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Here’s Ersinghaus’ reading of Sonnet 10

Hatred and Love: A Reading of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 10

Shakespeare’s Sonnet 10 appeals to the male subject with a challenge, a challenge to prove that he really loves by managing his resources: the love he has for the “self.” Proof of good management means: to change and to prove that he can change.

The speaker in Sonnet 10 first expresses anger toward a young man, who, according to the speaker, suffers “murderous hate” (5). This attributed hate comes in the form of accusation. He accuses the man of “unprovident” behavior (1-2). Providence, in this sense and in this non-theological context, can be defined as a rational or reasonable management of resources. The speaker clearly attempts to make the man feel shame for mismanaging his “beauteous roof ” (7). The roof, of course, is the man’s young body, which is slowly dying, but can be repaired by having children. The speaker is angry because he recognizes some amount of hypocrisy in the young man: “For shame! deny that thou bear’st love to any / Who for thyself art so unprovident (1-2). In these lines, the speaker challenges the young man to “deny” that he really loves others when he shows no evidence of loving himself. According to the speaker, the man does not reciprocate love, a form of management and reciprocation: “Grant,” he stipulates, “. . . thou art beloved by many / But that thou non lovest is most evident” (3-4). Here the speaker attributes murderous hate (5) to the man’s “unprovident behavior.” The speaker measures hate against love as a set of opposing values: hate because he’s committing suicide by not planning for his future, then love as the remedy. Love will “repair” (8) the “roof” (7).

It would appear that while the sonnet on the surface reads as an accusation, but the concluding couplets link back to the first line, reducing the accusatory tone and initial tone of anger in the speaker to a more honest appeal. In this I’ll paraphrase the challenge, then support it: “Young man, change your mind and therefore prove that my opinion of you is wrong: “Make thee another self, for love of me, / That beauty still may live in thine and thee” (13-14). Beauty here is the sustaining of the body of the young man and expressing the will to manage that beauty will “change” the speaker’s “mind” (9).