"And Died to Kiss his Shadow": The Narcissistic Gaze in Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis

Abstract

Reading Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis in the light of contemporary conceptions of vision, this article argues that the epyllion's rhetoric of like kindness and loving mutuality is predicated upon a conception of visual reciprocation achieved in the exchange of eyebeams. Consequently, it is in this context of ocular exchange and reflection that the poet introduces the figure of Narcissus, figuring the Ovidian youth as an epitome of dangerous visual kindness. While initially it is the self-sufficient Adonis who is associated with the introverted Narcissus, ultimately it is Venus, whose manifesto of erotic exchange and reciprocation insists upon reflection, who exhibits the attitude and rhetorical characteristics of the self-interested self-lover.

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