Sonnet 116

I believe that the theme of Sonnet 116 is that love does not always exist in marriages and often what is called love is not really love. Based on the sexism of this time period, I believe that Shakespeare is implying that love does not exist in his own marriage. In the first line, he states, “Let me not to the marriage of true minds” meaning that people with similar mental capacities should be married but in the following lines he goes on to describe a much stronger connection, perhaps the connection he feels with the young man. He describes this love as a strong, intangible idea that will outlive everything else. In the second quatrain he illustrates love as something that can firmly stand through storms and an everlasting star. Then, in the third quatrain, he depicts its everlasting life through phrases such as, “Love’s not Time’s fool." Shakespeare was ingenious in his way of describing the inexplicable feeling of true love.