Seminar paper from the year 2022 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, University of Kassel, language: English, abstract: The research paper deals with Shakespeare's Sonnet 130, as well as Sonnet 144. Both sonnets were published in the 1609 quarto edition and depict a rather unusual form of an English Sonnet of the 16th century. Shakespeare's sonnets are seen as timeless works of literary history because they deal with certain approaches that still apply to society's way of thinking like criticism of gender stereotypes. In doing so, Sonnet 130 and Sonnet 144 question the expectations readers have towards conventional sonnets, in which women are worshipped for their appearance and depicted positively. They "contradict() an accepted norm of love poetry" by presenting a negative blazon.