NOTE: Since we're losing two days of class, I want to keep up with The Sonnets so we can roughly finish them before Spring Break. So read the following for Monday's class, and you can turn these in anytime this week.
Read the following Sonnets: 73, 78, 80, 82, 86, 87, 91, 94, 96, 110
Answer TWO of the following:
Q1: In these later Sonnets, a fourth character seems to
enter the scene, someone else to complicate the initial love triangle. Where do
we see a fourth person (and a second rival for the young man's love)? Why might
this rival be even more threatening than the Mistress?
Q2: As a playwright, Shakespeare not only draws from a stock
of theatrical metaphors, but also adopts dramatic poses and rhetoric. Where
might we see the poet adopting a theatrical 'mode' for greater effect? In other
words, why might the poet be adopting a role or simply "acting out"
to elicit a specific emotion from the young man? How do we know this poem might
be a little out of place because of this attitude?
Q3: Is the poet trying to end the relationship himself in
these Sonnets, or do you feel he’s merely trying to deal with the fact that it’s
been over for some time? Who broke up with whom? How do you read a Sonnet like
71, for example, by way of answering this question?
Q4: Do we get any more sense of who the Lover is based on these later Sonnets? Their class, rank, wealth, profession, etc.? Is Shakespeare this person’s inferior? Is he truly a younger man? What clues emerge as their relationship comes to its fatal conclusion? Is Shakespeare (or the poet) more forthcoming with information he might have previously withheld?
No comments:
Post a Comment