Love is a Disease: An Explication of Sonnet 147 Essay

Love is a Disease An Explication of sonnet 147Love is a ail ment. Desire is deadly. When one thinks about Shakespeargons sonnets, the instinctual repartee is the thought of romance. For instance the adoring simple eye of descents, Shall I compare thee to a summertimes day/ Thou are more humply and more temperate (Sonnet 18, 1-2), are thought to be the most famous address from a Shakespearean sonnet. However, instead of describing get it on in a starry-eyed fashion, Shakespeare discusses the punitive characteristics of love in Sonnet 147. The mental image describes love as an infectious illness ca functiond by sexual lusts.The character references top dog k directs better than to indulge his appetite, but he does not listen to his logic. He begins the sonnet by stating the primary issue love is a disease. He transitions into explaining that the cure for this disease is precedent, heretofore he does not have swear that he bath starve his sexual want. He finally shifts t o a more frantic adduce and in the end addresses the cause of his illness, the bleak lady. Shakespeare articulates his hostile definition of love through fashioning love as a disease to display the tribulations of love, lust, and desire.In the archetypal quatrain, there is the description of the sonnets primary topic, which is that love is a disease. The content suggests the combat in the midst of love versus sexual appetite. His love is diseased because he has an enthusiastic appetite for lust, which when indulged in makes the disease worse. Shakespeare utilizes the metaphor My love is as a fever (Sonnet 147, 1) at the very beginning of the poem to make a strong statement that his love is a disease, and similarly to introduce the chief(prenominal) idea throughout the sonnet. The placement of the metaphor displays that his unenthusiastic viewpoint of love is prominent. Secondly, he utilizes punctuation to earn a clear argument. After the metaphor, My love is as a fever, (1 ) there is a comma dividing the first line in half.This comma is not a hard punctuation mark, however it isolates the initial metaphor. In doing so, the metaphor stands out immediately and makes these speech communication eve more important. Shakespeare uses feminine rhyme to form unity within the quatrain. The riming linguistic process are still, disease, ill and please. from each one word is important to the meaning of the first quatrain love is a disease that still yearns to be pleased. Additionally, he ends the each quatrain with a period. Thepunctuation at the end of each quatrain keeps the ideas associate and the transition between the sonnets consistent content more obvious. For example, the first quatrain discusses love as a disease and the following quatrain discusses the dangers of desire versus the intelligence of solid ground.In the mho quatrain, the persona discusses the battle between desire and reason. He conveys that reason is the doctor who can cure this dis ease, however he does not oblige. He declares that desire is heartbreaking and lethal. Shakespeare uses embodiment of the word reason, My reason, and the physician to my love (5). Reason is personified as a doctor to show that the mind is what cures a dangerous sexual appetite. The personification of reason brings the word to life and makes it more powerful and of greater importance. This displays the specialisation reason has over desire. Shakespeare carries the metaphor of love as a disease from the first quatrain into the second quatrain through the use of diction. He uses many lyric poem that refer to medical terms to align with the disease metaphor. For example, he uses the manner of speaking physician(5) and prescription(6) to keep with the motif of the first quatrain to unify meaning. appetite has already been defined as devious in the first quatrain when it is referred to as a sickly appetite(4), however Shakespeare takes it a step elevate when he uses the metaphor Des ire is death (8). Like the personification of reason, this metaphor gives the word desire greater importance. This aids in the quatrains principal(prenominal) dispute of reason versus desire. Desire is death, is a harsh and unsophisticated metaphor. The persona expresses that desire is what causes the toxic disease. The use of punctuation also isolates the words desire and reason to show their importance to the quatrain. My reason, (5) is followed by a comma. When the commentator says this out loud, it forces the reader to pause where the coma is. In doing so, the word reason is separate from the rest of the sentence and emphasized. The comma also creates a ocular separation that creates emphasis. In the same way, Desire is death, (8), is also followed by a comma. The same emphasis applies here, which strengthens the quatrains conflict of reason versus desire.In the third quatrain, the persona expresses that he is abject. His sexual appetite cannot be cured. He is now angry, an d corresponding a madman tellslies due to his detrimental sexual desires. This quatrain portrays the conflict between desire and the cure. Desire has overcome the cure and the persona is now hopeless of overcoming this disease. In the first line, Shakespeare introduces the meaning of the quatrain, Past cure I am, now reason is past care (9). Shakespeare uses repetition in the first line to emphasize the personas hopelessness of being cured. Along with repetition, an anaphora is used to greater tie the phrases together and create greater emphasis.The words care and cure are similar in sound and create a relationship, which underlines the personas loss of reason. Punctuation is used to separate two ideas within the quatrain this is done through the use of a trailer truck colon. The first segment is Past cure I am, now reason is past care/ And frantic-mad with evermore unrest (9-10). It expresses his frantic hopelessness and is stop by the semicolon. After which, the second segment states My thoughts and my discourse as madmens are,/ At random from the truth vainly expressd (11-12).The second part expresses that he feels like a madman, and like a madman has begun to tell frivolous lies. The semicolon creates a break between the two ideas and reveals a regression from the personas frantic and hopeless state to the state of a madman. In addition, the second semicolon creates a separation between the quatrain and the couplet, which also are two ideas that are separate in meaning and sound because the end of the third quatrain transitions from the persona talking about his faults to the persona discussing somebody else.The couplet at the end strays away from the metaphor in the first three quatrains, that love is a disease and surprises the reader by addressing the injustice lady directly. The sonnet shifts dramatically because the persona is no longer talking about himself and his disease he identifies another character, the black lady. The persona declares h er demonic nature and finally explains the initiation of his sexual appetite, his disease. He claims that he use to think that the dark lady was gentle and beautiful, however he intimate that she is annoyance. Shakespeare uses a simile to emphasize the dark ladys dark qualities, he says Who art black as hell, as dark as night (14).The similes clearly reveal the malevolent nature of this woman and the villainy the persona carries towards her. The two similes are similar because they both use dark, evil words black, hell, dark and night.The abundance of inconsolable words stresses the personas feelings that the dark lady is evil and the stem of his complaint.Shakespeare clearly sums up in fourteen lines that a sexual appetite is a dangerous entity. The persona reveals his transition of arguments filling his head, sexual appetites verses love, desire versus reason, and desire versus cure. At the end, he finally breaks down and identifies the source of his problems, the loathed dark lady. This sonnet reveals Shakespeares notion that women are dangerous beings. Women cause diseases because mens sexual appetites need to be fed, however this leads to the disease growing.He expresses that the mind, reason, can overcome and cure this desire but men are hopeless to follow. Ultimately he reveals how not only are women the source of disease, but they also are deceivers who fake beauty and are truly wicked. The use of diction, metaphors, similes, repetition and more emphasizes Shakespeares detest. Through Sonnet 147, he reveals that lust is infectious and all consuming and that it leads to lack of reason, lies and dangerous women.