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Analysis of Shakespeare's Sonnet 120

Sonnet 120 explores the poet's relationship with the fair youth. The poet acknowledges that he once caused the youth sorrow through his unkindness, just as the youth's past trespass caused the poet pain. However, they have both endured suffering as a result of each other's past actions. The poet argues that their mutual offenses have balanced each other out, allowing their friendship to continue as their pains have "ransomed" each other.

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532 views3 pages

Analysis of Shakespeare's Sonnet 120

Sonnet 120 explores the poet's relationship with the fair youth. The poet acknowledges that he once caused the youth sorrow through his unkindness, just as the youth's past trespass caused the poet pain. However, they have both endured suffering as a result of each other's past actions. The poet argues that their mutual offenses have balanced each other out, allowing their friendship to continue as their pains have "ransomed" each other.

Uploaded by

Charisse Viste
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as RTF, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

SONNET 120

That you were once unkind, befriends me now,

And for that sorrow, which I then did feel

Needs must I under my transgression bow,

Unless my nerves were brass or hammered steel.

For if you were by my unkindness shaken,

As I by yours, y' have pass'd a hell of time,

And I, a tyrant, have no leisure taken

To weigh how once I suffer'd in your crime.

O, that our night of woe might have remember'd

My deepest sense, how hard true sorrow hits,

And soon to you, as you to me, then tendered

The humble salve which wounded bosoms fits!

But that your trespass now becomes a fee;

Mine ransoms yours, and yours must ransom me.

NOTES

CXX. The poet urges that the pain he had once suffered from his friend's conduct (cf. xl., &c.) should be
taken into account with respect to the seeming want of regard which he had displayed during the period
of separation. The one must be taken as a set-off against the other.

3. Thinking that I have now inflicted on you similar pain.

4. Unless my nerves, &c. Unless I were destitute of feeling.


6. Y' have pass'd a hell of time. Cf. "Though waiting so be hell" (lviii. 13); and Lucrece, 1287 and 1288:

"And that deep torture may be call'd a Hell,

When more is felt than one hath power to tell."

7, 8. And I a tyrant, &c. I, like a tyrant, have been regardless of the pain I inflicted, not even sparing time
to think of the suffering I once endured.

9, 10. Our night of woe. On that former occasion. The expression "night of woe" may be metaphorical,
though it is, of course, possible that reference may be made to some particular night. Might have
remembered my deepest sense. Might have caused my deepest sense to remember.

11. And that I had soon tendered to you, as you tendered to me on that former occasion.

12. The humble salve. The humble apology. Fits. Suits.

13. That former trespass of yours against me has become something which I can offer as a payment and
ransom for my own offence.

__________________

Sonnet 120 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. It's a
member of the Fair Youth sequence, in which the poet expresses his love towards a young man.

Summary
The poet and the youth now are able to appreciate traded injuries, with the poet neglecting the youth
for his mistress and the youth committing a vague "trespass." But their positions are only reversed in a
rhetorical sense, for the poet still argues that they remain friends: "But that your trespass now becomes
a fee; / Mine ransoms yours, and yours must ransom me." Sonnet 120 embodies yet another variation
on the poet's transference of roles from sufferer — "And for that sorrow which I then did feel" — to
inconstant wrongdoer — ". . . you were by my unkindness shaken" — to tyrant — "And I, a tyrant, have
no leisure taken." The poetic story suddenly becomes complex and tortured by another's presence,
although this presence remains in the background.

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