Question: Sonnet 116 please help !?
What does the speaker mean in Sonnet 116 in these final lines!?
If this be error, and upon me proved, / I never writ, nor no man ever loved!.
a!.If you think I am mistaken in this, then you also won't believe that I am a writer or that men fall in love!.
b!.What I've said is not a mistake because I am a writer and men have fallen in love!.
c!.I may be mistaken in what I've said, but I am still a writer and men still fall in love!.
d!.You don't have to believe me, but you must believe I am a writer and that men fall in love!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
I don't think any of your suggestions quite capture the meaning of these lines!. The speaker devotes the first twelve lines of the sonnet to communicating his belief that love is constant and permanent; it 'looks on tempests and is never shaken' and lasts 'even to the edge of doom' (that is, to the end of the world)!. In the final couplet that you are having trouble with, the speaker essentially states that if his beliefs about love are proved wrong, then all his/her work as a poet and past experiences of love will be undermined!. To paraphrase:
'If I am proved wrong and what I've said is incorrect,
then my work as a poet and past loves have meant nothing!.'
The speaker's belief in the integrity of love is based on past experiences!. He believes so strongly in love that if someone were to prove him wrong, he would have to renounce his past life as a fiction - an impossibility!. These lines, then, serve to underline the speaker's certainty about the nature of love, and his commitment to it!.
This is how I see it - there's always room for interpretation!Www@QuestionHome@Com
It could either be A or B, depending on your interpretation of it!.
Either, in my opinion could be correct (and you have to remember that nothing in literature is really ever black and white!. And I contradict myself now by saying that C and D are definitely not correct, but humor me here)!.
Shakespeare could be saying (A) If love doesn't exist, then I'm not a writer, and no one has ever truly loved, or (B) You have to believe that love exists because I am a writer, and men have fallen in love!.
However, for the sake of this question, I'd say answer A is your best bet!. It seems more fitting, taking into account the line "I never writ!.!.!."!. So, go with A!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
a!.If you think I am mistaken in this, then you also won't believe that I am a writer or that men fall in love!.
its kind of like when people say "well if youre a millionaire, then im michael jackson"Www@QuestionHome@Com