Midlife Crisis in William Shakespeares Sonnet 138 Essay -- William sh

Midlife Crisis in William Shakespeare's Sonnet 138 William Shakespeare’s â€Å"Sonnet 138† presents an aging man’s rationalization for deceit in an affair with a younger woman. The speaker of the sonnet realizes his mistress lies to him about being faithful. He in turn, portrays himself as younger than he actually is: â€Å"When my love swears that she is made of truth / I do believe her though I know she lies, / That she might think me some untutored youth†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (1-3). â€Å"Sonnet 138† allows the reader a glimpse into the speaker’s mind, and what one finds is a man suffering from what is commonly known as a midlife crisis. In an effort to reverse â€Å"the downslope [sic] of age† (Kermode â€Å"Millions†), he takes part in a duplicitous affair with a promiscuous woman possibly â€Å"in her early twenties† (Hubler 107). Three main themes permeate the speaker’s â€Å"tissue of rationalization† throughout the sonnet (Moore â€Å"Shakespeare’sâ € ): dishonesty, aging, and lust. â€Å"Sonnet 138† is written in the first-person voice in iambic pentameter. According to Leslie Dunton-Downer and Alan Riding, â€Å"iambic pentameter produce[s] sensations of comfort† (45). In this particular sonnet, though the speaker and his mistress lie to each other, they both find comfort, in the form of sexual gratification, from the affair: â€Å"Therefore I lie with her and she with me, / And in our faults by lies we flattered be† (13-4). The sonnet has three parts: the first two quatrains, the last quatrain, and the couplet. The first two quatrains express two distinct, yet complementary ideas (Dunton-Downer and Riding 461). In â€Å"Sonnet 138,† the two ideas are the speaker and his mistress’ individual deceits and their mutual deceits (1-8). The last quatrain is signaled by the word â€Å"But† (9).... ...ed. Shakespeare’s Sonnets: Critical Essays. New York: Garland, 1999. Shakespeare, William. â€Å"Sonnet 138.† Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Eds. Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. New York: Washington Square, 2004. Smith, Gordon Ross, ed. Essays on Shakespeare. University Park: Pennsylvania State UP, 1965. Swisher, Clarice, ed. Readings on the Sonnets of William Shakespeare. San Diego: Greenhaven, 1997. Traversi, D. A. An Approach to Shakespeare. Garden City: Doubleday, 1956. Traub, Valerie. â€Å"Sex without Issue: Sodomy, Reproduction, and Signification in Shakespeare’s Sonnets.† Shakespeare’s Sonnets: Critical Essays. Ed. James Schiffer. New York: Garland, 1999. 431-52. Webster’s New World Dictionary of the English Language. 2nd ed. 1970. Willen, Gerald and Victor B. Reed, eds. A Casebook on Shakespeare’s Sonnets. New York: Crowell, 1964.