea: there’s another way to make his beauty last: his

poetry, becoming a character in his poetry and being immortalised by words.

(as it was for Romeo and Juliet)

REFLECTION ON ART

** Some critics tried to reconstruct the story.

there are very little biographical basis to believe completely in that

reconstruction

Man of Southampton: very attractive man (portraits), bisexual, arrogant,

aristocrat, in age of marriage for dynastic reasons but he didn’t want to.

Shakespeare writes these poems to persuade him to get married and he does

basically… but he falls in love with Southampton and at this point the poet

starts saying that poetry can make his beauty immortal + conflict between

Shakespeare (The Poet) and another arrival poet.

Dark lady arrives and Shakespeare is attracted by her, too! (consummated

passion) light and dark]

[opposition

Shakespeare feels disgusted for his own sexuality and feels guilty because

he’s married (betrayal for Anne Hathaway)

What happen? Relation between the fair youth and the dark lady and he feels

betrayed too!

No prove the man and the woman really existed and we do not have the need

they really existed because they’re literary conventions [in love with someone

he could never have – Petrarchan love &nd