A Criticism of Societal Values in Shakespeare’s “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” and Piercy’s “Barbie Doll”

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A Criticism of Societal Values in Shakespeare’s “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” and Piercy’s “Barbie Doll”

Aristotle wrote, “The aim of art is to represent, not the outward appearance of things but their inward significance.” Society judges women in terms of their outward appearance and expects them to live up to certain standards. In William Shakespeare’s poem “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” Shakespeare criticizes society’s impractical perception of an “ideal woman.” In “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy the speaker writes about a young girl who was suffering from self-esteem problems and eventually kills herself to satisfy the society’s expectations. Both the poems employ imagery to discuss the representation of women in society and by using ironical forms, they express the theme of flawed societal interpretations of female beauty.

In Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130, Shakespeare is seen to deviate from his typical description of love and the female form. The speaker realistically describes his lover and maintains that the idea of feminine beauty should not fit into an abstract fantasy. For instance, he describes his mistress’ eyes to be “nothing like the sun;” (1). Shakespeare seems to poke fun at society’s obsession with appearance and looks, whereby radiant eyes are seen to be the very description of beauty. In Marge Piercy’s “Barbie Doll,” the speaker narrates the predicament of a ‘girlchild’. In her poem, Piercy takes to task the predominant stereotype of a perfect woman who society expects to be beautiful and to be intellectually, sexually, and physically ‘weak’ (7-9). She suggests that these persistent societal expectations on body image have resulted in women killing themselves after failing to measure up to the impossible standards. Despite the poems being written at different times in history, they underscore the fact that society has continuously judged women on an impossible and unrealistic standard of beauty, rather than meaningful attributes like intelligence or character.

Both the poems have dominant imagery that describes the female form and the predicament she is subjected to. In “Barbie Doll,” the speaker vividly describes the Barbie accessories the girl is presented with, “…miniature GE stoves and irons/…wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy” (3-4). The description creates a mental snapshot of these accessories and a depiction of the idea that the girl is taught to behave in a ‘feminine’ manner from childhood. She is taught womanly chores such as home keeping through the GE stoves and irons and the value of ‘beauty’ through the lipsticks. In Shakespeare’s poem, the speaker uses imagery to represent the opposite of his mistress’ physical features and her true imperfections. For instance, the speaker states, “Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;” (2). The visual cue defies societal clichés of beauty and thus enlightens the reader that the speaker’s love for his mistress is beyond the visual.

In both the poems, the poets employ poetic forms ironically to underscore their themes on the flawed societal perception of femininity and beauty. Shakespeare’s poem takes the form of a sonnet which is ironic since traditional sonnets idealized feminine beauty and compared love interests to abstract or romanticized phenomena such as the sun, the snow, or the sea. Shakespeare also uses ironical metaphors to contrast the idealistic expectations of beauty with realistic standards. The speaker states, “If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.” (4). Here, he contrasts his lover’s hair to the blond and silky expectation and states that her hair is coarse and dark, just like black wires. Similarly, Piercy pens “Barbie Doll” as a free verse poem which is ironic since the poem illustrates the numerous rules set by society for women, while in contrast, open form poetry does not have to follow a particular set of rules.

In conclusion, the two poems discuss the nature of female beauty as set by society. Sonnet 130 discusses love and feminine beauty but does not incorporate poetic falsity on the female form. “Barbie Doll” discusses the effect of society’s standards of beauty on the esteem of a woman. Despite the fact that Sonnet 130 was written in the early 17th century and “Barbie Doll” in the 20th century, both poems discuss an unrelenting societal problem: the unrealistic standards of beauty as a measure of femininity. Today, with the aid of social media connectivity and technological inventions such as the television, more standards of beauty have been propagated. Certain body forms and features have been hailed as ‘beautiful’ while others have been condemned as ‘ugly’. Similar to the ‘girlchild’ in Piercy’s poem, many women’s self-esteem has been damaged and some have undergone cosmetic surgeries to ‘rectify’ their body features while others have suffered from eating disorders and other mental illnesses while trying to live up to societal expectations of beauty.

Works Cited

BIBLIOGRAPHY Piercy, Marge. “Barbie Doll.” Delbanco, Nicholas and Alan Cheuse. Literature: Craft & Voice. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2012. 707-708. Print.

Shakespeare, William. “My Mistress’ Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun.” Delbanco, Nicholas and Alan Cheuse. Literature: Craft & Voice. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2012. 568. Print.