--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: No decent man ought to read Shakespeare's…" description: "\"“No decent man ought to read Shakespeare's sonnets because it was like listening at keyholes.”\" — Virginia Woolf" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/645/virginia-woolf-49_decent-man_no-decent-man-ought-to-read-shakespeare_2719337.jpg" --- # No decent man ought to read Shakespeare's sonnets because… ![“No decent man ought to read Shakespeare's sonnets because it was like listening at keyholes.” quote by Virginia Woolf](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/645/virginia-woolf-49_decent-man_no-decent-man-ought-to-read-shakespeare_2719337.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/645/virginia-woolf-49_decent-man_no-decent-man-ought-to-read-shakespeare_2719337.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/645/virginia-woolf-49_decent-man_no-decent-man-ought-to-read-shakespeare_2719337.jpg) > ““No decent man ought to read Shakespeare's sonnets because it was like listening at keyholes.”” [Virginia Woolf](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/virginia-woolf/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Shakespeare’s sonnets are intimate, like eavesdropping on private thoughts, making them unsuitable for casual reading. **In simple terms:** Sonnets are private, intimate. Key Takeaway Approach poetry with reverence. Themes literature privacy intimacy Mood introspective analytical Type literary critical When to use this quote - academic study - personal reflection Key Concepts poetic analysis reading habits Questions to Reflect On - How does intimacy affect literary appreciation? - When is private reading appropriate? A Different Perspective Not all readers seek intimacy. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Decent man](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/decent-man/) [Listening Keyholes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/listening-keyholes-2869296/) [Read Shakespeare](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/read-shakespeare-613591/) [Shakespeare Sonnets](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/shakespeare-sonnets-1430536/) [Sonnets](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/sonnets/) [Sonnets Like](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/sonnets-like-2869295/) ## Related quotes > [O friendship, I too will press flowers between the pages of Shakespeare's sonnets!](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/virginia-woolf/o-friendship-i-too-will-press-flowers-between-the-pages-of/) [Virginia Woolf](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/virginia-woolf/) > [Elinor Lipman is to tweets what Shakespeare is to sonnets.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/firoozeh-dumas/elinor-lipman-is-to-tweets-what-shakespeare-is-to-sonnets/) [Firoozeh Dumas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/firoozeh-dumas/) > [Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? 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Morse](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/r-j-morse/) > [“Shakespeare had all these sonnets where what he said came down to this: Youth is fleeting and you'd better get married and have children…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-knox/shakespeare-had-all-these-sonnets-where-what-he-said-came-down-to/) [Elizabeth Knox](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-knox/) > [“What's the use trying to read Shakespeare, especially in one of those little paper editions whose pages get ruffled, or stuck together with sea-water?”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/virginia-woolf/what-s-the-use-trying-to-read-shakespeare-especially-in-one-of-those/) [Virginia Woolf](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/virginia-woolf/) > [When I was an undergraduate I had very badly annotated editions of Shakespeare's sonnets, all of which left out the important fact that will…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thom-gunn/when-i-was-an-undergraduate-i-had-very-badly-annotated-editions-of/) [Thom Gunn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thom-gunn/) > [We all had such larks. 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I expected to receive a powerful esthetic pleasure, but having read, one after…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/leo-tolstoy/i-remember-the-astonishment-i-felt-when-i-first-read-shakespeare-i/) [Leo Tolstoy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/leo-tolstoy/) > [It's often assumed that British actors read Shakespeare and sonnets as we're going to bed at night and we're all very familiar with it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kate-winslet/it-s-often-assumed-that-british-actors-read-shakespeare-and-sonnets/) [Kate Winslet](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kate-winslet/) ## More by Virginia Woolf > [Fatigue is the safest sleeping draught.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/virginia-woolf/fatigue-is-the-safest-sleeping-draught/) [Virginia Woolf](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/virginia-woolf/) > [“The train slows and lengthens, as we approach London, the centre, and my heart draws out too, in fear, in exaltation. 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I think I could happily live here & read forever.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/virginia-woolf/what-a-vast-fertility-of-pleasure-books-hold-for-me-i-think-i-could/) [Virginia Woolf](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/virginia-woolf/) > [“what a luxury to be alone once more,”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/virginia-woolf/what-a-luxury-to-be-alone-once-more/) [Virginia Woolf](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/virginia-woolf/) > [“...a woman writing thinks back through her mothers.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/virginia-woolf/a-woman-writing-thinks-back-through-her-mothers/) [Virginia Woolf](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/virginia-woolf/) > [“For one's children so often gave one's own perceptions a little thrust forwards.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/virginia-woolf/for-one-s-children-so-often-gave-one-s-own-perceptions-a-little/) [Virginia Woolf](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/virginia-woolf/) > [“She would not say of anyone in the world now that they were this or were that. 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