Steven blackman

Steven Blackman Ms. Angle-Newman AP Literature/ Period 6 15 September 2012 Sonnet 147 In Sonnet 147, by William Shakespeare, the emotions and attitudes displayed in the poem by the speaker are most similar to those of character Ophelia from Hamlet. Ophelia and speaker of the sonnet both display characteristics of sadness for the loss of love, desire for the one that they did love, and similar attitudes of betrayal or deceit. Ophelia and the speaker show many similarities in the play and the sonnet. In Sonnet 147, the speaker of the sonnet shows emotions of sadness, deceit, and madness. In the sonnet, the speaker expresses the emotion of his love being like a fever he constantly desires. The speaker begins “ My love is as a fever, longing still”, in the first line describing the emotion of his yearning love. Another emotion expressed in the sonnet is deceit. The speaker displays this emotion when describing his lover and then seeing her actual true personality. An attitude of madness is also revealed when the speaker rationalizes his thought process. This madness brought upon him when his reason leaves him. The speaker’s love causes him to be blind and unable accept his significant other’s true identity. In Hamlet, Ophelia expresses numerous emotions throughout the entire play. In the play Ophelia shows traits of madness after her father’s death with her habit of singing a song about a maiden tricked losing her virginity. Ophelia also displays emotions of a weak woman with constant manipulation on her from her father and Hamlet. This is evident when Hamlet tells her “ I loved you not” in Act III after previously giving her poems and love letters describing his feelings for her. Ophelia is very abused by Hamlet’s slanders and insults to her leaving her vulnerable from being called unfaithful and dishonest by him. Ophelia also shows attitude of being deceived by Hamlet after he reveals he never truly loved her when speaking on how she too was tricked by someone else’s words. Her madness is furthermore shown when her death is described as either her committing suicide or attempting not to save herself after falling in a pool of water. The way Ophelia dies is a metaphor to how she lived her life by just “ going with the flow” of what her father told her and her and going with the downward flow of the water pulling her down like it had a mind of its own. Ophelia and the speaker both show very similar traits of desiring for someone that does not want them, being vulnerable, and being deceived by their lovers. Ophelia shows her desire for Hamlet in the play constantly through her actions, while the speaker of the sonnet does with a tone of being “ sick from love”. The speaker is proven vulnerable like Ophelia when saying “ Desire is death, which physic did except” (line 8). The speaker is vulnerable to his partner abandoning him as Hamlet did to Ophelia after verbally and mentally abusing her in the play. The speaker and Ophelia show attitudes of being betrayed by their lovers. The speaker’s attitude is displayed in lines 13 and 14 when saying “ For I have sworn thee fair and thought thee bright, Who art as black as hell, as dark as night. ” The speaker’s attitude is revealed because he once viewed his lover good and bright as the day, but she was really impure and dark as the night. Similar to the speaker, Ophelia expresses this equal burden in Act III of the play when saying “ Indeed, my lord, you made me believe” and “ I was the more deceived”. Ophelia is convinced by Hamlet that their love between them both is real but faces betrayal when Hamlet makes a complete change in his attitude and actions toward Ophelia referring to her as cunning and fickle explaining that he never had feelings for her. All in all, both the play and sonnet show similar thoughts of love sickness from Ophelia and the speaker to their significant others. Ophelia and the speaker exhibit common feelings of desire, betrayal, and also proven vulnerable to their love interests. Shakespeare’s works ultimately both present very alike attributes.