Journal 9: 140, 149, 152
In 140 Shakespeare is urging the Dark Lady to “Be wise as thou art cruel; do not press/ My tongue-tied patience with too much disdain,/ Lest sorrow lend me words, and words express/ The manner of my pity-wanting pain.” So his ego has obviously been hurt by her and he is saying that she should not push his buttons or he will tell her how sad he is and how much pain she has caused him. The last line of the ending couplet seems to make the same point, “Bear thine eyes straight, though thy proud heart go wide.” which I have interpreted as Shakespeare telling the Dark Lady to really see what is going on, even though it is in her nature to be proud and not see or choose to ignore unpleasant truths.
Sonnet 149 is extremely powerful, in my opinion, and Shakespeare is expressing how difficult it is to love the Dark Lady “But love, hate on; for now I know thy mind./ Those that can see thou lov’st, and I am blind.” Shakespeare also mentions what I assume is the fair youth in this sonnet, “Who hateth thee that I do call my friend?/ On whom frown’st thou that I do fawn upon?”, which makes me think that perhaps the Dark Lady and the fair youth had some sort of fight and that Shakespeare is caught in between the two powerful forces.I think that Shakespeare may be struggling with his superego; "Revenge upon myself with present moan", which I think could mean that he is angry at himself for his own purely sexual id that wants the Dark Lady, despite the pain she causes him.
Shakespeare is really acknowledging his id in 152, “But why of two oaths breach do I accuse thee/ When I break twenty?...” that he has slept with a lot of different people and is not easily accountable to “bed-oaths”, as he puts them, and yet he is angry with the Dark Lady for breaking it twice, which I think is touching on the Freudian superego; that even though he also breaks with societal norms he still expects on some level that they be maintained and that the world can’t be just a sexual free-for-all. This sonnet confuses me though, because I thought that Shakespeare was aware that the Dark Lady was, to put it kindly, less than virginal. Does anyone have an idea as to what I’m missing here?
-Hilary
152
This sonnet left me with several unanswered questions as well. I missed the twenty women part, I didnt piece that together. I like the analysis that you made about the way that Shakespeare is talking about the "bed-oaths". When I think about the way that you saw it, it makes me think that Shakespeare thought that it was alright for him to have many sexual- exploits because he is a man and she is a women, and a women should not be as 'easy'. But that also confuses me too because I also thought that Shakespeare knew about her exploits before.
mmmm....
well these three verses semed in greater part to me, gender neutral and could be argued that the fair youth has grown disadiful of the author.
"Oh great Sandwich Maker from Bob! Life, will be a very great deal less weird without you" Old Thrashbarg
deno
Fight Indeed
That's a good point too Renee, and I can't say for sure, but it seemed like a logical conclusion based on what we know about both the fair youth and the Dark Lady; that is, that they are both passionate people, and if they were in some sort of love triangle with Shakespeare of all people I'm sure that at some point sparks will fly!
-Hilary
Fight
I think there is a lot of merit to the idea that those two lines in 149 refer to the Fair Youth. It would make sense following the enslaved "friend." They get in a fight, then Shakespeare is caught between his two loves. I simply took these lines to say that he will hate who she hates and hate who hates her. But I can see more of the awkward love triangle in this too.
-Renee Ward