Pyrrhonist uncertainty in Shakespeare's sonnets

Abstract

While some criticism of early modern skepticism has suggested that skeptical thought was a source for anxiety or instability that early modern authors sought to overcome, this article examines the generative influence of Pyrrhonist skepticism on Shakespeare's sonnets. Pyrrhonist skepticism regards the acknowledgment of multiple interpretive possibilities as an essential step toward suspending judgment and, ultimately, reaching a state of tranquility. A similar practice exists in Shakespeare's sonnets, where ambiguity enables readers to accept the existence of multiple perspectives and to see the uncertainty they experience as a source of pleasure. In this way, Shakespeare diverges from the Petrarchan convention of using metaphors as a source for epistemological certainty (where, for instance, the heart is visible in the eye or on the page). Shakespeare deploys many such Petrarchan metaphors, but in a way that renders their meaning unstable and therefore creates uncertainty. Out of this uncertainty, generated by fragmented and conflicting metaphors, Shakespeare creates a sublime experience of the unknown, representing knowledge as both constructed and malleable.