Hi,
I was wondering if someone would be able to give me feedback on my AC. This is the first ever AC that I have written. I used the subsystems approach. The AC is written in relation to Shakespeare's sonnet 144. If you would could please give me feedback, that would be great. Thank you.
Text:
Original Version
Two loves I have, of comfort and despair,
Which, like two spirits, do suggest me still;
The better angel is a man right fair,
The worser spirit a woman colored ill.
To win me soon to hell, my female evil
Tempteth my better angel from my side,
And would corrupt my saint to be a devil,
Wooing his purity with her foul pride.
And whether that my angel be turned fiend
Suspect I may, but not directly tell;
But being both from me both to each friend,
I guess one angel in another’s hell.
Yet this shall I ne'er know, but live in doubt,
Till my bad angel fire my good one out.
Sonnet No. 144 is a poetic sonnet thought to have been written by William Shakepsear during the 1500s or early 1600s. Sonnet No. 144 was published in the Passionate Pilgrim along with Sonnet No. 138. It was most likely written to entertain the reader about the narrator who has been trapped in a love triangle and by making the audience sad about the narrator’s anxieties about losing both of his lovers. The text also aims to entertain the audience about how hard it is for the narrator to choose between his two lovers, one that is good and one that is bad. A secondary function of this text is for Shakepsear to express his thoughts about polygamy relationships as well as having worries about being left alone and broking up from his lovers. The poem tries to explore the feelings involved worrying that they may be left alone as neither of them will want him and having no one in his life any more. With the usage of a sad and upset tone, Shakespeare has been able to build rapport with the reader by relating the experience of feeling alone when you believe everyone has ditched you and you believe your lover is in love with someone else. The text also employs a conflicted tone as the narrator is experiencing a lot of trouble deciding whether they should be with his male lover or his female lover. This conflict is clearly demonstrated at the beginning of the text where the narrator is comparing his two lovers to help him decide. However, by the conclusion of the text, the narrator has to make a decision about which lover he is going to choose. This text has also used a formal register, which also enables Shakespeare to negotiate social taboos about polygamy relationships and having multiple partners at once.
The phonetics in Shakespeare’s Sonnet 144 adheres to the standard patterning characteristics of a sonnet and helps illustrate to the audience the struggle of having two lovers and having fears of being left alone. The repetition of the constant, ‘s,’ creates the alliteration, ‘spirits, do suggest me still,’ (2) which draws the audience's attention to how the narrator’s lovers are always suggesting to them to do things and how both of them are very important in the narrator’s life. This also reflects that the narrator will have no idea of what to do with their life if their lovers left them. The consonance of the approximant, ‘r,’ in, ‘better,’ (3) and, ‘worser,’ (4), focuses the reader’s attention on how the narrator’s lovers are different and how the narrator perceives his male lover as being better than his female lover. The repetition of the fricative, ‘v,’ in ‘evil,’ (5) and, ‘devil,’ (7) creates a rhyming scheme that entertains the reader by illustrating how the narrator is having a lot of trouble deciding between their two lovers. The assonance established by the repetition of the monophthong vowel ‘a’ sound in, ‘angel,’ (6) and, ‘another’s,’ (12), draws the audience’s attention to how the narrator believes that his lovers are going to leave him for each other and they have a lot of anxieties about this, which helps build rapport with the reader as they also would have most likely experienced worries about being left by their lover.
