Interpretation of Shakespeare's Sonnet 116

[Let me not to the marriage of true minds]

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
   If this be error and upon me proved,
   I never writ, nor no man ever loved. 

          Being a poem about everlasting love it is fitting that Shakespeare's Sonnet 116 should begin with two lines mimicking the words announced by the priest at most wedding ceremonies (Shakespeare 472). The call to all those present, if any reject the two people joining together, to speak and explain why. I feel that what Shakespeare has written is a response to such a summon as well as a declaration or warning toward those who seek true love.
          The writing emphasizes the immortality of love and claims it as not just an emotion, such as anger or happiness, which can fluctuate depending on a person's surroundings, but as a state of permanent being "Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds" (Shakespeare 472). Shakespeare goes on to declare that honest love is so much embedded within a being that even when an inside force, such as unfaithfulness, pushes it and begs it to break, love will not falter or change.
          Love is described as reliable and ever present, to the extent that it is compared to the Northern star, a guide by which one leads his or her life (Shakespeare 472). The strong convictions of this poem leave the reader needing a brave, victorious ending. Shakespeare satisfies the need for closure by prompting that if love is not as he has described then he has never written a word and no man has ever truly loved (Shakespeare 472).

 Works Cited:

       Shakespeare, William (1609). [Let me not to the marriage of true minds]. In B. Alison, & K. J. Mays, The Norton Introduction to Literature 10th Edition (pp. 472). New York, London: W.W. Norton & Company.

theme of "The Birth Mark" by Nathaniel Hawthorne

          Whether hanging in a tree, floating in water, or sleeping in bed humans are an imperfect species. Seeing people as flawed beings is not a mere perception, rather it is fact, proven by the limitations of mental and physical dexterity. A single person cannot retain all the world's information any more than one man can live forever. Though such natural observations are undeniable they have perplexed some of human history's greatest minds. In Nathanial Hawthorne's "The Birth Mark" Aylmer, an elite scientist, is crazed with the idea of perfection and determined to create it by means of his beloved wife, Georgiana. However, he is met with grave consequence that leads the reader to ask "Should anyone contend with earth's natural order?".
            Hawthorne was an American writer during the 19th century (The American Novel). Though this biographical information does not define all of his works, it does help to widen the perspective of the reader. He was alive during the aftermath of a drastic world-wide shift, concerning just about every aspect of society, known as the Industrial Revolution. The scientist within "The Birth Mark", I believe, is symbolic of those who lead this radical transformation, explaining why the story carefully opens by describing him as belonging to the 18th century (Hawthorne, 218).

 

1. Hawthorne, N. (2011). The Birth-Mark. In A. Booth, & K. J. Mays, The Norton Introduction to Literature Portable Tenth Edition (pp. 218-231). New York, London: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

2. The American Novel - Nathaniel Hawthorne. (2007). Retrieved from PBS: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americannovel/timeline/hawthorne.html