The Subtle Sexuality in Shakespeare’s Sonnets

Abstract

This BA Thesis focusses on the different ways that Shakespeare’s sonnets can be read. Depending on the reader’s wishes, it is possible to read several different ideas into the author’s famous work. Therefore, it is not possible to simply attest one meaning to the sonnets, but rather it is important to take all ideas into account and let them work together to offer an explanation of the sonnets. This paper examines the ideas of different authors such as Katherine Duncan-Jones, Hellen Vendler, Paul Edmondson, Stanley Wells and others, as they study the sonnets as a whole. Their ideas are discussed, as well as the opinions and close-readings of several other authors. The paper focusses on Sonnet 20 and Sonnet 53 in particular. It will be accompanied by a work of original fiction which encompasses the idea of the ambiguity present within Shakespeare’s work, so that it may be read in different ways, depending on what the reader wishes to see in it.