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.