What a Twist!

When one thinks of Shakespeare, they think of the absolutely perfect author of many plays and stories we heard about from our AP English teachers in school. The one our teachers made seem like the god of all literature. Yet he was actually just a normal man who wrote for the working class and gave them a voice by using English which was the common language of the people at that time. In his sonnet “My Mistresses Eyes are nothing like the sun” Shakespeare goes against the normal idea of a sonnet and even the idea of a poem about a lover. Instead of describing this ‘mistress’ in a loving and beautiful way, he criticizes her looks and even makes her seem ugly. He claims things like, “I love to hear her speak, yet well I know/ That music hath a far more pleasing sound”, her hair is “black wires”, and claiming her breath ‘reeks’. This creates the idea that he has no attraction to her and shows that there is no reason that he should. Yet after these lines, there is a twist which shows his true feelings towards her. This is shown in the vulta of the sonnet in the lines “And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare/ As any she belied with false compare.” This ending couplet of the poem shows the opposite and projects his true feelings towards the mistress in the poem, that his love is so immense for her and so real that it the typical similes and overused lines for flattery cannot begin to describe her.

In the comedy sketch it displays a seemingly annoying student continues to pester a new English teacher by questioning his ability to teach based on his Scottish accent. I feel that it honestly emphasizes Shakespeare’s sonnet due to the fact that both Shakespeare and the character, played by Catherine Tate, project a dislike on the subject in front of them whether it be a mistress or learning about Shakespeare, yet later there is a twist to display the complete opposite. The way he describes her in the beginning contrasts so much with the two last lines which provides the surprising twist that he actually has genuine strong feelings for this person. This also shows in the comedy sketch when Catherine Tate’s character mocks old English and seems to make fun of her teacher and English as well. It creates the idea that she believes learning this subject is pointless or even a waste of her time by the fact that rather than listening she continues to mock it and disrupt the class as a whole. Yet, at the end of the sketch, she perfect quotes Shakespeare’s sonnet “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” and shocks the teacher, showing that she actually has a great understanding and even possibly appreciation for old English and Shakespeare. These two seemed to mirror each other and through having the same sort of twist in a comedic sense in a situation many people can relate to, like a classroom, it clarifies the meaning and impact of the sonnet itself.

Emily Mayo