Summary of Shall I Compare Thee to a Summers
When we talk about sex we can mean one of two things. One is being physical with someone else and two to say whether a person is a man or a woman. People contain physical characteristics which distinguishes them from either being man or women. The sex of someone is what a person is, and the gender of a person is how he or she present and express themselves. They can act more feminine or more masculine.
Typically the women are more feminine, and the males are more masculine. Yet sometimes the roles of the two change. One can look and be a man, yet maybe his voice; walk and manner of presenting himself may be very much like a female. Of course then we would only be setting a stereotype on women, that they talk with soft voices, walk more elegant with shorter steps and when it comes to presenting themselves they look lovely.
When stereotypes about women are thrown down on paper many women (usually called feminist) take offense to them. They don’t believe women are the weaker sex, or think the man is the worker of the household. They don’t believe a male should put women on a pedestal, they just want to be equal. They starve for equality and criticize those with different perspectives on how it should be.
A poem which shows both gender and sex is Shall I Compare Thee to a Summers Day by William Shakespeare. Shakespeare expresses his love for a woman. A man tells his love to a woman and does this by comparing her to a summers day. It is very clear that a male wrote Shall I Compare Thee to a Summers Day. It talks about the love of their life as beautiful and lovely.
I don’t believe a woman would be saying those things about a man. But just because a man wrote it does not mean it sounds like a male speaking. It is obvious to see this man has female characteristics, he talks with such softness, tenderness and sincerity. This is not saying that men are usually not like this, but the tendency is for a female to do so. The construct is for the lady to talk about purities and precious things, while men are talking about things that a little more rugged.
Shall I Compare Thee to a Summers Day is a typical writing that a feminist despises. What the poem clearly shows is how precious and fragile women are. It states that women are beautiful and ageless. This is unsettling to feminist critics, it illustrates that they are a weaker sex, it puts pressure on women always looking perfect and it shows that women are not on the same level as men.
This demonstrates how men used to put women on a pedestal. How they adored them and talked so highly of them, yet keep this in mind, they would talk highly of their looks and beauty, things would not be said about their brains and bronze, just looks. Evidently feminist seem to think they have more than just looks, but back then the man did all the work.
However, this poem has more to it than a feminine male talking about a love one, what is he really doing here? Is he praising this angel on earth, or is he really praising the capabilities of a poem or piece of literature. The poet talks about how she will always be beautiful to him in his eyes and the poem preserves her beauty so people can see how he always sees her. So is he content with the magic of the poem, the magic that everyone, no matter how many years have passed, can see this beauty? Of course! This is a poet that loves nothing but his writings and his brilliant mind.
The only thing he truly loves is his poetry. He talks about an ageless woman; she is only ageless because of his poem and he loves that. He includes a woman in his poem to let people understand a little more where he is coming. He shows everyone a great love, a love everyone wants to experience and feel inside. So using what he knows, everyone is aware of is a women. A woman who is flawless in every way, only a dream can produce such a being, only a dream until it is written on paper. Bragging of her eternal youth, something he produce.
This poem was common for earlier years because the women was not on the same level as the male, nor were anything but her beauty mentioned. Yet it was unique since the poet is using his words to make people come to an understanding of such a love that he obtains. For something he is so proud of and that is definitely coming from a males perspective, he is praising the women because he thinks she wants to be praised and he is so proud and bragging of a discovery or outlook that he had done and sees.
