Sonnet 130 Blason Analysis

One of the most prevalent and significant tropes of Elizabethan literature is that of the blason. This Petrarchan device allows the speaker of the poem to list his lover’s admirable physical attributes and describe each using metaphor, simile, and hyperbole. Through the creation of this extensive physical description of the object of affection, the blason is considered to be the literary manifestation of the male gaze and is critiqued as a patriarchal method for the objectification of women. However, poets such as Shakespeare and Marlowe alter the conventions of this trope. In his “Sonnet 130,” Shakespeare parodies the traditions of the Petrarchan sonnet through his description of his mistress. And in his poem Hero and Leander, Marlowe utilizes …show more content…
This comparison between Leander’s hair and the Golden Fleece serves two purposes. First, it mimics the hyperbolic comparisons seen in conventional blasons, by comparing Leander’s hair to a mythical object. Second, it demonstrates Leander’s femininity. Marlowe states that Leander’s hair had never been shorn, so it is presumably long and feminine. By then alluding to the story of the Golden Fleece, Marlowe creates an image of Jason risking his life for Leander’s hair, thus establishing a male-to-male relationship in which Leander has embodied a more feminine role. Through this distortion of gender identity, Marlowe subverts the conventions of the blason trope. Marlowe continues the same allusions to Greek mythology when describing other parts of Leander’s body. He mentions his neck, shoulder, breast, belly, and back, while referencing gods like Circe and Pelops. When he reaches Leander’s fingers, Marlowe describes them as “immortal” as they imprint a “heavenly path” (67-68). The continual comparisons of Leander’s body parts to gods and immortal beings serve a similar purpose to Shakespeare’s comparison of his mistress to a goddess. Though Shakespeare is mocking the convention, Marlowe embraces it by placing Leader on a grand, immortal scale. Marlowe even states that his writing is not enough to capture Leander’s true form: “but my rude pen / Can hardly blazon forth the loves of men. / Much less of powerful gods” (69-71). This statement not only highlights Leander’s godly nature, but it also highlights the homoeroticism evident throughout this blason. Marlowe writes about “the loves of men,” and so he subverts the blason trope itself through his