Close Reading Methodology
Reading Literary Devices, Imagery, and Form in Shakespeare’s Sonnet 20
Recognizing literary devices in a text is important for figuring out not only what the text means, but how it makes meaning. Picking out and listing all the literary devices in a work won’t necessarily add up to any coherent reading of a text, however, and some devices are less significant than others in terms of producing effects for readers. Still, you have to start somewhere, and listing as many as you can find is a good way to show that you are a careful reader and that you understand some basics about the way literary texts are structured and their aesthetic features.
Here’s some advice on how to use close reading in order to develop an argument about how the text deploys language and the force of that language on audiences.
Step 1
[Reading] As you read, underline and mark the margins of your text to underline moments in which the text’s author deploys literary devices, particularly metaphors and verbal elements that get repeated or used multiple times or ways.
As a model, I’ve chosen Shakespeare’s Sonnet 20.
A woman’s face, with Nature's own hand painted,
Hast thou, the master-mistress of my passion;
A woman's gentle heart, but not acquainted
With shifting change, as is false women's fashion;
An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling, 5
Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth;
A man in hue all hues in his controlling,
Which steals men's eyes and women's souls amazeth.
And for a woman wert thou first created,
Till Nature as she wrought thee fell a-doting, 10
And by addition me of thee defeated
By adding one thing to my purpose nothing.
But since she pricked thee out for women's pleasure,
Mine be thy love, and thy love's use their treasure.
Step 2
[Re-reading and Writing] Re-read the sonnet, this time with an eye for how it is structured. Try to detect the basic trajectory it takes as well as the “markers” of that trajectory.
1-2: claims young man has woman’s face and mastery over speaker
3-7: describes man as feminine without feminine flaws
8-12: explains that nature initially intended to make the man a woman
13-14: “But” clause indicating how speaker will accept the fact that the young man will only have sexual relationships with women
Then write a short description of the way the sonnet progresses through the speaker’s argument or narrative.
Shakespeare’s speaker begins Sonnet 20 with an image of “A woman’s face” (line 1), followed by a description that conveys that the beauty of that face is the work of nature (as opposed to artifice). In line two we learn that the possessor of that feminine face is the young man to whom the sonnet is addressed; he that “hast” the face of a woman is not just the audience for the sonnet, but also is the “master-mistress” of the speaker’s “passion” (2). From this line through line 8, the speaker praises the young man for his additional feminine qualities while noting approvingly that his subject simultaneously lacks the negative qualities that might accompany such virtues in a female subject.
Line nine represents a shift in the sonnet’s content from detailing the man’s female attributes to offering an explanation for them. According to the speaker in lines 10 to 12, the young man had initially been created a woman, but Nature changed him into a man selfishly as she created him, “adding one thing” (12) out of her own “doting” desire for the young man. The speaker’s final couplet conveys his consolation with the fact that his love has been “pricked...out” for “women ‘s pleasure “: women may have “use” of the young man for sexual activity, but the speaker will be content to have the young man’s love.
Step 3
[Writing] Once you have written down the poem’s basic content, make a list of all the devices and formal features you detect in the order in which they appear.
Line 1- Personification of Nature (depicted as “painting” a face)
Line 2-“master-mistress” alliteration and oxymoron
Lines 3-4 – chiastic structure , starting with “woman’s gentle heart” and ending with “women’s fashion.” Also alliteration in “false” & “fashion”
Line 6- synecdoche, single “eye” for eyes; metaphor, eyes are compared to tools of goldsmith that “gild”; Alliteration with “gilded” and “gazeth”
Line 7 – repetition of imagery with “men’s eyes”
Line 9 –Personification of Nature (depicted as doting, and capable of “defeating” the speaker in line 10)
Line 12- “thing” and “nothing” have sexual connotions
Line 13- “pricked out” puns on “prick” meaning “choose” or male sex organ.
Line 14-Another instance of chiasmus; with “thy love”
All lines- feminine endings!
