The Unequal love Between William Shakespeare and the Young Man

鄒依桐（云南大學外國語學院，云南 昆明 950500）

Abstract: William Shakespeare（1564—1616）is one of the most famous writers in the world.In most of his sonnets,a young man is a listener.Shakespeare showed his love to him.This essay analyses the love between William Shakespeare and the young man.

Key words: William Shakespeare, the young man, unequal love

When talking about Shakespeare and the young man, many scholars believe that there is true love between them.However,if we admit the possibility of their love, it’s hard to explain why Shakespeare always forgives the betrayal of the young man.I think the reason is that the love between Shakespeare and the young man is not equal.

Ⅰ.Different Social Status between Shakespeare and the Young Man

In Shakespeare’s sonnets, many words implicate his humble status and young man’s higher status.This makes the young man more superior in their love.

Shakespeare’s humble status is expressed by slavish semantic and slavish suggestions.Shakespeare titled himself as a low-status-people for many times in the sonnets, in which the slavish meaning is revealed.Sonnet 57 is a representative of such kind of feeling.At the start of the sonnets 57 Shakespeare states “Being your slave” and in line 11 he continues to compare himself as “a bad slave”.（Shakespeare 114）.Such kinds of self-calling also exist in sonnet 35（accessory）, sonnet 58（slave, vassal）and sonnet 111（willing patient）.On the contrary, the young man’s image in the sonnets is always a superior.Shakespeare titles him as “lord of my love”, “tenth Muse”, “my sovereign” and“king”.

Status in the works is based on status in the real world.In the real world the young man has higher social status than Shakespeare.In sonnet 67, the lines “And with his presence grace impiety, That sin by him advantage should achieve.”better suggest that point in a direct way.Young man has high social status.Others can play up to him to get benefits.

Ⅱ.Young Man’s Identity as a sponsor

In Shakespeare’s sonnets, some details suggest that the young man is wealthy and is the sponsor of him.This makes it hard for Shakespeare to give the young man up.

Since the existence of the rival poet, Shakespeare has showed his sadness and anxiousness.However，this emotion is not only because of his loss of young man’s praise, but also young man’s money.If we only analyze sonnet 21, sonnet 23, sonnet 38, sonnet 78 and sonnet 79, we may infer that what Shakespeare is afraid is the loss of young man’s love.However, in sonnet 80 a new reason is described: “O, being wracked, I am a worthless boat, He of tall building, and of good pride.” In these two lines, a new economical concept is added: investigation.In these two lines Shakespeare compares him to the worthless boat and compares the rival poet to a tall building, and persuades the young man to pay more attention to him.Because if Shakespeare fails, the young man may lose a small sum of money, but if the rival poet fails, the young man may lose a big sum of money.

Having taken the economic factor into consideration, we find that Shakespeare’s panic is not only the loss of young man’s love, but also his money.It’s also the reason why Shakespeare forgives the young man even when he has sex with his mistress.

Works Sited

[1]屠岸，“莎士比亞十四行詩一百首”.北京：中國對外翻譯出版公司，1992