Анализ сонетов Шекспира на уроках стилистики
методическая разработка по теме

Анализ сонетов Шекспира на уроках стилистики

Сонеты В. Шекспира, будучи богаты различными стилистическими приёмами, являются ценным материалом для стилистического анализа текста на уроках стилистики. После изучения теоретических вопросов, связанных с разбором текста, студентам предлагается проанализировать на уроке 48-й сонет. Затем в качестве домашнего задания студенты выбирают один сонет и делают самостоятельный разбор. Предложенный анализ 48-го сонета является образцом, опираясь на который, студенты выполняют данное задание.

How careful was I, when I took my way,
Each trifle under truest bars to thrust,
That to my use it might unused stay
From hands of falsehood, in sure wards of trust!

But thou, to whom my jewels trifles are,
Most worthy comfort, now my greatest grief,
Thou, best of dearest and mine only care,
Art left the prey of every vulgar thief.

Thee have I not lock'd up in any chest,
Save where thou art not, though I feel thou art,
Within the gentle closure of my breast,
From whence at pleasure thou mayst come and part;

And even thence thou wilt be stol'n, I fear,
For truth proves thievish for a prize so dear.                  William Shakespeare. Sonnet XLVIII

Stylistic Analysis of Sonnet 48 by W. Shakespeare

The speaker of the poem is going away on a trip and locks his jewels so that they might not be stolen. He has a friend who is very precious to him and that friend is staying behind. The speaker would like to preserve his friend’s tender feelings, but he realizes that the one he loves dearly has a free will and can stop loving him.

The language of the sonnet is very rich in stylistic devices. The author uses an oxymoron saying that the jewels are trifles in comparison with the friend who is a real treasure. The friend is then called the best of dearest. The two adjectives in the superlative degree of comparison also emphasize the fact that the friend is extremely precious to the speaker.

The jewels are locked under the truest bars but the friend can only be locked in the speaker’s breast. The word “locked”, used metaphorically, shows how eager the speaker is to keep his friend’s affection. The metaphor is continued further and we learn that the friend is free to leave the place of his confinement (which is “the gentle closure of the breast”) – that is, to stop loving the speaker. Other people may fall in love with such a worthy person (“a prize so dear”) and “steal” him, that is, to gain his affection.

In the sonnet we find several cases of alliteration – “each trifle under truest bars to thrust”, “greatest grief”; metonymy – instead of naming people who may steal the jewels the author names the part of the body they use when stealing, thus naming them “hands of falsehood”. In the beginning of the third stanza inversion is used: “Thee have I not locked up in any chest”, thus putting an emphasis on the pronoun “thee”.