Wei LinWR13300-04Professor Milberger28 January 2013Final

Shakespeare’s Fear of a Lonely Death

William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 73” is artfully written and contains a plethora of

metaphors and symbols. “Sonnet 73” is romantic and centered on love with a man, a fair youth,

who the speaker has a relationship with. The narrator is growing old and beginning to feel his

death descending upon him. While the majority of the sonnet is about death and his aging, the

speaker also urges the fair youth to love him and not let him die alone. In the sonnet, he

describes a tree shedding its leaves from winter, the day being swallowed up by the night, and a

flame being exhausted of its fuel as metaphorical representations of death. Through his

structured use of symbolism and evocative imagery, he tries to express his concern with growing

old, his death, and his desire for the fair youth to love him even more, while simultaneously

arguing on a grander scale that we should love someone more dearly as they grow older. His use

of inductive reasoning can be seen as his attempt to let his readers understand what the narrator

is addressing to the fair youth.

The rhetorical tool of logos is prevalent in “Sonnet 73.” It uses inductive reasoning to

arrive at its conclusion while relying heavily on symbolism to point the audience in the direction

of his argument, which can be found throughout the quatrains. The first quatrain talks about a

tree shedding its leaves as autumn slowly dives into he cold and barren winter. While the tree is

not biologically dead, the symbolism of a tree deprived of it leaves gives the impression of

stillness and death. In the second quatrain, the sonnet describes the literal setting of the sun. The

phrase “black night doth take away” symbolizes a thief, taking away the sunlight and causing it

to set (7). At the same time, that “black night” can also refer to death, to which Shakespeare

alludes (7). “Death’s second self” refers to slumber and its correspondence with the death of the

day (8). He continues by illustrating the death of a fire and personifies the fire as sitting on the

ashes of what it had already burned. When he writes, “the death-bed whereon it must expire,” he

is alluding to the immobility of fire and its fate of dying on the same spot where it lived (11).

When Shakespeare uses the phrase “consumed with that which it was nourish’d by,” he is

referring to wood as a fire’s fuel while simultaneously doubling as its deathbed (12). The wood

and fire symbolize youth and humans respectively; humans burn youth until they die from the

lack of it similarly to a fire being extinguished after its fuel is exhausted. Each instance when he

uses symbolism, he is reiterating the core message of “Sonnet 73”; to love the narrator as he

nears his death. Using the first line, “thou mayst in me behold,” Shakespeare is directly

comparing the speaker to autumn, twilight, and a diminishing fire and likewise the speaker is

growing old (1). The symbols found within each quatrain are images of the state of the narrator’s

waning health and life. The numerous symbols he scatters throughout the sonnet all refer to death

and make the reference clear to the audience. The symbols used are usually commonly

understood concepts most individuals know and thus make them easier to relate to. He uses

symbolism many times to create an effective and logical reference towards the concept of death.

His use of logos is effective because he uses a variety of examples and is able to convey

the concept of death to his audience and readers. His use of logos is effective also because of the

organization of the three subjects. By putting each in its own quatrain, it makes the argument

concise and easy to follow and comprehend. Shakespeare could have used many more examples

to attempt to get his point across to the readers, but he ended up only using three. By choosing

only three, he is able to elaborate on the three examples; he describes each with vivid imagery

and a number of symbols. This allows the readers to process each example rather than having a

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handful of examples thrown at them. The order in which he introduces the three examples is also

a great tactic. The “lifespan” of each subject is shorter than the previous: a season spans over

months, a day spans over hours, and a fire can span over a few brief minutes. This organization

of the examples makes the reader sense a degeneration of time. Shakespearean sonnets are

usually in the iambic pentameter and follow the Shakespearean rhyme scheme (abab cdcd efef

gg). “Sonnet 73” does not deviate from this format which indicates that the sonnet is ordered and

does not take many risks, unlike “Sonnet 145.” “Sonnet 145” follows the traditional rhyme

scheme, however, it is written in the iambic tetrameter. The adhesion of “Sonnet 73” to the

traditional Shakespearean format indicates his attention not only to the three examples, but also

to the form of the sonnet. “Sonnet 73” is successful at conveying its argument largely through

Shakespeare’s use of logos, attention to detail, and use of symbolism.

