Shakespeare's Sonnet 130: Removing the Ideology of Beauty

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;

Coral is far more red than her lips' red ;

If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;

If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

I have seen roses damask, red and white,

But no such roses see I in her cheeks;

And in some perfumes is there more delight

Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

I love to hear her speak, yet well I know

That music hath a far more pleasing sound;

I grant I never saw a goddess go;

My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare

As any she belied with false compare.

–William Shakespeare

   Throughout Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130, he writes lines that seem like an ode to the beauty of his love and yet it is quite the opposite. Shakespeare contrasts her beauty to objects of nature and in doing so, highlights their differences in order to show her true beauty.

   For instance, Shakespeare writes: “Coral is far more red than her lips' red”. This means that her lips are not as red as coral. In most sonnets, the poet compares a part of his love’s body to a beautiful object of nature not contrasts it. Again, Shakespeare contrasts his love’s beauty by stating: “But no such roses see I in her cheeks”. By this he means that he does not see the color of roses in her cheeks. Lastly, Shakespeare contrasts his love’s beauty when he states what could be construed as very offensive: “And in some perfumes is there more delight [t]han in the breath that from my mistress reeks.” Shakespeare is stating that perfumes are more pleasing than the stench of his mistress’s breath!

   In the final stanzas of the sonnet, Shakespeare nicely “redeems” himself when he states: “And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare [a]s any she belied with false compare.” Here Shakespeare has asserted that his love is as rare as any woman who has been falsely represented by exaggerated comparisons.

   The ending of the sonnet is by far the most interesting. In today’s society of the “ideal” woman, which is far from accurate considering the average sized American woman is 5’ 4” ,152 pounds and a size 14/16, beauty is unattainable. Women are compared to unrealistic standards. Shakespeare, in Sonnet 130, removes this ideology and claims that his love goes beyond the boundaries of fictional beauty. His love is real and in that, she is beautiful.

Young Goodman Brown’s Loss of Faith

            “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." (NIV Bible, Gen. 4:7) No stranger to Puritan history and religion, Nathaniel Hawthorne spent many of his formidable years in Salem, Massachusetts.  In fact, his great-great-great-grandfather was a Puritan judge who oversaw the Salem Witch Trials. The influence of religion is evident in his themes which are often based on the internal battle of the human sin nature.  Hawthorne, using characters and metaphors, writes “Young Goodman Brown” as an allegorical warning to show that sin destroys both faith and joy.

            The story of “Young Goodman Brown” takes place in Salem, Massachusetts during the time of the Salem Witch Trials.  It is a time where strict moral code rules the land, legalism is religion, and people often look for evil where there may not be.  The story begins at dusk in the small town of Salem.  The main character is Goodman Brown, a young man newly married to a pure young lady, Faith.   

            The name given to Goodman’s wife, Faith is a key element in which her name symbolically means just that, faith.  Nearly all twenty-five instances of faith are used metaphorically throughout the story.  “My love and my Faith”. (Hawthorne, par. 3)  Hawthorne defines that the wife is indeed Goodman’s love but is also a metaphor for Goodman’s faith in God.  "Say thy prayers, dear Faith…and no harm will come to thee." (Hawthorne, par. 5)  In other words, keep the faith and you will be protected.  As Goodman departs from the town and begins his journey he says after looking back at his wife, ““Poor little Faith...What a wretch am I to leave her on such an errand!”” (Hawthorne, par. 7)  This proclamation implies that Goodman’s faith is waning, that he himself is of little faith.  Upon meeting the “figure of a man” who took the likeness of old Goodman Brown, young Goodman gives an excuse for his tardiness, "Faith kept me back a while."  (Hawthorne, par. 12)  Goodman’s wife did literally delay his meeting and symbolically, Goodman’s faith is what had prevented him from going on this quest for sin sooner.

            Young Goodman Brown’s journey into the forest is an allegory of the lure that sin has on mankind.  Therefore, the departing scene between Goodman and his wife Faith, foreshadows the evil journey that lay ahead.  Faith warns him of the troubling dream she had and begs him to stay and sleep in his own bed.  The young husband replies, “My love and my Faith,…My journey…must needs be done…”. (Hawthorne, par.3)  In other words, Goodman must take this journey tonight.  Metaphorically, the “journey” is the battle of sin that wages on within every man, those with faith and those without.  Those without faith are like unfortified cities.  Those who are strong in faith are armed with its shield but even they can become weakened and lay the shield down for a while.  As Goodman continues through the forest, he time and again considers turning back and yet he somehow remains on the journey.  Goodman’s first attempt to turn from sin is his abrupt declaration to the figure, who is clearly the Deceiver himself, “It is my purpose now to return whence I came.  I have scruples, touching the matter thou wot’st of.” (Hawthorne, par. 15)  Twice more does Goodman attempt to end the journey and twice more he continues on.[1]  Finally, Goodman resolves, ““My Faith is gone!” cried he, after one stupefied moment.  “There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name.  Come, devil! for to thee is this world given.”” (Hawthorne, par. 50)  Sin has drawn him in to where there is no return.  He madly flies through the forest, nearing the finality of his journey.

