Words: 1878
Justifying Mutual Deceit A common conception of William Shakespeare’s poetry entails complex language and hidden meanings. Shakespeare is famous for his ability to author a web of images that creates layers of interpretations and understandings. In Sonnet 138 however, Shakespeare is more direct in describing his relationship with his lover by avoiding imagery and metaphors, explaining to the reader that this seemingly unconventional relationship is indeed justified.
Shakespeare constructs a persona of the speaker in a way that establishes a casual and conversational relationship with the reader. This allows for an open disclosure of the mutual hypocrisies between himself and his lover while leaving his steadfast candor to convince the reader that Shakespeare’s affirmations concerning love are acceptable. Shakespeare’s elimination of imagery allows for a reliance on diction that he takes advantage of by selecting words with double meanings, creating a reflexive manner about the poem for the reader to explore.
Shakespeare conveys the meaning of the poem, that mutual deceit is compatible with love, with the seemingly straightforward language that connects the reader to the speaker while forcing the reader to think twice about certain words that deepen the surface understanding. As in all Shakespearean sonnets, the structure of the poem plays an important role, as the three quatrains and final couplet often represent transitions in tone, language and meaning.
However, Sonnet 138 differs from the norm as the first two quatrains do not provide a shift, but are rather a continuation of one another, and the shift comes in at the end of that first octave, as the third quatrain explains how this situation has come about and why it works. Finally, the couplet provides an overall conclusion of the preceding lines and gives a definite ending to the poem. The speaker depicts the story of himself and his lover in the first three quatrains with curt language that allow less of the reader’s personal imagination than do imagery and metaphors.
This serves to simplify the powerful role of structure, allowing the speaker to fully pull the reader into the sonnet and clearly focus on the characters and the overall message. Shakespeare begins 138 with a bold formation of the speaker’s character. The speaker has an almost omniscient quality about him as he claims that he “know[s] she lies” (2) and that he is well versed “in the world’s false subtleties” (4). However, at the same time, the reader questions how wise this speaker actually is because of his confused relationship with his lover.
The speaker willingly accepts her lies by feigning his own simple-mindedness so that his love “might think me some untutored youth” (3), in other words, believe that he is younger than he actually is. The speaker then explores the assertions made in the first quatrain in the second as the speaker questions his own decision making process, referring to it as “vain” (5) and saying that “she knows” (5) of his true age. The speaker goes on to say that “on both sides thus is the simple truth suppressed,” still leaving the reader wondering how and why the relationship between the speaker and his lover continues.
Shakespeare justifies both the reader’s and the speaker’s qualms in the third quatrain. He posits the same questions that the reader is already thinking in lines nine and ten, as to why she does not admit that she is unfaithful and why he continues to lie about his age. The speaker provides the answer by frankly saying that it is best in love to seem to trust, which is the overall justification for his relationship. Thus, the speaker concludes in the final couplet that he and his lover are still together because they are “flattered” (14) and soothed by the lies they tell one another.
The omniscience the speaker exhibits in the first quatrain reappears in the third quatrain as he is able to make important conclusions about the nature of love, and how a seemingly dysfunctional relationship can indeed survive through mutual deceit. It is important that the reader understand this thin, or nonexistent, line between deceit and happiness, as both the speaker and his lover ignore the ulterior motives of one another in order to provide the comfort to each other that embodies the speaker’s definition of love.
Shakespeare makes sure the reader comprehends this different definition of love through straightforward and conversational language, simply stating that “…love’s best habit is in seeming trust” (11) and “in our faults by lies we flattered be” (14). Shakespeare’s speaker tells the reader everything they need to know about the relationship, including the mutual hypocrisies on the surface, and aptly explains the reasons for them so that the reader can understand this self-serving idea of comfort and love.
Shakespeare is asserting that love is not set in stone, but fluctuates based on the differing needs of individuals and couples. Since both parties involved in this relationship are receiving what they desire, they form a perfect bond, and the reader accepts this bond because the speaker honestly and sincerely explains its functionality. The mood of the speaker is also vital for the reader’s understanding of the poem.
As the poem begins, the speaker seems to be defensive about his position in the relationship, making sure the reader knows that he understands that his lady is unfaithful, and when the speaker asserts that if he understands “false subtleties,” of course he can see through his lady’s lies. In the second quatrain, the speaker sounds resigned to his situation, as he says he acts like a simpleton when he “credit[s] her false-speaking tongue” (7) with truth, and plainly states that the “simple truth is suppressed” (8).
