Reality and irony in Shakespeare’s sonets 1—17

Abstract

Shakespeare’s sonnets 1—17 belong to the group of sonnets in, which the poet tries to persuade his friend to get married and have posterity and consequently to preserve his qualities in his children. However, there is another way of reading and approach to his sonnets. Analyzing certain structural characteristics as advocated by the deconstructionist critics one can discover that Shakespeare implied also an ironic attitude to the »friend« described. In this way he becomes, in a way, a follower of a wide European Petrarchian tradition and a criitic of that tradition at the same time. Consequently, on the referential reading the beauty of the »friend« and all his qualities are praised, hut on the rhetorical reading one can discover many limitations of the person to whom the sonnets are dedicated.