Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis
'It shall be cause of war and dire events,
And set dissension 'twixt the son and sire;
Subject and servile to all discontents,
As dry combustious matter is to fire:
Sith in his prime Death doth my love destroy,
They that love best their love shall not enjoy.'
| Device | Example | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Escalation | Personal conflict to war to family destruction | Shows love's increasing destructive power |
| Simile | Love like "dry combustious matter...to fire" | Shows love's explosive, dangerous nature |
| Family Destruction | "dissension 'twixt the son and sire" | Attacks most sacred bonds |
| Cause and Effect | Death destroying Venus's love causes universal curse | Links personal trauma to cosmic consequence |
| Ironic Justice | Best lovers denied enjoyment | Creates cruel cosmic irony |
| Fire Imagery | Combustible matter and fire | Presents love as destructive force |
| Social Expansion | From individual to familial to societal destruction | Shows comprehensive scope of curse |
| Final Pronouncement | Concluding declaration of love's futility | Seals the curse with ultimate despair |
This stanza represents the climax and conclusion of Venus's curse, escalating from personal contradictions to social warfare and ending with the ultimate denial of love's fulfillment.
From Personal to Political: Venus's curse escalates from individual psychological problems to "war and dire events," showing how personal romantic dysfunction will create political and social chaos.
The Destruction of Family: Love will "set dissension 'twixt the son and sire," destroying the most fundamental and sacred family relationship. This shows love as an anti-social force that destroys rather than builds community.
Love as Accelerant: The simile comparing love to "dry combustious matter" and fire shows love as dangerously explosive—it will intensify every conflict and make small disagreements into major conflagrations.
The Enslavement to Negativity: Love will be "subject and servile to all discontents," meaning it will be controlled by every form of unhappiness rather than creating joy. Love becomes a slave to misery.
Venus's Personal Motivation: "Sith in his prime Death doth my love destroy" reveals that Venus's entire curse stems from her personal grief over Adonis's death. Her individual loss becomes universal law.
The Ultimate Cruelty: "They that love best their love shall not enjoy" is perhaps the cruelest part of the curse—the most devoted lovers will be the ones most denied fulfillment. Intensity of love guarantees disappointment.
The Fire Metaphor: Love as combustible material suggests that it will make every situation more dangerous and explosive, turning minor conflicts into major disasters.
Generational Warfare: By specifically mentioning conflict between "son and sire," Venus targets the transmission of wisdom and authority between generations, making family continuity impossible.
Love as Social Destroyer: Rather than being a force for social cohesion, love becomes the primary cause of social breakdown, warfare, and family dissolution.
The Logical Conclusion: This stanza provides the logical endpoint of Venus's curse—if love is contradictory, deceptive, and chaotic, it must ultimately lead to war, family breakdown, and the denial of love's own purposes.
Cosmic Justice as Revenge: Venus transforms her personal loss into a universal principle of romantic frustration, making her private grief into everyone's destiny.
This stanza completes Venus's transformation from frustrated lover to cosmic force of romantic doom, ensuring that her personal tragedy becomes the governing principle of all future love, characterized by conflict, disappointment, and ultimate denial of fulfillment.