I have no brothers or sisters, but this man’s father is my father’s son. Who is the man? The question of who is the man in Sonnet 116 falls on a few different levels. Is it a son, or someone else? If they are related to Shakespeare as his father’s son then why doesn’t he just say so? The way that this person would be able to have any power over him if he was not close family,
and even if he were how could anyone know what their intentions are towards himself when there is no mention of them ever meeting before. This leads us back to the idea that this may simply be an enigma which we will never solve with certainty. Some people believe this line refers to Christopher Marlowe because scholars found many similarities between his work and Shakespeare’s during this time period. They believe this because in the sonnet there is a line that says, “those parts of thee that the world’s eye doth view. This could refer to Marlowe’s plays or poems which were written at about the same time as Shakespeare’s and had not been published yet so they would have only existed for anyone outside of scholars to see. Others think it refers to William Herbert who was also related to Shakespeare through his father Walter and may have even become one of his patrons later on in life when he began experiencing much success with his work and became a member of court during Queen Elizabeth I reign. Though we will never know what person is being referred to by this particular line, Sonnet 116 does
