Sonnet 116

The message that William Shakespeare is trying to get across in this sonnet is what love truly is. In lines 2-4, Shakespeare tells the reader: “love is not love which alters when it alteration finds, or bends with the remover to remove.” In these lines he is saying that a love is true only when it is unchanging, and does not waver. There may be people who try to destroy it or the people can change yet love will always remain the same. Every person has their faults, but those are unimportant to love. Love is everlasting until death. He compares love's strength to a storm and also to the stars because like the north star, specifically, it can guide people to the places they want to be. As said in line 8, “whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken,” tells us that we will not know what love can bring us therefor, we must take the challenge to find out while we have the time to.

The message of this sonnet is true. Throughout life there will be many challenges and events that will test your love. There will be parts of your life and personality that change as well as for the other person. True love is will always remain the same and not waver but only if it is true. Love is a powerful thing that can help us though these hard times in life, whether it be the love for a friend, a relationship, or family. It can also help people become who they are meant to be. In the movie The Notebook, Noah allowed Ally to be herself and he did not hold her to the high standard that her parents did. The house the Noah built acted as the North Star and guided Ally back to the city where they met and fell in love. They went through the challenges of Ally moving, Noah going to war, the disapproval of Ally's parents, and Ally getting engaged to another man; yet, despite these challenges Noah and Ally ultimately ended up together. Their love had the strength and was able to last the long time they were apart from each other.

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken

Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle’s compass come:

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

A Video about Sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare