Exploring Love in Shakespeare’s Sonnets Essay - 4114 Words

In Plato’s Symposium, the discussion on the nature of love between Socrates and his companions in the house of Agathon clearly discerns key ideas that Shakespeare uses in the sonnets. Beauty, youth, and love are all topics of discussion in the conversations, and Plato’s ideas show up again and again when the sonnets are explored. In Symposium, Aristophanes gives a detailed description of a time when humans were not in their present physical form (Plato 353). His tale posits that the original form of humankind differed from the present in that â€Å"sexes were not two as they are now, but originally three in number,† to which he adds, â€Å"there was man, woman and the union of the two, having a name corresponding to this double nature,† which is†¦show more content†¦The eye and the heart are a synecdoche to this concept of reunition to the whole. The juxtaposition of the eye and heart in relation to love is a reflection of this Platonic idea of the search for the true match. Does the eye or the heart hold the true key to unlocking the potential of the soul, as it seeks its other half? Similarly, if the eye and heart are two separate parts of a whole body, how must they work together to create an accurate portrayal of love? Considering the relationship between the heart and the eye within certain sonnets as conceits about love, a philosophy on the meaning of love outlined in Plato’s Symposium emerges as the sonnets move from those on the fair youth to the dark lady. Continuing on the tangent of love, Symposium posits one more key idea that is central to understanding Shakespeare’s works, concerning the value of love to the mortal man. Plato describes the conversation between Diotima (a love goddess) and Socrates that reinforces Aristophanes’ creation myth. Diotima tells us, â€Å"lovers are seeking for their other half; but I say that they are seeking neither for the half of themselves, nor for the whole, unless the half or the whole be also a good† (Plato 372). This places beauty in the equation, for a lover only seeks that kind of love which will benefit himself or herself. This means that the search for a truth in beauty is complicated, and we only desire that which we considerShow MoreRelated Immortality Through Verse in Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 and Spenser’s Sonnet 751681 Words   |  7 PagesImmortality Through Verse in Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 and Spenser’s Sonnet 75  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚   Desiring fame, celebrity, and importance, people for centuries have yearned for the ultimately unattainable goal of immortality. Poets, too, have expressed desires in verse that their lovers remain as they are for eternity, in efforts of praise. 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