Poetry · Chapter
Sonnet XCIII explained
The speaker resolves to live as if deceived, believing in the beloved's fidelity despite knowing their heart may be elsewhere.
What happens
The speaker resolves to live as if deceived, believing in the beloved's fidelity despite knowing their heart may be elsewhere. He argues that the beloved's face, created by heaven to always show sweetness, cannot reveal any change or falsehood, making the discrepancy between appearance and reality all the more painful.
Themes in this chapter
Truth and Deception
The speaker chooses to live as if deceived, acknowledging the beloved's potential unfaithfulness while clinging to the outward show of love.
Characters to notice
- Love
Personified as having a face that may seem constant despite inner change.
Key passages
“So shall I live, supposing thou art true, Like a deceived husband; so love’s face May still seem love to me, though alter’d new; Thy looks with me, thy heart in other place”
I will go on living as if you are faithful, like a husband who is being cheated on, so that love's appearance still looks like love to me, even though it has changed; your eyes are with me, but your heart is elsewhere.
The speaker acknowledges the beloved's infidelity but chooses to maintain the illusion of love.
“How like Eve’s apple doth thy beauty grow, If thy sweet virtue answer not thy show!”
Your beauty is like Eve's apple, tempting and fair, if your inner virtue does not match your outward appearance.
The allusion to Eve's apple highlights the danger of deceptive beauty that hides a lack of virtue.