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    Shakespeare/Sonnet 94

    Number of Pages: 5

     

    Summary of the research paper:

    A 5 page essay that critically analyzes the meaning of Shakespeare's Sonnet 94. The writer argues that this enigmatic and uncharacteristically chilly sonnet is a criticism of the aristocratic class and how they use their power. Bibliography lists 7 sources.

    Name of Research Paper File: D0_khwill94.rtf

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    love and beauty, Sonnet 94 is uncharacteristically chilly, and offers a memorable metaphor of "festering lilies," which represent the poets "disillusionment of love and ambition" (Pacheco B03). Sonnet 94  has been interpreted a number of ways by countless scholars. Michael Schoenfeldt, for example, examines the poem "in terms of humoral and Galenic theory," while noting "some analogous rocks of  stability in the Bible" (Prescott 49).. Still another critic characterizes the poem as working through "a tone not of infatuation but of social reproof and moral authority," which relates  to the power of the aristocrat to act in a manner that he pleases, or to chose not to act, which contrasts against the fact that such freedom is not  an option to the lower class (Oxquarry Books). The following examination of Sonnet 94 looks at the poem from this perspective, seeing it as a condemnation of certain aristocrats who  stand aloof from society and, in so doing, prove themselves to be as useless as the lilies that fester in the summer sun. According to Peters, critics often fail  to appreciate that Shakespeares comprehension was predicated on "a natural dynamic derived from the natural processes of life" (Peters). As this suggests, Shakespeare finds logic demonstrated in nature and  it is this source on which he draws for determining right and wrong (Peters). According to Peters, Shakespeare defines the ability to discern between right and wrong as a  matter of judgement predicated on the conditions for existence inherent in nature. The viewpoint that this natural perspective generates enables the poet to correct inconsistencies that occur within the thinking  process (Peters). Sonnet 94, therefore, examines the consequences of inaction that result from unrealistic goals (Peters). In lines 1 through 8, Shakespeare confronts those who should act, i.e. 

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