Speaker and Subject
Shakespeare’s sonnets are typically classified in reference to speaker and subject. Sonnet 32 is commonly accepted as a “handsome youth” sonnet. This classification as a handsome youth sonnet is significant as it characterizes both the speaker and the subject within the sonnet: the speaker, as a man displaying his affection for the subject who is a young, handsome man.
The identity of the speaker is a well debated topic however. Some believe that the speaker is merely a character that Shakespeare has created as an expression of art. However, the speaker is often thought to be Shakespeare himself, thus giving the content of the sonnet a much more personal sentiment. Some depict the voice of the speaker merely as a “construct” character by the author to “generate…reader interest, sympathy, and involvement that deserve closer attention”. Thus the speaker is not a reflection of the author but instead an authorial tool to evoke interest from the reader.
In contrast, some critics believe that Shakespeare’s sonnets are “autobiograph” and that the two characters within the sonnet are Shakespeare and an unidentified male object of lust or affection.
Ultimately, there is “critical disagreement” over whether the character of Shakespeare’s speaker is ambiguous, Shakespeare himself, or a constructed character.
Read more about this topic: Sonnet 32
Famous quotes containing the words speaker and, speaker and/or subject:
“Good as is discourse, silence is better, and shames it. The length of the discourse indicates the distance of thought betwixt the speaker and the hearer. If they were at a perfect understanding in any part, no words would be necessary thereon. If at one in all parts, no words would be suffered.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“If the oarsmen of a fast-moving ship suddenly cease to row, the suspension of the driving force of the oars doesn’t prevent the vessel from continuing to move on its course. And with a speech it is much the same. After he has finished reciting the document, the speaker will still be able to maintain the same tone without a break, borrowing its momentum and impulse from the passage he has just read out.”
—Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 B.C)
“One is apt to be discouraged by the frequency with which Mr. Hardy has persuaded himself that a macabre subject is a poem in itself; that, if there be enough of death and the tomb in one’s theme, it needs no translation into art, the bold statement of it being sufficient.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)