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.
In this sonnet, Shakespeare talks about the average beauty of his mistress. He explains in truth the way his mistress looks, saying at the end that she is still very beautiful. He takes a new approach to romantic speech. He says that he is not going to lie or over-exaggerate the way she looks to him, but rather tell the truth, because that is all he needs to show hoe much he loves her and how beautiful she is. Often times, men use gaudy phrases that make a woman seem outer worldly and god-like. Shakespeare takes a different approach on showing a women's beauty. He talks about their true beauty instead. He shows all men out there that one does not need to lie to make a woman feel important.
This message is 100% not true. Women don't want to hear the truth, we want to hear that we are gods. In The Wife's Tale from The Canebury Tales, the wife says that women want to have control over there men. This is a true statement, and we feel in control when we are put on a shelf above everyone else. When we feel more special, we feel in control and we are getting what we want. Many female singers today, including the great Taylor Swift, sing about how great they feel when men boost their egos and tell them just how beautiful they are. They also sing about how much they want to be praised by a man. On every soap opera, the women won't even think about succombing to a man's love unless they have been overly praised and sought after for all the wrong reasons. Without over-exaggerated love, the media would have nothing to feed off of, women would have no expectations, and worst of all, men would not have to work for love in return. Life would be a very scary place.
