Who did Shakespeare write about in the sonnets?

Answer 1

It is an endless source of debate. Scholars have identified a "handsome youth" and a "dark lady" as the persons to whom the sonnets are addressed. Some people think the "handsome youth" was Shakespeare's patron Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton.

Answer 2

There appear to be four main characters in Shakespeare's Sonnets: the poet, his aristocratic Fair Friend, his Dark Mistress and a Rival Poet. Orthodox opinion currently concludes that we do not know who they are or whether they existed.

However, there is powerful evidence to suggest that the poems are substantially biographic in nature, describing the relationship of Shakespeare with his only known personal patron, Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton (see The Biography in Shakespeare's Sonnets at related link below).

Answer 3

The first 126 sonnets are mostly romantic in nature and addressed to a young man, referred to in academia as the Fair Youth. Sonnets 127-152 are also romantic, some explicitly sexual, and addressed to a woman whose looks are described as outside of conventional attractiveness, known as the Dark Lady. References are also made to a figure known as the Rival Poet in sonnets 78-86. Furthermore the sonnets in their entirety are dedicated to a Mr. W.H. Although speculation abounds on the precise identity of each of these individuals, there is no definite answer to any.

Nevertheless, there is considerable evidence to suggest that the sonnets are substantially biographic in nature and that they were originally provided by Shakespeare to his patron, Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton. Read more on this at the link below to The Biography in Shakespeare's Sonnets.

Answer 4

Sonnet students have identified several characters to whom the sonnets appear to be addressed. Among the foremost are a beautiful youth and a dark lady.

Answer 5

His banging hot wife anne hathaway, a fair youth and a dark lady.

Answer 6

Occasionally a man, and occasionally a woman, but never his wife.

Answer 7

There is very little proof that Shakespeares sonnets where addressed to his wife. Once she had an "heir and a spare" off he went to London town to rapsodieze over the men and women there, only comming back from time to time during times of plauge when the playhouse shut down. In fact, upon Shakespeares death, he only left his "bangging wife, Anne Hathaway, his second best bed. The bulk of the sonnets, over 120 of them were addressed to a fair youth, a man much younger than himself. The final 20 or more were written to a "dark lady" . The dark lady groupings have been universally awknowleged by lingquistic experts to have been written first and published out of order, as the sonnets were published without Shakespears permission. It is of note, that while certainly being of a more sexual nature, while homosociality or having a romantic sentiment wasn't illegal then nee' it was even encouraged sodomy as the folks in the bards time put it was not. If Shakespeare were to write sexually explicit poems he would have to change his pronouns lest they see the light of day or the publisher may have. For that matter, I encourage you to read the first of the series of dark lady poems who's "False image makes natural beauty seem less beautiful" because all the actors of the day were male. And dressed as women. Just saying.