Question

Which statement best summarizes William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130?

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'd, 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.

A.
Sonnet 130 compares and contrasts the speaker’s mistress with beautiful elements in nature and finds her more beautiful.
B.
Sonnet 130 is a traditional love sonnet with the speaker giving numerous descriptions of his mistress’s beauty and positive qualities.
C.
Sonnet 130 parodies a traditional love sonnet by bringing out the flaws in the physical beauty of the mistress.
D.
Sonnet 130 lists a multitude of flaws in the beauty of the mistress in order to show her in an uncomplimentary light.

Answer 1

The statement that best summarizes William Shakespeare's Sonnet 130 is:

C. Sonnet 130 parodies a traditional love sonnet by bringing out the flaws in the physical beauty of the mistress.

Step-by-step explanation:

At the time Shakespeare wrote Sonnet 130, it was the rule for sonnets to compare the poets' muses to things found in nature. They would always come to the same conclusion - that the woman they loved was far more beautiful than anything else in the universe. They were more beautiful than a rose, than the sky, than the moon, etc.

Sonnet 130, however, parodies those other traditional sonnets by doing the opposite. The speaker in Sonnet 130 makes it clear that his beloved one is not as beautiful or does not smell as delightful as what is offered by nature. In the first quatrain, he states her eyes are not as bright as the sun, her lips are not redder than a coral, her breasts are not as white as snow, and her hair is like strands of wire. Still, he loves her. Only he is expressing his love in a much more realistic - and funny - manner.