In the passage below emerges the conflicting sides of Leonato's mind. He is speaking his thoughts about Hero's alleged infidelity.
But mine, and mine I loved, and mine I praised,
And mine that I was proud on, mine so much,
That I myself, was to myself not mine,
Valuing of her: why she, oh she is fallen
Into a pit of ink, that the wide sea
Hath drops too few to wash her clean again,
And salt too little, which may season give
To her foul tainted flesh. (IV.i.129-136)
From the text, the reader infers that Hero really is Leonato's only possession. He is so attached to only her that her success is his, but her failure is also his. The word "mine" is repeated three times, and also the word "myself" is repeated twice in the same …show more content…
In addition, he adds what it means to him. He makes the remark "into a pit of ink, that the wide sea hath drops too few to wash her clean again, and salt too little, which may season give to her foul tainted flesh." The sea is viewed as an enormous body of water in this quote, leading to a few classical allusions and archetypes. The common archetype of viewing water as a cleansing tool is indicated here. Leonato figuratively means that Hero has done something so wrong, that there is no going back from now. In his mind, this also applies to him. Furthermore in this part of the quote, Leonato mentions the phrase, "pit of ink", to allude to darkness. The picture of ink is generally perceived as a dark color. According to Leonato, Hero has fallen into a pit of darkness and she can not come out. The second part of this quote is relating to the salt in the sea, covering up Hero's wrongdoing. Leonato says that there is not enough salt the sea to hide what Hero has done, again referring to the sea as an enormous object. A message that can be conveyed from these two allusions is that a wrong can not correct itself, and hiding behind shame does not help
But mine, and mine I loved, and mine I praised,
And mine that I was proud on, mine so much,
That I myself, was to myself not mine,
Valuing of her: why she, oh she is fallen
Into a pit of ink, that the wide sea
Hath drops too few to wash her clean again,
And salt too little, which may season give
To her foul tainted flesh. (IV.i.129-136)
From the text, the reader infers that Hero really is Leonato's only possession. He is so attached to only her that her success is his, but her failure is also his. The word "mine" is repeated three times, and also the word "myself" is repeated twice in the same …show more content…
In addition, he adds what it means to him. He makes the remark "into a pit of ink, that the wide sea hath drops too few to wash her clean again, and salt too little, which may season give to her foul tainted flesh." The sea is viewed as an enormous body of water in this quote, leading to a few classical allusions and archetypes. The common archetype of viewing water as a cleansing tool is indicated here. Leonato figuratively means that Hero has done something so wrong, that there is no going back from now. In his mind, this also applies to him. Furthermore in this part of the quote, Leonato mentions the phrase, "pit of ink", to allude to darkness. The picture of ink is generally perceived as a dark color. According to Leonato, Hero has fallen into a pit of darkness and she can not come out. The second part of this quote is relating to the salt in the sea, covering up Hero's wrongdoing. Leonato says that there is not enough salt the sea to hide what Hero has done, again referring to the sea as an enormous object. A message that can be conveyed from these two allusions is that a wrong can not correct itself, and hiding behind shame does not help