Shakespeare's sonnets 138 and 147 read like before and after stories of the experience of a man who leaves an unfaithful wife. Shakespeare's narrator first describes the almost masochistic way in which his interlocutor maintains a relationship with this disloyal woman out of a desire to appear young and stupid to him. Later, when their charade is over, he almost drives himself mad, craving her attention and touch despite being lied to for so long. This theme of self-inflicted pain for the sake of a lover's attention - sexual or otherwise - defies reason in both sonnets, but is at the same time desperate and serious. Although the narrator does not aspire to the qualities of the lover herself, but to her contact and to a feeling that she inspires in him, his desire for this woman is constantly intense enough to seem rational to the audience as well as to himself. Say no to plagiarism. . Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay When my love swears that she is made of truth, I believe her, even though I know she is lying, so that she can think that I am a little educated. youth, ignoring the false subtleties of the world. Thus thinking in vain that she thinks me young, although she knows that my best days are past, I simply credit her false tongue: on both sides the simple truth is thus suppressed. But why does he say? Isn't it unfair? And why don't I say that I'm old? by lies, we would be flattered. (Shakespeare 1041) The masochism of the narrator in this sonnet is expressed in his desire to be cuckolded in order to appear stupid and young. In Sonnet 138, Shakespeare's narrator insists that he realizes he is being deceived, but remains with the woman in order to appear outwardly young to her and others. By appearing mute, the narrator can also lie to himself and believe he is still young. The narrator explains, “I believe her” in a tone that suggests that he has already had to defend this decision and that his decision is to continue the charade of being with her out of stupidity (line 2). His irrationality continues when he explains, "Even though she knows my days are past their best", to signify that he realizes she doesn't think he's younger than he is in reality, but he keeps trying anyway (line 6). The narrator has now admitted to himself and the reader that few people consider themselves younger, but he continues the charade. Shakespeare presented a relationship that brings no real benefit to the narrator: the woman lies to him while he lies to himself in a lame attempt to appear young, but derives no real benefit from it. In line 13, Shakespeare says that the narrator "lie[s] with her and she with [him]" with a double meaning expressed in the word "lie." The two physically lay down night after night, but also continue to tell each other these stupid lies about her loyalty to him for their own respective gains. The question behind this sonnet remains: why does the narrator so easily pretend to believe this woman and why is he so worried about aging? The man submits to this deception of being part of a “love triangle”, while putting enormous pressure on himself to maintain a youthful appearance. However, he never describes the pain that this facade must obviously imply, for fear of exposing himself to a madman greedy for his youth. Throughout the sonnet, the speaker attempts to be "perfectly ignorant" of his mistress for personal gain, but he only comes across as stupid and masochistic. My love is like a fever, always yearning for that which nourishes the illness longer,nourishing what nourishes the disease. preserve the sick, The unhealthy appetite uncertain to please. My reason, the doctor of my love, Angry that his prescriptions are not kept, has left me, and I now desperately approve. Desire is death, which physics has made safe. I am a past cure, now reason is a past care, and mad frenzy with ever greater agitation; my thoughts and my speech like those of fools are, at random the truth is in vain expressed: For I swore to you of faith and I thought you brilliant, you who are as black as hell, as dark as night . (Shakespeare 1042) Sonnet 147 follows 138, continuing the narrator's story after he leaves his cheating lover. Although it is unclear how the relationship ended, it is evident that the lovers' ties were abruptly severed. Although alienated, the narrator still feels a longing for the woman who scorned him, despite his mind's attempts at reasoning. The poem is filled with hot, fiery language that suggests both his contempt for what she did to him and the desire he still has for her. The first line refers to the "fever, desire still" within him after they leave, and the language that follows is spitting and fierce, full of contempt but still passionate desire for his body. She, the one “who nourishes the illness longer,” has pushed the narrator to the point of no return; his despair drove him to madness (line 2). The narrator now experiences the physical pain of craving his lover's body despite being lied to while he was with her. He struggles here to understand why his heart does not listen to its "doctor", reasoning, recognizing this time that he has a problem, but diagnosing himself as having gone too far to be cured (line 5). Whereas in sonnet 138 the narrator was able to lie to himself and pretend that he had accepted his lover's infidelity, here he cannot deal with the desire and the pain that results from it. The sonnet ends with a message to the woman: “I swore you beautiful and I thought you brilliant, / Who are black as hell, as dark as night” (lines 13-14). For the first time in either sonnet, he talks about his illness long enough to tell her how "right" and "brilliant" he thought she and their relationship were (line 13). He cancels this feeling he once had, now calling it "As black as hell, as dark as night" to serve as his final spit, but also as the trick of the knife he plunged into himself -same (line 14). Shakespeare exposes love in these sonnets as a disease from which his narrator cannot escape or cure himself. In sonnet 138, he inflicts this illness on himself while ignoring the fact that his lover is betraying him, because of the way he feels in response. This theme of self-harm is embodied in the first sonnet in a calm and quiet manner. Although the idea of ​​staying with an unfaithful lover is not at all rational, Shakespeare uses a smooth, easy pace to suggest that the narrator still has intelligence. He recognizes the “simple suppressed truth” in his imposture and seems to have the upper hand in their game (line 8). In Sonnet 147, the narrator submits to illness out of despair and longing for the woman he was once with. He is no longer passive when talking about the woman, but contemptuous and bitter toward the relationship that once existed. He spits out his words, completely unable to be struck by his lover's plight, angrily pumping his fist at the vindication she managed to steal from him. The common theme of these two poems, the masochism that a lover will submit to during the course of a relationship, is best illustrated in this latter sonnet, as the spell of love has completely weakened him to this 8).