The Sonnets

“My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”

Shakespeare wrote a sonnet cycle that consists of 154 sonnets. While in his plays Shakespeare generally ignores or consciously breaks the classical rules of drama, in his sonnets he often sticks to the stylistic rules that existed. Most sonnets are divided into 3 quatrains (3 groups of 4 lines) and 1 couplet (2 lines). It would look like this: abab – cdcd – efef – gg The last two lines of a sonnet are special. Sometimes they summarize the image or message from the previous lines, but they can also reverse or contradict the previous lines.

Most sonnet cycles in 16th century England were written to and about a beautiful and chaste, but unattainable woman. Shakespeare’s sonnets, however, are directed to a man and a woman. Some sonnets can be directed to both, either a man or a woman. The man is the speaker’s main object of love and beauty, while the woman is described as unfaithful and not beautiful in a conventional way.

Are the sonnets autobiographical?

The sonnets are often read as autobiographical. This means that people have interpreted William Shakespeare himself as the speaker in the sonnets. In the sonnets there is a lot of consistent use of the first person. Moreover, the sonnets are original and psychologically complex and some sonnets even identify the speaker as “Will”. These are strong arguments for an autobiographical interpretation. Of course this kind of interpretation has led to a lot of speculation. Because if William Shakespeare is the speaker, then who are the “fair friend” and the “dark lady”? Unfortunately it is very difficult to fill in the blanks, because we just do not have enough factual evidence of Shakespeare’s life and the people in it.