A computational analysis of Shakespeare's Sonnets

Abstract

The paucity of possible clear interpretations, narrative frameworks, and common constants has led us to seek and adopt an innovative approach to Shakespeare’s Sonnets, in order to avoid falling into the umpteenth compilation study. The innovation lies in choosing irony as a specific semantic category to achieve the universal. To do this, experimentation with the use of psychological-linguistics theory known as Appraisal was used for the annotation, and through the aid of artificial intelligence a new inquiry that allows answering the paramount questions regarding this work. The results led to the conclusion that some sonnets could have been written in the by the end of author's life and not in the last decade of the16th century. This emerges from an in-depth evaluation of the author’s position since his intentions were more similar to that of his last poetic production, that of romances. Moreover, the juxtaposition between human interpretations and artificial intelligence highlighted how the use of irony in sonnets is a kind of sarcasm with educational ends, so as to convey teaching to posterity.