Tropes in Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116

Readily recognized by viewers of the 1995 adaption of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, William Shakespeare’s sonnet 116 is sometimes associated with Mr. Willoughby’s lack of sincerity. This is rather ironic, however, as the sonnet is entirely about the constancy and endurance of love. Shakespeare uses various metaphors and other tropes, or figures of thought, to convey this aspect of true love, as I will examine below.

The first metaphor appears in the first line of the sonnet. Love is described as “the marriage of true minds.” Marriage is a lasting bond between two people, so if we consider love as lasting, then the metaphor of marriage fits Shakespeare’s description of love perfectly. Instead of being a fleeting fancy or a temporary agreement between two people, or two true minds as Shakespeare puts it, marriage is a life-long commitment and thus true love must also be a life-long commitment.

“It is an ever-fixed mark, that looks on tempests and is never shaken,” describes love’s endurance even though metaphorical storms may attempt to shake it. Interestingly enough, one definition of a mark is a sign or indication of a quality of feeling (e.g. a mark of respect). This particular feeling, love, is unmovable in difficulties.

The third metaphor of love Shakespeare uses is Polaris, the guiding star that remains constant to guide lost ships, or wandering barks. The next line can be rather baffling, but refers to the unknown nature of the guiding star’s worth or substance, but its height can be calculated. Likewise, love is a constant guide to mankind, particularly when they would otherwise be lost. However, the true nature of love, what it really is, cannot be determined, though many philosophers have tried and many poets have considered and described various aspects of love. We cannot understand or comprehend love in its whole.

Shakespeare in all but the last two lines of the rest of the poem personifies Time as a being in possession of objects that could diminish or destroy anything but the truest love as described in this poem. Love isn’t something which becomes nothing but a laughable fancy over time, neither is love based solely on the physical things which pass over time. It stays true and doesn’t waver over the passage of time. In fact, it endures and perseveres in the face of despair and time even until the end of the world.

Some readers perceive this description of love as an ideal. It is an ideal, but it is a true ideal, as Shakespeare vows at the end of his sonnet. Mankind may not experience love like this, but that simply proves that they have not attained true love. They may call what they feel love, but if it isn’t truly love, it doesn’t fit the ideal or perfect love as described through Shakespeare’s various metaphors. That is why Shakespeare is able to exclaim at the beginning of this sonnet that he cannot admit to any impediments in love and why, at the very end, if his conclusion is false, then he has never written, “nor no man ever loved.” Which of course is bogus, so therefore he must be right: a modus tollens. Though what writing has to do with love, I don’t know.