Love Of Comfort

Shakespeare's sonnets,the masterpiece of poetry,are as invaluable a contribution to mankind as any of his best plays.The criticism and opinions concerning them differ sharply. Among many explanations of these poems one is generally accepted:these 154 poems can be divided into two large groups.The first group is dedicated to the poet's patronage and friend,a fair youth.The second group is written for or about a dark lady with the exception of the last two which are translated from Greek and sing the praise of love.The first group constitutes the main part of the sequence on which the effort of the present thesis will be put.Concerning the meaning and nature of the love critics can be grouped into two camps.The one camp holds that it should be interpreted as the Renaissance ideal of friendship;the other holds that it should be interpreted as homoeroticism.The present thesis sees the reasonableness of both interpretations and discusses the function of this love in achieving immortality through defying time.The introduction is a brief literature review with an emphasis on the achievement in autobiographical study and thematic research.In Chapter One the author regards the love expressed in these sonnets as the Renaissance ideal of friendship.The social context in which a text was produced exerts itself as an important factor for the understanding and interpretation of it.Thus,the neo-historicists,trying to establish the historical dimensions of literary studies,highlight the social and cultural context of a text,and the relations between the text in discussion and other literary or non-literary texts.This chapter discusses the social customs and literary and non-literary practices in the Elizabethan period in the light of neo-historical theory.The sonnet sequence begins with a eulogy of the fair youth's beauty and a persuasion of marriage and procreation;gradually the poet's love for the fair youth appears and becomes the dominant theme.The poet expresses his worry and agony in separation and estrangement with his friend.This content has many affinities with the Renaissance ideal of friendship prevailing in that period. In the second chapter the author discusses these sonnets in the light of male homoeroticism. The relationship between the male speaker and his fair youth sometimes surpasses the limit of friendship and borders on what may be called homoeroticism.There are many images of this kind of male/male desires in this sonnet sequence.The homoeroticism expressed in Shakespeare's sonnets can be seen as a revival of Greek homosexual vogue in Renaissance England.The author makes a Freudian psychoanalysis of the male/male desire expressed in Shakespeare's sonnetsChapter Three is a discussion on the function of this love.The poet through his love and verse promises immortality to his fair youth.The word time is used 78 times in these 126 sonnets and variously described as "swift-footed" and "devouring".This group of sonnets develops the theme of poetry's power to conquer time.Not only is the youth granted immortality through verse, but since the poet's enduring love is repeatedly stressed,the poet himself gains a kind of immortality.In a word,the main theme of these 126 sonnets is a eulogy of love.Due to the characteristics of Shakespeare's time and the complexity of human nature,this love theme can be interpreted as two variations---the Renaissance ideal of friendship and the male/male desire something like the Greek homoeroticism.This love,whatever the interpretation of it may be,can defy time and bring immortality.