Sonnet 116

In class we mentioned the dual nature of the title to describe the situation in Spar. The obvious combative meaning of the word comes to mind throughout the story as these two are in a non-stop confrontation with one another, like a game of tug-of-war with no end in sight. Then, there is the statement on page 141 about the two of them being shipwrecked strangers clinging to the same spar. Further down on that page, the narrator recites a few lines of a poem. I remembered this poem from another class, and I assumed there had to be some reason for her use of this particular sonnet. This Shakespearean sonnet is another allusion to a ship lost at sea, and if she is metaphorically clinging to that spar, the only hope for survival is love, or in a less literal sense from the poem, a connection. The title is a link to the entire sonnet and a note explaining what a bark is.