Sexual Desire In Shakespeare

Behind the Masks During the English Renaissance, a new wave of writers—Like Thomas Wyatt, Philip Sidney, and William Shakespeare—aspired to tackle what it is considered to be controversial topics, such as equality, social justice, and sexual desire. However, because of their relationship with the royal court, their reputations in society, and/or the strict religious code, their controversial works were disguised, in which they employ multiple literary devices to either protect themselves from persecution or to protect the identities of those whom they are writing about. By employing the poetic form of sonnets, Wyatt, Sidney, and Shakespeare dramatize the sexual desire as they attempt to reveal the experience of sex—and to what extent it impacts love. To better understand Wyatt, Sidney, and Shakespeare, a brief historical context of England, and its literary movement(s), during the sixteenth century can be …show more content…
Sidney employs Astrophil’s sexual discourse as a literary device to rebel against the Platonic love—and to corrupt its concept. While scholars still argue why he dramatizes the Platonic love, Sidney, more likely, masks his criticism against the strict religious canons of the England during the sixteenth century by employing the Ladder of Love. Although Astrophil and Stella is divided into sonnets and songs, these sonnets and songs tell a united love story. It depicts how Astrophil, who tries to obey Stella (who demanded a Platonic love), questions the meaning(s) of spiritual love proclaimed by Plato’s school of philosophy. Ironically, his questions of spirituality lead him to affirm his sexual