Astrophil and Stella: Love versus Desire

Philip Sidneys poem Astrophil and Stella represents an internal battle between platonic love and sexual desire. In the

beginning, Astrophil struggles with the idea of being enslaved to love but eventually succumbs when he realizes that he no longer has command of his feelings. However, his love begins to

transform when a physical desire manifests itself and he references an appetite that must be fed. He is then torn

between his bodily desire for the married Stella and the reality that he can have nothing more than a nonphysical relationship. After one kiss from Stella, he becomes aware that his desire is too strong, and he cannot handle a pure and chaste relationship. Astrophils feelings for Stella began innocently enough. His love was not at first sight, nor with a dribbd shot (2.1) but gradually he conceded and his heart it had full conquest got (2.4). With each glance from Stella, he fell more and more

in love as Cupid hid in her black eyes and shot darts that pierced his heart. He tried to convince himself that falling in

love wasnt so bad but knew deep down that he was forever a slave to emotion and would spend the rest of his days singing Stellas praises. oneself to another. Love is described as a decision to commit It invokes a deep affection, willingness to
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compromise, and putting anothers needs before your own. becomes clear as the poem continues into Sonnet 52 that

It

Astrophil does not truly love Stella but instead lusts after her physical beauty. In Sonnet 52, Astrophil begins to express his desire by using an ownership conflict between Love and Virtue. claims to own Stella because of her beautiful physical attributes while Virtue stakes claim, stating that Astrophil is in love with her inner beauty instead. Astrophil decides that Love

Virtue may have her soul as long as he and Love may have her bodyproving that his desire is stronger than his love. With

this statement, he is pronouncing he is willing to admit to the demands of Virtue so long as Virtue will compromise itself (Scanton, 69). It is in this last line of the sonnet where his love, he admits, is not only thus imperfect, being of a mortal beauty . . ., but also his love is stained with passion (Fletcher, 8). This intense attraction and passion that he

feels for Stella shows that the love he claimed to feel in the beginning of this poem was actually lust. As Santano states,

The Platonic representation of his love is continually corrupted by frequent ironic allusions to it and sexual desire (Santano, 85). Astrophil makes his intense desire for self

gratification obvious in Sonnet 71 line 14 which declares But,

ah, Desire still cries, give me some food.

From this point

on, we can see that Astrophil progressively feels the need to to satisfy his desire for physical contact with Stella (Kiser, 2). Sonnet 71 is where Astrophil truly struggles internally between love and desire. He tries to convince himself that

Stellas beauty is what attracts others and makes them strive to become virtuous. However, it is in this sonnet that he Whilst he may love Stellas As he continues into

expresses his need for food.

mind, his sexual appetite craves her body.

Sonnet 72, he speaks of his trouble distinguishing the difference between love and desire. According to Scanton,

Initially, he acknowledges the opposing truths of the traditional love ethic and personal desire, setting the latter against the former; ultimately, however, the negative effects of desire affirm the validity of the traditional ethic (Scanton, 66). In the beginning of the poem, Astrophils feelings appear

to be sincere, as he tries to convince Stella of how lovesick he is by stealing lines from other poets but eventually takes the advice of his Muse to speak from his heart. He emphasizes this

in Sonnet 28 where he states he is speaking without allegories but rather simply he breathe[s] out the flames which burn within [his] heart (28.13). However, as the poem progresses,

Astrophil now abandons his claim to sincerity through a kind of self-denial, whereby our narrator-hero symbolically puts desire above integrity (Canadas, 103). Astrophil is fighting his

desire for a physical relationship with Stella in order to give her friendship, which is the only relationship she will allow. Can he adhere to the definition of love by sacrificing his own selfish cravings for the well-being of Stella, or will lust overwhelm him each time he sees her? Astrophil speaks of his inspiration in Sonnet 74 when he writes about a kiss he shared with Stella. It is after he

kisses her that he realizes his desire is too strong, and he will never be able to accept a strictly non-physical relationship. He will always yearn for more. He is so

infatuated with Stellas beauty that he must settle for unrequited love. He does not love her enough to forfeit his own

personal desires, but instead wishes to withdraw his efforts from a mistress who will not reward him on his own terms (Canadas, 109). Astrophil cannot control his desire and

eventually destroys their relationship because of it. His decision to pursue desire over love is what led him to feel great woe for Stella as he describes in Sonnet 108. The

kiss he stole from Stella was both the beginning and end of their relationship. Astrophil realized that he could never
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settle for a platonic relationship with Stella.

In Sonnet 108,

he writes That in my woes for thee art my joy/ And in my joys for thee my only annoy (108.13-14). He still found joy in his

thoughts of her, even if they were only brief and replaced immediately with pain. From this, we can interpret the moral of

this poem: an overpowering desire for physical beauty will lead to misery, and only traditional love will end in a successful relationship (Kiser, 2).

Works Cited Canadas, Ivan. Questioning Mens Love in Sir Philip Sidneys Astrophil and Stella and Lady Mary Wroths Pamphilia to Amphilanthus. Pp. 99-121. Web. 3 May 2012. Fletcher, Jefferson B. Did Astrophel Love Stella? Modern Philology, Vol. 5, No. 2 (Oct., 1907) pp.253-64. The University of Chicago Press.
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Kiser, Emily. Nature of Love and Desire in Select SixteenthCentury Works of Literature. Yahoo! Voices. 20 May 2008. Web. 4 May 2012. Santano, Sonia. Corrupted Platonism in Astrophil and Stella: The Expression of Desire. SEDERI: Journal of the Spanish Society for English Renaissance Studies. Vol. 9(1998): 8590. Print. Scanton, James J. Sidneys Astrophil and Stella: See What It Is To Love Sensually! Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, Vol. 16, No. 1, The English Renaissance (Winter, 1976), pp. 65-74. Rice University.