Mary Wroth alludes to mythology in her sonnet “In This Strange Labyrinth” to describe a woman's confusing struggle with love. The speaker of the poem is a woman stuck in a labyrinth, alluding to the original myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. The suggestion that love is not perfect and actually painful was a revolutionary thing for a woman to write about in the Renaissance. Wroth uses the title of the poem and its relationship to myth, symbolism, and the structure of the poem to communicate his message about the tortures of love. In the title "In this strange labyrinth", the labyrinth symbolizes the labyrinthine qualities of love. The speaker describes her predicament by saying, “In this strange labyrinth how must I go / The roads are on every side” (1-2). A different street surrounds it on each side, and each street seems to be the wrong one. She is confused about which path she should go. Wroth conveys the theme of love in a decidedly negative way, since according to the myth, the Labyrinth was where the Minotaur lived and before his disappearance, death was evident to all visitors to the labyrinth. The speaker grapples with every choice he can make and cannot rest or find help until he finds the best path: “Go forward, or stand still, or retreat back;/ Must these doubts bear without being dispelled/ Or help, but labor finds for my best assumption” (10-11). She has several choices and each one confuses her and leaves her helpless. The title of Wroth's poem alludes to the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. Theseus was an Athenian prince who promised to kill the Minotaur, who was found in the Labyrinth designed by Daedalus in Crete. The Minotaur was a half-man, half-bull hybrid monster that was fed fourteen human tributes from Athens every year. King Minos,... center of the paper... the speaker admits to being worried and confused when she says, "The sonnet is the story of a woman's struggle to make choices about love." (14) His mind is troubled by the trials of love. In conclusion, Mary Wroth's sonnet “In This Strange Labyrinth” alludes to the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur in the title and in the symbolism present throughout the poem. Theseus had to defeat a Minotaur, just as the speaker must defeat a monster. The sonnet tells the story of a woman's struggle to make choices about love and also revolutionizes the theme of a violent love story. Works Cited Abrams, M.H., et al. and. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. 2 volumes New York: Norton, 1993. Wroth, Mary. "In this strange labyrinth." http://www.poeforward.com. Np, 2007. Web. 27 September 2011. .