Characters
When analysed as characters, the subjects of the sonnets are usually referred to as the Fair Youth, the Rival Poet, and the Dark Lady. The speaker expresses admiration for the Fair Youth's beauty, and later has an affair with the Dark Lady. It is not known whether the poems and their characters are fiction or autobiographical; scholars who find the sonnets to be autobiographical, notably A. L. Rowse, have attempted to identify the characters with historical individuals.
Read more about this topic: Shakespeare's Sonnets
Famous quotes containing the word characters:
“Thus we may define the real as that whose characters are independent of what anybody may think them to be.”
—Charles Sanders Peirce (18391914)
“The more gifted and talkative ones characters are, the greater the chances of their resembling the author in tone or tint of mind.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (18991977)
“My characters never die screaming in rage. They attempt to pull themselves back together and go on. And thats basically a conservative view of life.”
—Jane Smiley (b. 1949)