A Sense of Lassitude and Unease in the Speaker of Sonnet LXVI

Abstract

This paper examines the sense of lassitude and divestment of joy in Sonnet LXVI. It represents the fallen world of Shakespeare across his dramatic and lyrical form. The speaker has disaffection towards the hellish world. The speaker feels a kind of alienation and distortion which overstate him as unchosen. The sonnet functions as a critique of society and the loss of values. Like his other plays, this sonnet overemphasises Christian values like humility and endurance. The captain of greed and profit governs the world. The speaker remains ethical and allows his feelings to be verbalised. He is too pure to die and too innocent to rebel. The tone of the poem is observational and judgmental. Love is the only source of redemption and protection in the fallen world. The sonnet starts with a cry for death, a pathway to escape the pain, but ends with a tussle of questions on death.