User:Subrata Ray/sandbox

Comment on Shakespeare’s portrayal of his mistress in sonnet no 130. Subrata .Ray, Headmaster Moula Netaji Vidyalaya West Bengal India  –Parijat Mousumi Para -24-09-2016

Shakespeare’s portrayal of his mistress in sonnet no 130 ,-the Dark Lady ,perhaps Mary Fitton  is totally unconventional. The present sonnet is the 4th sonnet in the sonnet sequence addressed to the Dark Lady, that begins from sonnet no 127 ,and closes in sonnet no-152. In Sonnet 130 Shakespeare negates the conventional attributions of rarest beauties of nature upon the lady love that his predecessor Petrarch  and his contemporaries have falsely imposed upon their mistresses .Shakespeare here parodies  the traditional love sonnet, made popular by Petrarch  and his contemporaries  Sir Philip Sidney  and Edmund Spenser. In the conventional sonnets the mistress is the possessor the rarest beauties of nature. Her eyes illumine the rays of sun, her cheeks blush with reddish white ,her breasts are as white as snow , her hair looks like the threads of beaten gold ,her voice is ever melodious ,and when she walks , her feet do not tread the ground. All these according to Shakespeare are nothing but flattery and falsifications. The poet would depict his mistress’ beauty as she herself is. His mistress is ‘black’ in complexion and she is a common place woman. This is why the poet deviates from the conventional Elizabethan love poetry in his sonnet no 130  and individualizes his lady love. Shakespeare in sketching the portraiture of his mistress refers almost all the conventional elements of sonnet ,but  admits that none of those ornamentation his lady possses .The poet states that his lady-love’s eyes are not bright like the sun .Her lips are not as read as sea-coral. Her breasts are rather brown cum gray than to be snow-whitish .Her hairs are natural black, and they are not like golden-wires .The poet confirms that the cheeks of her lady do not tinge the twin- glow of red and white color of rose. Again the breath of the mistress smells unpleasant  odor and it is even not like  the common perfumes. The mistress’ vocal sound is like the common speech of a woman, and the poet finds no musical melody in it .Again in her walk the poet finds the walk of a commonplace lady , not a fairy from heaven .In spite of all those common dispositions of the lady , the poet finds his love genuine. He need no artificial ornamentation for loving his mistress. For ,to the poet love is love ,and it is unconditional and independent. The matter of praising a lady with those qualities that the lady does not bear with her is a cheating game. It otherwise puts insultation on the lady. So the poet would not tell a lie in his depiction of the lady’s portrait. The poet describes his beloved as a lady of flesh and blood. And in his placing the mistress as an average woman ,the poet satirizes the unreal comparisons with which his contemporaries adorned their mistress. So we may conclude that in the portrayal of the mistress the poet is every inch unconventional.