Introduction
The study of the work of William Shakespeare can be very hard and confusing. But with the help of Google, looking up difficult words can aid comprehension. The Bard’s difficult texts were easier for me to analyze by doing this simple task.
In Sonnet 4, Shakespeare describes a woman’s unused and ungenerous physical beauty, which she dares not share with the world or those around her. The poem’s use of certain words gives us clues into the unique style of this woman who refuses to give up her loveliness.
A Stingy Luxury
In the first two words, unthrifty loveliness, we see that Shakespeare wants more from the young lady than to just behold or be in awe of her beauty. The speaker in the poem wishes to control what he sees in front of him, and in the first lines he tells the young lady this. He tries to persuade her that natural beauty like hers is meant to be shared with someone, freely exchanged with a partaker, not abused by her or just taken to her grave.
The poet-speaker says that if the lady insists on keeping her loveliness to herself, nature will not continue to be kind to her. She will grow old, lose her beauty, and will not leave anything behind if she does not share her gift. The speaker calls the woman spiteful, using the word niggard, an archaic word meaning stingy and meanly covetous, because she does not want to let others misuse her special qualities.
Conclusion
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 4 allows the reader to see that if you have quiet confidence, you do not have to let others abuse or misuse you. Especially if you are a young woman, it is good to be independent and good to respect yourself. And this is what the young woman in the poem is doing by not spreading herself too thin, as the cliché goes: she is sticking to her beliefs and saving herself from the world. She is saving herself from being mistreated by men, no matter what enticing things they may say to persuade her to behave in a way she does not want to.
Read more artistic expressions on our Zealousness blog Artistic Expressions – iN Education Inc. (ineducationonline.org)
