Lars Kullberg
Enlish1B
2-1-97
Always under the thumb of his dark mistress,
the speaker struggles beneath her power.
Try as he may, he will never be able to break the tie of lust between
the two. His threats are not threatening
to her, and he knows this. His power is
beneath her's, and he knows this as well.
By threatening his lover in the 140th sonnet, the speaker is merely
admitting to his own helplessness to which he is forever bound.
This appears to be the first sonnet in which he
is taking a stand.
Never before has he
spoken in such a threatening tone:
"Be wise...do not press/My tongue tied patience..." (140.
1-2). One might think that he is now
revealing for the first time his yet unheard of power.
But he has no such power. He knows that his threats do not frighten
her...so why does he even bother? Sure,
he could untie his tongue and let the world know of her habits. However, no one would care. She is a dark lady-she and others like her
are meant to be that way. He would only
be telling what is already known.
However, what she has to tell of him is not already known. Being a married man, he is not expected to
have a mistress.
She is his only mistress. They both know this as well. If he were to lose her, he would have nothing
left. She knows his lust for her-his
need for her. She knows he lives for her
darkness and for the pleasure he finds in her...temporary as it may be. Temporary yet lasting. There may be times when he thinks he can live
without her, but the time comes again soon when he feels the familiar lust
again. It is the lack of love which
makes it temporary. However, it is the
abundance of lust which makes it permanent.
He is only one of her many lovers. If she were to loose him, she would still
have many others to satisfy her. She
takes comfort in the fact that he needs her and he remains under her thumb to
almost any extent. The speaker knows she
has many lovers. He claims to hate her
unfaithfulness, but in fact he likes it.
He likes the fact that she is nothing more than an object of sex...of
temporary pleasure. If she were really
in love with him and were truly faithful, he would be less attracted to
her. The passion and the lust would be
gone.
So the question remains-why does he bother with
these empty threats? She would laugh if
she were to hear these threats; he knows this.
These threats are not for her to hear, but for himself to hear. Sometimes you say things just to hear them
said-because they sound good to the ear.
But you know these things hold no meaning and are not true. After the bully takes your lunch money, you
whisper under your breath, "He's dead.
I'll kill him one of these days."
Although you know you never will.
It just feels good to say these things as a sort of release.
And that is all it is-a release. The speaker likes to think of himself as the
one in power, as most anyone would. Even
he himself admits to his own helplessness at the end of the sonnet: "Bear thine eyes straight, though thy
proud heart go wide." (140.14) He
knows she sleeps around, but he asks that she pretend as though she doesn't
when she is with him. What he means by
that last line is, "I know my threats mean nothing to you, but make
believe they do just for my sake."
So our speaker turns out to be not much
different from the lot of us. He lusts
after that which is bad for him. He
seeks out that which will destroy him.
And once he finds this entity, he is forever enslaved to it.
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