Over the years, Shakespeare's sonnet has been interpreted in many different ways, but an overarching theme is still found in every version. That theme is: true love, and the constancy to do anything for love when faced with great obstacles. If we believe this poem is simply a reflection of true love, then we can agree with Robert Levine and his detached perspective. "Clearly, the most important consideration in interpreting #116 is not to find a new position for it within the Sonnets or (though the possibilities are fascinating) to relate to the story of the poet, the young Man, & the Dark Lady, but simply to give all words in #116 their full meaning, and to pursue all implications within the poem".
             Essentially, this sonnet presents the extreme model of romantic love: it never changes, it never fades, and it outlasts death and admits no failing. Annemarie S. Muth points out that "Sonnet 116" expresses a conviction of the permanence and validity of emotion in all its different forms. "Sonnet 116" is Shakespeare's profession of faith in the ideal of constancy in love".
             The poem opens with an act of defiance, insisting that although nothing can last forever, true love is pure and embedded in the truth of eternity. Love is constant. Love is faithful. Love is unchanging. "Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments." Shakespeare's remarkable cry for relief from agreeing with those who believe that love cannot last forever. The marriage of true minds is in and of itself the union of God; marriage is for the sake of God and his providence. What is that strange attraction which draws two minds so irresistibly together? Linda Gregerson suggests that through brave resistance, love has overcome faithlessness. "The poem's ideal is unwavering faith, and it purports to perform its own ideal". The focal point of the universe is harmonizing, noble l...