The lexicology and morphology employed in this text aims to assist the function of this text to be an expressive exploration of the feelings generated by having to decide between two lovers and having worries of being left alone by both of them, which is demonstrated by the semantic fields of multiple partners, good and bad people as well as losing a lover. Examples include the plural noun, ‘loves,’ (1), the noun phrase, ‘worser spirit,’ (4) and the simple present tense archaism, ‘tempteth,’ (6), which aids the cohesion of the text. Hyponymy is displayed in the development of the semantic field of good and bad people through the nouns, ‘spirits,’ (2, 4), ‘angel,’ (3, 6, 9, 12, 14), ‘saint,’ (7), and, ‘devil,’ (7), which ensures that there is a focus on how one lover is good and pure, while the other lovers is bad and evil like a devil. The hyponymy used in this sonnet also demonstrates why the narrator has two lovers as they both have very different personalities and play different roles in the narrator’s life. The modified lexical noun phrases such as, ‘better angel,’ (3,6), ‘good one,’ (14), ‘worser spirit,’ (4) and ‘bad angel,’ (14), highlights how the narrator is worried that the bad angel will cause his better angel to leave him and he will be left alone by himself, which is something that numerous individuals would be able to relate to. The sonnet also has used the inflectional comparative morpheme, ‘-er,’ in the adjectives, ‘better,’ (3) and, ‘worser,’ (4) to illustrate to the reader how the narrator believes that one of their lovers is much better than the other and that they are suffering from a lot of anxiety due to the worser lover taking the better angel from their side. Another lexical feature is the repetition of the first person pronoun, ‘I,’ (1, 10, 12, 13) as well as the repetition of the possessive adjective, ‘my,’ (5, 6, 7, 9, 14). This repetition of the pronouns indicates to the audience how the narrator feels possessive over their lovers and how they are worried about what will happen if their lovers are taken away from him. As there is a lack of proper noun reference in the sonnet, this ensures that the situation between the two lovers and worries about being left alone can be adapted to any lovers. Lexis such as, ‘tempteth,’ (6) and, ‘purity,’ (
are technical lexemes, which ensures that a formal poetic tone is maintained throughout Shakespeare’s sonnet 144.
The syntax employed in this sonnet is typical for a text where the clauses and phrases are arranged to create a rhyming scheme and to establish the rhythmic qualities of a poem. The final two lines of this sonnet are a single complex-compound declarative sentence that uses both subordinating and coordinating conjunctions to link various thoughts the narrator has together. The subordinating conjunction, ‘yet,’ (13) has been used to demonstrate that, while the narrator does believe that his bad lover is taking their good lover away from their side this is something that they will never know. This is followed by the coordinating conjunction, ‘but,’ (13), which illustrates that they never want to know and they would much rather live in doubt instead of knowing what has happened to their good angel to help ease some of their worries. The inclusion of the other subordinating conjunction, ‘till,’ (14), indicates that they will live in doubt until their bad lover is no longer corrupting their good lover and the good lover is returned bad to their side, so the narrator would not be alone any more and they would not be worried about their good lover anymore. The preposition phrase, ‘in doubt,’ (13), which provides additional information about how the narrator will live. The verb phrases, ‘never know,’ (13), ‘iive,’ (13) and, ‘fire,’ (14) are all constructed in the simple present tense to demonstrate how the narrator is currently dealing with these problems and how the do not want to know what is happening to their male lover right as this moment until something changes between him and his female lover. This emphasises the narrator’s current worries of being left alone if their good lover was to be taken away from them by their bad angel. The subordinating conjunction, ‘till,’ (14) displays that the narrator's anxieties about his male lover will continue until they are released from their female lover. This final couplet has also been used to complete the rhyming scheme of sonnet 144.
Semantic patterning has been demonstrated in sonnet 144 to stimulate the senses and heighten the reader's emotions, while they read this sonnet. In sonnet 144, the narrator's lovers have been described using the oxymoron, ‘comfort and despair,’ (1) to further illustrate to the audience how different the two are and how the narrator responds very differently to both of them. This oxymoron also entertains the audience by depicting how the narrator is conflicted about which lover to choose as they are stuck in a love triangle and he needs to choose one of them. The lovers are also further described with the usage of the simile, ‘like two spirits,’ (2) to display how both of them, ‘suggest.’ (2) to the narrator to participate in things with them and demonstrates that the narrator is in a relationship with two vastly different people and that they both have an important role in his life as, ‘spirits,’ (2). Lexical ambiguity has also been used a repeatedly throughout the text by the usage of the lexis, ‘spirits,’ (2,4), ‘angel,’ (3, 6, 9, 12, 14), ‘saint,’ (7), ‘hell,’ (5, 12) and, ‘devil.’ (7). The first possible meaning of these lexemes could have been that the narrator was exhibiting the differences between his two lovers and that one was good, while the other was bad and the bad angel or lover would have caused them to suffer a lot in their life as their good angel would have been taken away from them. A secondary meaning could be that the narrator has two spirits inside of them that acts as their self conscience. Therefore, this would be demonstrating that the narrator is going to end up dead in, ‘hell,’ (5, 12) as their good conscience has been corrupted by their bad conscience and they have been making too many bad decisions, which has resulted in them being dead, This portrays a more religious meaning of this lexis, which provides the text with an increased formality. The employment of figurative language in sonnet 144 enhances the reader’s appreciation of poetry and the stylistic choices of the writer.