Sonnets 116 and 20 are often misunderstood. There have been countless essays written about Shakespeare’s sexual preference because of sonnets like 116 and 20. One reason for this common misconception is the flowery diction which often makes little distinction between amorous love and platonic friendship of people of the same gender. Careful reading and separation of current societal values will show that i

Shakespeare begins sonnet 116 with the very idea that true love cannot be blocked. He does not say true love, though. He uses the term “marriage of true minds” instead. By using this ambiguous term, he removes the lines of gender and this sentence becomes applicable to all; male or female. He briefly addresses the idea of true love in lines 2-4 when he says, “Love is not love / Which alters when it alteration finds, / Or bends with the remover to remove.” Love, to Shakespeare, is not a condition. It is an unavoidable phenomenon that cannot be altered or removed once it is found. He goes on to refer to love as an “ever-fixed mark” and connects it to a famously fixed mark; the North Star. “O, no, it is an ever-fixed mark / That looks on tempests and is never shaken; / It is the star to every wandering bark, / Whose worth unknown, although his height be taken.” Shakespeare’s love for the poem’s subject is as fixed as the North Star in the sky above. It is oblivious to other’s opinions and is “never shaken.” Shakespeare directly addresses the concept of sexual love verses spiritual love in lines 9-10 when he says, “Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks / Within his bending sickle’s compass come.” Sexual love relies on such things as “rosy lips and cheeks” to survive. It is based on an initial attraction that must be maintained for the love to last. Line 10 ensures that a love which is based on such worthless things will loose sight of what is important. Lines 11-12 reference 1 Corinthian’s, Chapter 13, verses 4-7 where it says, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it d

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