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Plot Summary By Michael J. Cummings...© 2003 .......It is time for Polixenes, King of Bohemia, to end his visit with his boyhood friend Leontes, King of Sicily. While the two kings prepare to bid farewell in a state room of the Sicilian palace, a Bohemian lord named Archidamus and a Sicilian lord named Camillo are in an antechamber discussing the extraordinary friendship between the two rulers. Camillo, advisor to Leontes, observes that they were inseparable when growing up: “They were trained together in their childhoods; and there rooted betwixt them then such an affection, which  cannot
choose but branch now” (1. 1. 10).
.......Archidamus says nothing will ever come between the two kings. (His observation is an ironic foreshadowing of a terrible jealousy that will soon divide them.) He also praises the Sicilian king’s little boy, Mamillius, as the finest of lads with the brightest of futures. (This, too, is an ominous observation.) .......In the state room, King Leontes presses King Polixenes to linger in Sicily one more week, but Polixenes begs off, worrying about “what may chance / Or breed” (1. 2. 15-16) in Bohemia in his absence. When Hermione, the beautiful wife of Leontes, joins her husband in importuning Polixenes to extend his visit, he agrees to remain a while longer. Pulling him aside, she asks what his childhood was like with her husband. Polixenes replies, We were, fair queen,When Hermione asks about their childhood adventures, Polixenes says, We were as twinn’d lambs that did frisk i’ the sun,After Leontes learns that Hermione has persuaded Polixenes to stay, Leontes immediately regrets extending Polixenes’s welcome, for the friendly conversation between his wife and Polixenes has envenomed him with jealousy. Apparently, Polixenes has an unduly suspicious eye. Perhaps Polixenes and his wife have become too close, Leontes thinks; perhaps they have been meeting in secret. He even begins to wonder whether his son, Mamillius, is the the product of a tryst in an earlier time between Hermione and Polixenes. .......Later, suspicion builds upon suspicion. In a conversation with Camillo, the king openly accuses his wife of infidelity. Camillo, shocked, says the king sins gravely in speaking against her. The king replies, Is whispering nothing?.......Finally, he orders Camillo to bear a poisoned cup to Polixenes. Camillo tells the king he will perform the deadly mission, but then warns the Bohemian king that his life is in danger. During the night, Polixenes steals away. Camillo, estranged by Leontes’s behavior, accompanies Polixenes. Their sudden departure convinces Leontes his suspicions against Hermione are well founded. Angry and bitter, he publicly denounces his wife, who is soon to have another child, as an adulteress. After imprisoning her, he deprives her of the company of little Mamillius. Hermione pleads her innocence, to no avail. She is guilty; Leontes is certain of it. To confirm her guilt for others, he sends two lords, Cleontes and Dion, to the Oracle at Delphi, Greece, to request a judgment. .......After Hermione bears a daughter, her servant, Paulina, presents the infant to Leontes, hoping the sight of the little girl will quench his anger. However, wrathful as ever, Leontes disowns the child–believing it is not his own–and orders Paulina’s husband, Antigonus, to abandon it in a far-off place. Leontes then subjects Hermione to a public trial. With utmost dignity and grace, she proclaims her innocence, declaring she has always been faithful to Leontes. .......During the trial, Cleontes and Dion return from Delphi with a sealed verdict from the great Oracle. An official of the court breaks the seal and reads the verdict: "Hermione is chaste; Polixenes blameless; Camillo a true subject; Leontes a jealous tyrant; his innocent babe truly begotten; and the king shall live without an heir, if that which is lost be not found" (3. 2. 134). .......Leontes rejects the verdict and orders the trial to continue. A servant interrupts the proceedings with tragic news: Prince Mamillius, pining for his jailed mother’s love, has died. The news staggers Leontes, and Hermione collapses. Suddenly realizing how wrong he has been, Leontes tells Hermione’s attendants to treat her gently when they escort her from the courtroom. Later, Leontes receives another shock: Hermione, too, has died. Profoundly moved, the king laments his vengeful deeds and goes off to mourn. .......What of the newly born child, the infant princess? As instructed, Antigonus leaves her in a far-off place, the coast of Bohemia, along with certain effects, including a note identifying the infant as “Perdita,” a name that came to Antigonus when he imagined he saw Hermione in a vision. But before Antigonus can return to his ship, a bear attacks and kills him and an angry sea wrecks the ship and swallows it and all aboard. Consequently, no one is left to report the fate of the child. A clown, the son of a 67-year-old shepherd, witnessed the bear attack and gives a report to his father, who discloses news of his own: He has found a baby girl on the coast along with a “bearing cloth” and gold. Sixteen Years Pass .......Shakespeare
updates the audience on important developments through a speaker called
Time. He tells the audience that Leontes now lives in seclusion and that
the setting of the drama has shifted to Bohemia, where the son of Polixenes
has fallen in love with a shepherdess.
