Narcissism is a condition brought on at birth, as children our major concern in life is ourselves, my two year old niece’s first word was mine and if you asked her who the smartest person in the world is, she would undoubtedly say me. Adults are really not different, they may have learned how to hide this condition better than children but, as evidenced in literature, it still exists. This paper will examine the theme of narcissism in William Shakespeare’s sonnets through the works of T.S. Eliot and Ovid as well as through the chiasmatic relationship between narcissism and immortality. This will look at Shakespeare’s transition from discussing narcissism to finding his own narcissistic nature to his procreation in his work and therefore his
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Narcissus’ selfish for himself and nothing less helps explain the verse from Shakespeare’s “Sonnet #1”: “From fairest creatures we desire increase / that thereby beauty’s rose might never die” (1) this verse not only speaks of the human love of beauty, but also delves deeper into a narcissistic desire to make more of ourselves and with the best genes possible as seen with Narcissus. His narcissistic pride wants only what he believes to be the very best, one of his suitors recognized this when he says “‘So may he himself love, and so may he fail to command what he loves!’” (1) in this line it is apparent that Narcissus is in love with himself and it prophesizes Narcissus’ eventual demise from his own selfish desire. “Flat on the ground, he contemplates two stars, his eyes, and his hair, fit for Bacchus, fit for Apollo, his youthful cheeks and ivory neck, the beauty of his face, the rose-flush mingled in the whiteness of snow, admiring everything for which he is himself admired.” (2) in this line Narcissus does not know that it is his own reflection he is looking at, he is responding to the reflection like a man to his lover. He uses hyperboles to describe these features as if he is wooing another person rather than admiring …show more content…
Eliot states “What happens is a continual surrender of himself as he is at the moment to something which is more valuable. The progress of an artist is a continual self-sacrifice, a continual extinction of personality.” (11) in “Sonnet #1” Shakespeare criticizes the young man for his narcissism, but by the time he gets to “Sonnet #18” his has discovered his own form of the ultimate narcissism of having a child, Shakespeare’s work has become his child and he is proud. “Shall I compare thee to a Summers day? / Thou art more lovely and more temperate:” (1-2) one can see in this sonnet Shakespeare has discovered that, unlike people, his poems do not change. They are a lovely expression of himself in a form that will diminish his own mortality with their eternal light. Shakespeare found a way to cheat death, he found his own immortality in his poems. Some people find immortality in having children as Shakespeare encouraged the young man in his first sonnet, however Shakespeare did not shun procreation, rather he reinvented it to work for himself and procreated through his work. Shakespeare speaks of this eternalness in “Sonnet #55” when he says: “Not marble, nor the guilded monument, / Of Princes shall out-live this powerful rime,” (1-2) he is saying here that nothing will outlast his work, his rime. One could compare
Narcissus’ selfish for himself and nothing less helps explain the verse from Shakespeare’s “Sonnet #1”: “From fairest creatures we desire increase / that thereby beauty’s rose might never die” (1) this verse not only speaks of the human love of beauty, but also delves deeper into a narcissistic desire to make more of ourselves and with the best genes possible as seen with Narcissus. His narcissistic pride wants only what he believes to be the very best, one of his suitors recognized this when he says “‘So may he himself love, and so may he fail to command what he loves!’” (1) in this line it is apparent that Narcissus is in love with himself and it prophesizes Narcissus’ eventual demise from his own selfish desire. “Flat on the ground, he contemplates two stars, his eyes, and his hair, fit for Bacchus, fit for Apollo, his youthful cheeks and ivory neck, the beauty of his face, the rose-flush mingled in the whiteness of snow, admiring everything for which he is himself admired.” (2) in this line Narcissus does not know that it is his own reflection he is looking at, he is responding to the reflection like a man to his lover. He uses hyperboles to describe these features as if he is wooing another person rather than admiring …show more content…
Eliot states “What happens is a continual surrender of himself as he is at the moment to something which is more valuable. The progress of an artist is a continual self-sacrifice, a continual extinction of personality.” (11) in “Sonnet #1” Shakespeare criticizes the young man for his narcissism, but by the time he gets to “Sonnet #18” his has discovered his own form of the ultimate narcissism of having a child, Shakespeare’s work has become his child and he is proud. “Shall I compare thee to a Summers day? / Thou art more lovely and more temperate:” (1-2) one can see in this sonnet Shakespeare has discovered that, unlike people, his poems do not change. They are a lovely expression of himself in a form that will diminish his own mortality with their eternal light. Shakespeare found a way to cheat death, he found his own immortality in his poems. Some people find immortality in having children as Shakespeare encouraged the young man in his first sonnet, however Shakespeare did not shun procreation, rather he reinvented it to work for himself and procreated through his work. Shakespeare speaks of this eternalness in “Sonnet #55” when he says: “Not marble, nor the guilded monument, / Of Princes shall out-live this powerful rime,” (1-2) he is saying here that nothing will outlast his work, his rime. One could compare