Advocacy For Women In William Shakespeare's Sonnet 130

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William Shakespeare’s sonnet 130, “my mistress eyes are nothing like the sun”, is nothing like what people are used to hearing in a poem describing a woman. In fact, sonnet 130 is the direct opposite of the traditional romantic love poem. “My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun” is another way Shakespeare creatively expresses his opposition to conformity and his advocacy for women’s natural beauty. Given the contexts of this literature within this unit’s study of the feminist lens in AP English IV, it is evident that in sonnet 130, Shakespeare perpetuates feminism. It is reality that not all women will fit one standard of beauty, but is it fair to praise one woman's seemingly distinguished beauty? Some will say it is fair others will say it isn’t. However, the fact is, even an exquisitely beautiful women will be put on a pedestal and compared to and judged by unrealistic standards and judgmentally beautiful, un-human elements such as “roses” and “the sun”.…show more content…
Even though Shakespeare is mocking the clichés of love poetry, he sticks to the outline of a traditional love poem. However, the 13th and 14th lines of sonnet 130 read “And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare - As any she belied with false compare”. Shakespeare blasts love poetry for misrepresenting true love’s correlation to beauty, and reasserts that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and not determined by societies standards. The 11th and 12th lines of
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