Step 4
[Re-eading and Writing] Looking back over your list, try to decide whether the effects that are most meaningful are aural or visual. (Unless your passage is about noise [sound or music, for instance], alliterative effects aren’t always the ones to privilege). How might sound effects contribute to the emotion or content of the passage? What mental pictures form because of these devices?
Once you’ve considered these questions, jot down some notes about the effects. Some possibilities:
“master-mistress”- puts gender ambiguity at the forefront. Also suggests young man has some masculine qualities, particularly an authority or power over the speaker. This power comes up again in the word “controlling” in a later line.
Feminine endings- emphasizes subject’s femininity. The young man has
been “pricked out” for women; likewise, the sonnet’s “pricked out” because its endings aren’t masculine.
Eye imagery – puts emphasis on physical attributes of gender and what aspects of people are attractive to the eye.
“False”- repeated twice to underscore how inconstant (and thus inferior) women are to the young man (and all men, by extension)
Step 5
Start to formulate a claim or set of claims about how certain kinds of imagery work in the passage to create meaning and significance. This is the most difficult part of the process, but what you come up with can lead to a thesis statement and or a draft of an opening paragraph for an essay.
In Sonnet 20, Shakespeare deploys imagery related to physical appearance to construct a picture of a beautiful young man who elicits desire in all who look upon him, regardless of gender. Additionally, Shakespeare uses oxymoron, repetition , and puns with sexual connotations to convey the speaker’s mild indignation that the young man is ultimately not a suitable sexual partner for him, despite his beauty and virtue. Feminine endings throughout the sonnet help emphasize the fact that, although the young man is as beautiful as a woman, he has been “pricked out” for women and therefore will be for their pleasure rather than the speaker’s.
Line 2-“master-mistress” alliteration and oxymoron
Lines 3-4 – chiastic structure , starting with “woman’s gentle heart” and ending with “women’s fashion.” Also alliteration in “false” & “fashion”
Line 6- synecdoche, single “eye” for eyes; metaphor, eyes are compared to tools of goldsmith that “gild”; Alliteration with “gilded” and “gazeth”
Line 7 – repetition of imagery with “men’s eyes”
Line 9 –Personification of Nature (depicted as doting, and capable of “defeating” the speaker in line 10)
Line 12- “thing” and “nothing” have sexual connotions
Line 13- “pricked out” puns on “prick” meaning “choose” or male sex organ.
Line 14-Another instance of chiasmus; with “thy love”
All lines- feminine endings!
Step 4
[Re-eading and Writing] Looking back over your list, try to decide whether the effects that are most meaningful are aural or visual. (Unless your passage is about noise [sound or music, for instance], alliterative effects aren’t always the ones to privilege). How might sound effects contribute to the emotion or content of the passage? What mental pictures form because of these devices?
Once you’ve considered these questions, jot down some notes about the effects. Some possibilities:
“master-mistress”- puts gender ambiguity at the forefront. Also suggests young man has some masculine qualities, particularly an authority or power over the speaker. This power comes up again in the word “controlling” in a later line.
Feminine endings- emphasizes subject’s femininity. The young man has
been “pricked out” for women; likewise, the sonnet’s “pricked out” because its endings aren’t masculine.
Eye imagery – puts emphasis on physical attributes of gender and what aspects of people are attractive to the eye.
“False”- repeated twice to underscore how inconstant (and thus inferior) women are to the young man (and all men, by extension)
Step 5
Start to formulate a claim or set of claims about how certain kinds of imagery work in the passage to create meaning and significance. This is the most difficult part of the process, but what you come up with can lead to a thesis statement and or a draft of an opening paragraph for an essay.
In Sonnet 20, Shakespeare deploys imagery related to physical appearance to construct a picture of a beautiful young man who elicits desire in all who look upon him, regardless of gender. Additionally, Shakespeare uses oxymoron, repetition , and puns with sexual connotations to convey the speaker’s mild indignation that the young man is ultimately not a suitable sexual partner for him, despite his beauty and virtue. Feminine endings throughout the sonnet help emphasize the fact that, although the young man is as beautiful as a woman, he has been “pricked out” for women and therefore will be for their pleasure rather than the speaker’s.
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