Shakespeare uses an enthymeme to present his logical argument. An enthymeme is an

argument in which a premise of the conclusion is not explicitly expressed. The enthymeme

Shakespeare uses has three premises and has an implied conclusion. As the first premise,

Shakespeare presents the imminent and symbolic death of the three subjects in the three

quatrains. Shakespeare presents his second premise, something along the lines of, “I, similarly to

the three subjects, am approaching the end of my life. He uses the phrases “in me behold” or “in

me thou see’st” to explicitly convey the speaker’s looming end (1, 5, 9). The third premise lies

within the couplet, “This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong. To love that well

which thou must leave ere long” (13-14). The couplet can be interpreted as, “You should love

something that will die soon.” Finally, when the three premises are stringed together, the implied

conclusion is simply that the fair youth should love the speaker. The speaker is like the dying

subjects; since the fair youth should love something that is dying, the fair youth should love the

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speaker. Shakespeare logically expresses the speaker’s thoughts to the audience in a way that is

well structured and easy to follow.

Shakespeare was married to Anne Hathaway and had three children, but Anne Hathaway

seemed to have very little influence over his career as a dramatist and a poet (Pressley,

“Shakespeare's Biography"). She is thought to have influenced one sonnet, “Sonnet 145.”

“Sonnet 145” is about thought to refer to Anne Hathaway through Shakespeare’s use of puns and

similarity in pronunciations; “hate away” can be pun on “Hathaway” and the phrase, “And saved

my life” can be pronounced, “Anne saved my life” ("Sonnet CXLV").  In the sonnet, the line,

“Those lips that Love's own hand did make / Breathed forth the sound that said 'I hate' / To me

that languish'd for her sake,” is about discordance in the speaker and a woman’s relationship

(“Sonnet 145” 1-3). The sonnet ends with the change of heart of the woman, which may refer to

the change of heart of Anne Hathaway (“Sonnet 145” 13-14). However, there must have been a

long period before this change of heart when Hathaway was on bad terms with Shakespeare. This

can be the period when Shakespeare is involved with the fair youth in the majority of his sonnets.

His sonnets were dedicated to a mysterious “Mr. W.H.” whom many have been trying to

identify. Having read “Sonnet 145,” we can see that Shakespeare and Hathaway have somewhat

rekindled their relationship. By understanding Mister W.H. and Hathaway’s relationship with

Shakespeare, we can better understand Shakespeare’s motives for writing his sonnets, which are

addressed, to the two distinct subjects.

William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 73” does its job of expressing his concern of death and

longing for love. He uses a logical approach to symbolize death and his own life nearing death. It

is effective because the symbolism that Shakespeare uses is understandable and relatable.

Readers can follow the structural format that he uses to group the contents mentioned in the

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sonnet. His initial argument can also be put into our perspectives and call us to care for and love

our elderly. His extensive use of logos allows the audience to understand the speaker’s pain,

longing, and fear.

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Bibliography

Mabillard, Amanda. “Most Common Questions About Shakespeare.” Shakespeare Online. 20 Aug. 2000. Web. 30 Jan. 2013. <http://www.shakespeare-online.com/biography/shakespearetopquestions.html >.

Rolfe, W. J. Ed. “Who was ‘Mr. W. H.’?.” From Shakespeare's Sonnets. New York: American Book Company, 1905. Shakespeare Online. 20 Aug. 2009. Web. 7 Feb. 2013. < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/whowaswh.html >.

Pressley, J. M. “Shakespeare's Biography." Shakespeare Resource Center. 15 Jan. 2012. Web. 30 Jan. 2013. <http://www.bardweb.net/man.html>.

Wilde, Oscar. "The Portrait Of Mr W. H." Blackwood, 1889. Web. 08 Feb. 2013. <http://www.kingkong.demon.co.uk/gsr/portmrwh.htm/>.

"Sonnet CXLV." Shakespeare's Sonnets. Oxquarry Books Ltd, n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2013.

SONNET 73That time of year thou mayst in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hangUpon those boughs which shake against the cold, Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. In me thou seest the twilight of such day As after sunset fadeth in the west, Which by and by black night doth take away,Death's second self, that seals up all in rest. In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire That on the ashes of his youth doth lie, As the death-bed whereon it must expire Consumed with that which it was nourish'd by.    This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong,   To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

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