. . Protagonist: King Leontes Antagonist: The King's Jealousy and Suspicious Nature . Leontes: King of Sicilia (Sicily). He is a headstrong man who is at first guided more by emotions than reason. His unfounded suspicions against his wife, Hermione, and his friend, King Polixenes, separate him from both of them and cause him to reject his infant daughter. His unjust actions also indirectly result in the death of his son, Mamillius. In many ways, he resembles the flawed protagonists of Greek tragedy; however, reforms himself before it is too late. Hermione: Honorable and loyal Queen of Sicilia. Polixenes: King of Bohemia. He opposes his son's marriage to Perdita, believing her to be a commoner. Although he accepts Perdita at the end of the play, he does so only after he learns her true identity. Whether he has overcome his prejudice against commoners remains open to question. Perdita: Extraordinarily beautiful daughter of Leontes and Hermione. Florizel: Prince of Bohemia. Mamillius: Young prince of Sicilia. His death adds a tragic element to the play. Camillo: Upright advisor of King Leontes. After Leontes order him to poison Polixenes, Camillo returns with Polixenes to Bohemia and becomes his advisor. Old Shepherd: Reputed father of Perdita. He is 67 when the infant Perdita is found and 83 at the end of the play. Clown: The shepherd's son. Autolycus: A comic thief and pedlar who assists Florizel and Perdita. Gaoler (Jailer) Paulina: Loyal attendant of Hermione. Antigonus: Kindly husband of Paulina. He rescues the infant Perdita and takes her to Bohemia. Cleomenes, Dion: Lords of Sicilia. Archidamus: A Lord of Bohemia. Mariner: Crewman of the ship that carries Antigonus and Perdita to Bohemia. Emilia: Lady attending Hermione. Mopsa, Dorcas: Shepherdesses. Rogero: Lord who tells other gentlemen that a prophecy by the Delphic Oracle has been fulfilled. Minor Characters: Other lords, gentlemen, ladies, officers, servants, shepherds, shepherdesses. . . The action takes place in Sicily (or Sicilia) and Bohemia. Sicily is a large island west of the toe of Italy's boot. Bohemia was a kingdom within the boundaries of the present-day Czech republic, between present-day Poland on the north and Austria on the south. In ancient times, a Celtic people called the Boii settled the land that became Bohemia. In The Winter's Tale, Bohemia has a coastline along which ships arrive and debark. In real life, Bohemia was a landlocked region; it was entirely surrounded by terra firma. Shakespeare may have been a magnificent writer, but he was no geographer. .. Climax . The climax of a play or another narrative work, such as a short story or a novel, can be defined as (1) the turning point at which the conflict begins to resolve itself for better or worse, or as (2) the final and most exciting event in a series of events. The climax of The Winter's Tale occurs, according to the first definition, when Leontes receives news of the death of his wife and son, then owns up to the grave sin he has committed in doubting the fidelity of his wife. According to the second definition, the climax occurs in the final act when Leontes reunites with his daughter, whom he abandoned when she was an infant, and with his wife, whom he thought was dead. . . Acknowledging one's sins against others opens the door to redemption and reconciliation. Leontes admits his wrongdoing after first denying it and suffering the consequences of this denial. Having redeemed himself, he reconciles with his family and his friend, King Polixenes. Jealousy can be deadly. As an indirect result of Leontes's fierce jealousy, his son, Mamillius dies. Paula's husband, Antigonus, also dies while
taking the king's infant daughter to safety.
