Sonnet Paper Two

Emily Caffrey

Professor Lay

Writing Composition II

November 1, 2011

Beatrice Sonnet 16

In Act five scene four, Claudio prepares to marry Leonato’s alleged niece.  The niece is masked, but Claudio vows to Leanato that he will marry her, because his intended Hero is purportedly dead.   When the masked girl removes her veil, Claudio is thrilled that she is actually Hero, and he will be marrying her.   They plan to go to the church and finish the ceremony, but Benedick interrupts.  He publicly asks Beatrice if she loves him.  She denies her love for him and in response, he does the same.  At this time Claudio and Hero intervene and expose written professions of love that they found in the secret -lovers’ pockets and bedrooms.  Both Beatrice and Benedick recognize that they have been found out, and agree to marry one another.  Benedick then silenced her with a kiss and declared to the town that he, despite anything else that he has stated against marriage, will marry Beatrice unashamedly.  It is at this moment that the following sonnet will be placed in the mouth of Beatrice.  Throughout the play to this point, she had always tried to outdo Benedick, thus her response, potentially this sonnet, reinforces her competitive nature, but also exposes her vulnerable, very loving side.

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

This sonnet is advocating the ever-fixed bond of love and of marriage.  The first two lines announce “Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments.”  In other words, the sonnet’s speaker does not seek to obtain any reasons why two true-minded people should not get married.  In the same way, Beatrice is deciding that she will indeed marry Benedick.  The first two lines are appropriate in this moment during Act four; however, this is very interesting because she had never planned to marry.  Ever since she overheard Hero and Ursula talking about Benedick’s secret love for her, her mind has changed.   Nevertheless, her love for him and her decision is now concrete.  It is unchanging, unconditional, and will remain no matter the circumstance.  Beatrice might indeed proclaim: “Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds.”   The sonnet’s first quatrain then concludes: “Or bends for the remover to remove.”  Clearly, love should stand firm even in such case that she or Benedick were unfaithful.

If the second quatrain were Beatrice’s language she would be speaking of love metaphorically.  She compares love to “an ever-fixed mark” or in other terms, something that does not move, for example a lighthouse.  The lighthouse encounters storms but stands tall and firm.  Throughout the course of Beatrice and Benedick’s marriage, they are bound to come upon rough seasons but will not be fazed by them. Love, she continues, is the guiding star to all lost ships.  Ironically (or not) both Beatrice and Benedick were a “wandering bark” before they found love in each other.  It should further be examined that the North Star, the guiding star, is the only one that does not change position, as an “ever-fixed mark”.  The love and unity of Beatrice and Benedick will remain intact and consistent.

Beatrice might adopt the third quatrain, to say that love is not at the mercy of time.  However, and beauty falls within time.  Nonetheless, even though beauty fades with age and time, her love for Benedick will remain illuminant and young.  It will embrace and endure the passing of time.  The love between Beatrice and Benedick “bears out even to the edge of doom,” or until the end of time, judgment day.

The couplet concluding the sonnet-Beatrice’s monologue-is rather dramatic.  This bold mood is familiar when dealing with Beatrice, especially in the company of Benedick.  She says,” If this be error and upon me be proved.”  This statement embodies the rebelliousness of Beatrice.  After all, she did give in to marriage after opposing it strongly- now she needs something else to embody her independence, thus she challenges the crowd.  The final line states, “I never writ, nor no man ever loved.”  She is saying if what she claims is not true, and love is not eternal, than she takes back her speech (sonnet), and no one has ever loved.  However, she did physically proclaim this- thus people have loved before and she will love Benedick until the end of eternity.  It erases the possibility for her remarks to be anything but true.