            Young Goodman Brown allowed his affair with sin to rob him of his faith and joy.  He allows who he sees and what he experiences in the forest to change him forever.  After witnessing those that whom he thought to be righteous, fall into the clutches of sin, Goodman’s sanguinity withers and fades.  He is without faith.  He is without joy.  He allowed the realization that everyone struggles with sin, Christian or not, to alter his faith in God and hope in mankind.  He returns home to his sweet Faith and she runs out to greet him.  “But, Goodman Brown looked sternly and sadly into her face, and passed on without a greeting.”  (Hawthorne, par.70) Allegorically, his own faith does not exist, and so he passes his wife by.  During the Sunday morning service, Goodman sits in the congregation filled with loathe for all of the hypocrisy he sees around him.  He sits in fear that, “…the roof should thunder down upon the gray blasphemer and his hearers.” (Hawthorne, par. 72)

            Young Goodman Brown underestimates the power of sin as he succumbs to its seduction; he comes out a gloomy and hopeless man.  He enters the forest a young and faith filled man.  He enters the grave “a hoary corpse” and “they carved no hopeful verse upon his tomb-stone; for his dying hour was gloom.”  (Hawthorne, par. 72)  Poor, defeated, Goodman Brown; if only he understood the extent of God’s mercy through the gift of Jesus.  If only he understood that man cannot save himself.  “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.”  (NIV Bible Jam. 2:10)   Goodman becomes disillusioned when he loses sight of that truth.  His expectations are unattainable for any man and so he loses his faith which destroys his joy.  Nathaniel Hawthorne, must have known that man is incapable of living a sinless life and unable to save himself and so he writes “The Young Goodman Brown” as a warning to the pious religious of his day.  “As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one””. (NIV Bible Rom. 3:10)

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[1] Paragraph 38 and 39.  Paragraph 46.

Trinity of Sex

Purity

Pleasure

Singularity in three

Romance

Tenderness

Sacrifice of me

Rapture

Enamor

You have set me free

Unity

Wholeness

Now I am complete

Interview with Debby Tang, Ph. D.

            Debby Tang, Ph. D. is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor who owns a private practice in Naperville, Illinois.  She specializes in counseling families, marriages, and children with special needs within the context of family counseling.  Dr. Tang enjoys the emotional engagement and professional accomplishments that come with helping people satisfy their functions in their marriages and in their families.

            Prior to seeking a career as a professional counselor, Dr. Debby Tang, was a history major who graduated from National Taiwan University in Taipei, Taiwan.  Upon graduating, Dr. Tang watched many of her peers leave for the United States to pursue graduate degrees.  During this time, she also met a Chinese psychologist, who had studied in California.  He, in addition to many career assessments and personality tests, greatly influenced her decision to apply to a U.S. school to pursue further education in the field of counseling.

            Tang attended Purdue University in Indiana and first obtained a Master’s degree in community and mental health counseling.  She then obtained a Ph. D. in Counselor Education.  This doctorate not only enhanced her ability to practice in a clinical setting but also gave her the capacity to teach and train other counselors.

            Dr. Tang has been practicing in her field for more than 30 years. During this time, her “job description” has varied.  While working in the university setting, Dr. Tang counseled four to five clients a day.  She would attend various meetings in both individual and group settings.  She often met with her supervisors and peers to collaborate on issues.  As a clinician, Dr. Tang was also responsible for teaching classes and conducting workshops for students.  In addition to working directly with people, she was also responsible for an assortment of administrative tasks related to her work.

            “If you really enjoy what you do, it really isn’t stressful”, says Dr. Debby Tang.  She is a highly motivated clinician who truly loves what she does.  Her only frustration in her job is when she isn’t seeing progress or turnaround in a client’s life.  Dr. Tang believes that “As a Christian, our lives are to serve and glorify God.  If our lives are a mess, we cannot fulfill that role.”  It is her desire to help people come to a place of clarity and healing so that they in turn can fulfill their functions within their marriage, homes, and with God.

            Dr. Tang’s short term goals are to attend scheduled teaching engagements within the next few months.  As Chinese immigrants move to the United States and their communities grow, so also grows their need for Chinese-Christian places of worship.  In that growth also develops a need for “care” ministries that are able to minister to the body of believers.  Dr. Tang will be training and equipping laypeople and pastors at a seminary to help them   minister to their churches more effectively.  She will be doing the same thing in late September for seminary students and laypeople in San Paolo, Brazil.  Her long term goals include pursuing a specialty certificate in Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy.  She describes this field of study as “a unique approach to marriage and couples counseling.”  Certification for this is a lengthy process that she began in November of 2009.

            Dr. Debby Tang enjoys the challenge of her field.  It is her observation that because human beings exhibit so many different and complicated emotions, there is rarely repetition on the job.  She finds it very satisfying to be able to come alongside someone who is suffering and see that person change and put their lives back together.  Dr. Tang is careful to point out that “it is not pleasurable but satisfying…”  Her field may not be as economically rewarding as others, and the investment of time and training may be great, but it is clear that Dr. Tang is finding the true rewards of helping others, to be both here on earth and in heaven.

"I thought I was leading you to water."

"No, you were holding my head under it."

Poetry...

“Poetry is thoughts that breathe, and words that burn.” ~Thomas Gray

I have always enjoyed poetry. It has always been a form of self expression for me. When I faced the many difficulties of my adolescence and teenage years, poetry was there for me; drawing the very thoughts right out of me and allowing me to revisit them over and over again. Poetry validated my pain and later, my love. I wrote love poems to my future husband which he thought were awkward and foreign but for me, reading the words on the page meant my love was real.

“Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime.” ~Unknown

In poetry, to “show” someone your poetry is to give them a window to your soul and allow them to observe, question, and make conclusions. To “tell” someone everything about your poem; how to feel, what to see, or what to think; is to rob them of the biotic relationship between poet, poem, and reader.

“Even when poetry has a meaning, as it usually has, it may be inadvisable to draw it out.... Perfect understanding will sometimes almost extinguish pleasure.” ~A.E. Housman

Understanding the vast color palette of words is crucial to analyzing poetry. It is important to first read a poem for face value and then just as important to read it again, this time savoring each word, line, and stanza. When we are able to able to draw meaning from the words, we give them life but if we dig too deep, we lose the breathtaking panorama of the poem.