The reader gets the sense that this is they way the speaker believes the world works and does not mind this sort of relationship, so nothing is amiss, but in fact it is normal and expected. In the third quatrain, the speaker becomes more hopeful as he justifies both his and his lover’s lies. Since he believes that “love’s best habit is in seeming truth, And age in love loves not to have years told” (11-12), he is confident that all lover’s lie, and that like him, all older lover’s prefer to not have their age pointed out.
Shakespeare reasserts his overall knowledge of life and love in these two lines, and since the speaker’s situation corresponds to the overall habits of love, the speaker is optimistic about his relationship. In the last two lines, the speaker seems completely satisfied, with no misgivings whatsoever about his relationship by saying “Therefore I lie with her and she with me, / And in our faults by lies we flattered be” (13-14), evoking a feeling of reassurance and understanding on the part of the reader that solves any unanswered questions leftover from the first twelve lines.
As Shakespeare has his speaker simply relate the intricacies of this relationship on the surface, he also chooses several key words to allow the reader the sense of interpretation that the exclusion of metaphors and imagery leaves out. Because there are no images for the reader to solve, Shakespeare makes sure to keep the reader interested by layering the meanings of certain words. Words such as “lie” (2), “vainly” (5) and “habit” (11) do not change the meaning of what the speaker is asserting in the poem, but add and enhance hat same meaning. This deepens the reader’s relationship with the speaker because the reader now feels that to fully understand this poem, certain lines need to be reread, and perhaps, the entire poem to completely understand the depths of the speaker’s relationship. The word “lie” appears three times, and in all three instances it can be interpreted as either mistruth or as a sexual pun. In line thirteen the speaker says “Therefore I lie with her and she with me” and goes on to say how that lying comforts each other.
It is very possible that the first time through, the reader sees lie as a falsity, but since the entire theme of the female character in the poem is unfaithfulness, the reader has to rethink the original interpretation and understand that “lie” represents both meanings. But again, the recognition that the double meaning exists does not change the message of the poem. In all circumstances where it arises, the same conclusions can be drawn, and it is the language of the speaker that draws the reader in and allows for the full comprehension.
The same can be said for the other aforementioned words. Shakespeare asserts that “Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young” (5) conveying the double meaning that he is being vain wishing to be thought of as young and that it is in vain or pointless to believe that she thinks him young. When Shakespeare says that “love’s best habit is in seeming trust” in line eleven, “habit” can be taken as a seeming to trust is a customary practice for love as well as love’s best clothing or guise is seeming to trust.
Either way, Shakespeare successfully relates love and “seeming trust” and once more, the understanding of the double pun simply adds to the meaning of the line and does not change it. Because the speaker is so straightforward with everything else in the poem, these few select words catch the reader’s eye and provoke further investigation that deepens the reader’s understanding of the speaker’s relationship and allows the reader the same sense of completeness that the speaker enjoys at the end of the poem.
Shakespeare employs he duality of the speaker’s language to correspond to the duality of the speaker’s relationship. The reader gains two levels of knowledge: the surface message of the relationship as well as the hidden message that comes through the implicit double-edged nature of select words. Shakespeare uses this duality to assert that the relationship only partially hides the other knowledge of the lies and deceit, but shows in the final couplet that this uality actually creates harmony rather than irony when he claims that the lies that they tell each other help them forget their respective faults and allow them to sleep together. Thus, Shakespeare and the speaker of the poem convince the reader of the overall message of the poem. The speaker conveys that the two lovers understand the needs of one another and satisfy those needs, even if it is through the mutual lies. Because the reader has such a connection with the speaker and wants to understand the speaker’s situation, Shakespeare justifies the hypocrisies on the surface of this love scenario.
The speaker takes hold of his audience in an inviting conversational manner that forces them to appreciate what he has to say. As the speaker asserts his knowledge of the way love works, the reader agrees because the speaker articulates every word for the explicit purpose of reader understanding. The speaker’s honed and efficient language makes the reader hang on every word, creating realizations in the puns with several words that deepen the meaning of the poem and better illustrate to the reader that seeming truth, mutual deceit and love can exist in harmony.