What is the speaker's tone in "Sonnet 18?"
In "Sonnet 18," Shakespeare expresses his feelings about love and the fair young man he calls his “rose”. The speaker has many complex emotions, but they all center on two things: pain and pleasure. In other words, this is a sonnet with mixed emotions. The speaker is deeply in love, but their love is painful. It gives him agony to have to leave the young man in order to spend time with nature in the country. And yet, the speaker also enjoys being away from him for a little while so that he can think about him more clearly when he’s back once again.
The speaker of "Sonnet 18" is sarcastic, cynical, and embittered. The speaker seems to be addressing a person (or perhaps a group) with whom he feels some sort of conflict. The sonnet opens with a barrage of insults and put-downs: “Shall plague or fire or falling tree reveal / New danger to keep us in awe?” This question is clearly meant as an insult, given that the speaker immediately follows it with “And thus shall man much sooner return to dust.” This first quatrain establishes a sense of distrust and antagonism between the speaker and his target. In the second quatrain, we see how bitter the speaker has become about this person or group, who he calls “an unkind’st cut of man’s invention.” Note how all three instances of cut refer to something maliciously designed against him—a betrayal from someone he thought was his friend. The third quatrain reveals more about the nature of the rift between them: It seems that this person once helped our speaker in some way but has now abandoned him: “O thou false coiner! \Why pretendest thou that thou hast not falsed me?” Here we see just how bitter and resentful the speaker is towards this person; they are no longer friends—if they ever were—and their relationship is irreparable.
Opinion of the addressee
The speaker is clearly outraged at whoever he is addressing. This person has done something to displease the speaker and has betrayed his trust. The speaker addresses his opponent as “false,” “unkind,” and a “coiner,” so the relationship between him and this person has clearly soured. We can infer that this person is male from the speaker’s use of “man” in l. 5. However, the speaker does not specify who he is addressing, so we cannot glean too much information about his opponent.
Speaker's attitude towards love and Romance
In the first quatrain, the speaker seems to be mocking the idea that there is such a thing as true love. He refers to the plague and fire as “dangers” that can keep people in awe, suggesting that such things are not actually dangerous but are only dangerous in the mind of a person who “fall[s] in love.” This is not the only bit of sarcasm we see in this sonnet. In the third quatrain, the speaker says, “Thy love is new, \And as vernal flow’rs be false in May,” mocking the idea that one’s love will last forever. Through his sarcastic tone, the speaker clearly does not believe in the existence of true love, and he does not believe that a person can find love more than once in their life.
Speaker's tone and language
The tone of the speaker’s language is bitter, sarcastic, and cynical. He is clearly mocking and insulting the person he is addressing—he calls this person a “coiner” and a “false friend,” and he insists that the person “pretend[s]” not to have falsed him. The word “pretend” is key to understanding the speaker’s tone. In this context, it is defined as “to make a false show of” something. The speaker is saying that the person he is addressing is not being sincere but is only pretending to like him (or perhaps to have liked him in the past). The word “pretend” is a double-edged sword in this poem—it not only reveals the bitterness of the speaker, but it also reveals the bitterness of his addressee.
Interpretation and meaning
This poem has long been associated with Shakespeare’s love for the woman who would become his wife, Anne Hathaway. However, many scholars now believe that this poem is not about love but about betrayal. There are actually several clues within the poem to suggest this interpretation. First, the sonnet is about “false friends,” not about love. Second, Shakespeare does not sign either of the two versions of this poem, suggesting that he did not intend them to be read as love poems. Third, the addressee in Sonnet 18 is addressed as “thou” and not “you,” which is often used to address an intimate other. This sonnet may actually be about the speaker’s hurt feelings as a result of betrayal. It may be that Shakespeare wrote this sonnet as a way to get out his anger and frustration over the fact that his friend (or perhaps his wife) had broken their promise and had not repaid him for some favor that he had done for them.
Summing up
"Sonnet 18" is a poem that exposes the speaker’s bitterness, cynicism, and sarcasm. He is addressing an opponent whom he clearly despises, and his language reveals the depths of his anger and resentment. Throughout the poem, the speaker mocks and insults his opponent, revealing his bitterness towards this person whom he once trusted. This poem is about betrayal and resentment, and it may have been written in response to a broken promise or a broken friendship.
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