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“My Mistress’ Eyes are Nothing Like the Sun” by William Shakespeare

Original Assignment: http://jerz.setonhill.edu/EL150/2008/sonnet-shakespeare.php

“And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare/ As any she belied with false compare.”  (Lines 13-14).

In my own relationship, I don’t accept empty compliments.  When my boyfriend tells me I’m beautiful when I’ve just crawled out of bed with my hair in knots, wearing an old paint stained t-shirt and sweatpants, with breath that could take out Hiroshima (“And in some perfumes is there more delight/ Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.”), I’m not going to jump into his arms proclaiming how sweet he is.  Instead, I’ll give him a look that asks, “What drugs are you on?” and thank him (with all sarcasm intended).  That doesn’t mean I’m not sentimental.  It just means I know when I look like crap and when I don’t, but thanks for the compliment anyways. 

I saw two explanations for Shakespeare’s rude compliments (if ever an oxymoron existed). 

1.)  Shakespeare takes my point of view (or conversely I take Shakespeare’s).  Instead of lying to his mistress, he tells her exactly what he thinks.  He tells her that her hair is in knots, paint stained t-shirts and sweat pants make her look like a bum, and that he needs a gas mask before getting anywhere near her mouth.  He’s being honest.  But, even though he say these things, he still loves her.  The quote I picked demonstrates that by saying his love is rare.  If we were to compare this to today’s society, it is rare to find a man who can honestly say he would rather date a hillbilly like woman than a hot supermodel. 

2.)  Perhaps his “mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” because they are more beautiful than the sun.  Perhaps they “are nothing like the sun” because he can look into her eyes and see wonder and beauty, but he cannot look at the sun without burning his own eyes.  Coral may be more red than her lips, but what is wrong with that?  Lips are not naturally red.  Women apply makeup to cover up natural beauty.  If her lips are not red (and her cheeks are not rosy from blush), then his mistress is satisfied with her natural beauty.  She is also unlike other women in that her hair is black.  But still, even though her voice may seem irritating to some, he still loves it.  His love, as the quote I chose states, is rare for the same reasons I wrote in explanation one.  Men today, and most likely back in Shakespeare’s day, would rather have a woman who makes herself up than a woman who is satisfied with her natural beauty.

Either way you take this poem, Shakespeare’s love for his mistress (or the narrator’s love for his mistress) is obvious.  One could relate beauty to a rose, but this would be “belied with false compare.”  As the old saying goes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and sometimes nothing can compare.