Time and mutability : in Shakespeare's sonnets

Abstract

This dissertation treats the subject of Time and Mutability in Shakespeare's Sonnets. A number of sonnets have been analysed which, as I will seek to demonstrate, conform to this theme. There is, in Shakespeare, a discernment of the mortal as victim of Time and Mutability and therefore, the introduction of this dissertation seeks to put forward the Elizabethan concern with transience. From the very start of the sequence, the speaker of the sonnets is highly conscious of the ravages of Time and urges the young man to marry and beget heirs in order to preserve his beauty in future generations. The first chapter, therefore, focuses on the theme of procreation. What emerges from this group of sonnets is the distinction between age and youth, a concept, which is mainly the result of Shakespeare's utilization of chiaroscuro. Chapter 2 seeks to portray Shakespeare's own negative perception of Time. In contrast to classical writers such as Ovid and Horace, Shakespeare perceives Time as a destructive agent pursuing youth and beauty. In this chapter, Shakespeare's view of time is compared and contrasted with one of his contemporaries, Edmund Spenser, through which I seek to project Shakespeare's view of time as generically pessimistic, with the mortal projected by Shakespeare as vulnerable to Time. In view of Time as that destructive agent, Shakespeare's speaker attempts to provide means for immortalizing the youth. The themes of Poetry and Love as ways to defy Time are explored in the third chapter. Through Poetry, the speaker aims to create a monument for the youth, while Love emerges as that principle of constancy in contrast to the mutability of earthly things. As from the very early stages of life on earth, the human being has sought to keep track of the passage of Time. The concluding chapter deals with a brief history of the development of the clock and the way this might throw light upon Shakespeare's own treatment of the themes of Time and Mutability.