Marriage should be based on love, not social standing. Although Florizel loves Perdita, his father, King Polixenes, adamantly opposes their courtship because he thinks Perdita is a mere peasant. She is not a peasant, of course, but a princess. Nevertheless, she would be right for Florizel regardless of her standing in society. Kings have all the power, but their subjects are often wiser. Kings Leontes and Polixenes cause serious problems in their realms through unwise and unfair decisions. It is their subjects–Camillo, Paulina, the Old Peasant, Autolycus, and Antigonus–who set things right. Rash action is dangerous. King Leontes ostracizes his loving wife, Hermione, after declaring her guilty of infidelity without sufficient evidence. This action directly or indirectly causes the death of his son, Mamillius; the abandonment of his infant daughter; the estrangement of his friends; and the death of Antigonus, the husband of Hermione's attendant. . . Shakespeare reflects the spirit of a biblical quotation–A little child shall lead them (Isaiah, Chapter 11, Verse 6-9, Bible)–when, time and again, he uses imagery underscoring the innocence of youth as a guidepost for sinful adults. Little Mamillius, through his death, helps Leontes see the light. The infant Perdita brings out the best in Paulina, the queen's attendant, and Paulina's husband, Antigonus. Polixenes, King of Bohemia, tells Hermione early in the play of his glorious, guiltless childhood with Leontes: We were as twinn'd lambs that did frisk i' the sun,Polixenes later tells Leontes of the effect his baby (Florizel, before the passage of sixteen years, after which he is presented in the play as a teenager) has on him in the following passage: He makes a July's day short as December,Mamillius foreshadows the wickedness of adults in the play–as if he can see what is to come–when he begins to tell his mother a story about sprites and goblins (the evil creatures of his childhood world that may symbolize evildoing adults of the real world) but is cut off when his father enters ranting about the disappearance of Camillo and Polixenes from the court. Mamillius says, Mamillius says,"A sad tale’s best for winter: I have one / Of sprites and goblins” (2. 1. 35-36). After Perdita is born, Emilia, a servant, tells Paulina of the birth of the child (who, like her accused mother, is guiltless), saying that the child is a daughter, and a goodly babe,Paulina then observes: "The silence often of pure innocence / Persuades when speaking fails (2. 2. 54-55). .. . In Act II, Paulina boldly defends the innocent Hermione against Leontes’s rash and unjust accusations against Hermione in lines that could be taken as a condemnation of witch hunts (prevalent in Shakespeare’s time) and the execution of innocent women accused of witchcraft: “It is a heretic that makes the fire, / Not she which burns in’t. I’ll not call you tyrant” (2. 3. 144-145). . Key Dates and Sources . Date Written: 1610 or 1611. Probable Main Sources:.Pandosto, the Triumph of Time, or The History of Dorastus and Fawnia, by Robert Greene; Greek myths. First Performance: Probably May 15, 1611, at the Globe Theatre Number of Words in Complete Public-Domain Text: 25,984. Individual Copies for Schools: Folger Shakespeare Library Edition, (Low Cost) . Type of Play: Comic Tragedy or Tragic Comedy? . The Winter's Tale has both tragic and comic elements. But because it ends with reconciliation and a reunion of Leontes and his wife (who was thought dead), it is classified as a comedy. However, because King Leontes's little boy has died, the ending is not entirely happy. Also, during the play, Leontes suffers a downfall not unlike that occurring in ancient Greek tragedies of Sophocles, such as Oedipus Rex and Antigone. Not only does Leontes lose his son, but he also rejects his best friend and his wife. In addition, he orders the abandonment of his newly born daughter. A lord of the court, Antigonus, dies after rescuing the girl. Finally, like Oedipus and Creon in the tragedies of Sophocles, he refuses at first to accept the decision of a seer representing divine justice. . Playwrights in France and many other countries had long adhered strictly to the three classical unities of time, place, and action. These unities, formulated in part by Aristotle in his commentary on Greek drama and in part by the Italian Renaissance humanist Lodovico Castelvetro, suggested that a play should have one setting with a single plot thread that unfolds in one short time period, about a day. However, some Elizabethan playwrights regularly ignored these ancient rules. In The Winter's Tale, Shakespeare not only shifts the setting, but he also leaps ahead 16 years. In the dialogue of The Winter's Tale and other Shakespeare plays, characters sometimes speak wise or witty sayings couched in memorable figurative language. Although these sayings are brief, they often express a profound universal truth or make a thought-provoking observation. Such sayings are called epigrams or aphorisms. Because many of Shakespeare’s epigrams are so memorable, writers and speakers use them again and again. Many of Shakespeare's epigrams have become part of our everyday language; often we use them without realizing that it was Shakespeare who coined them. Examples of phrases Shakespeare originated in his plays include “all’s well that ends well,” “[every] dog will have its day,” “give the devil his due,” “green-eyed monster,” “my own flesh and blood,” “neither rhyme nor reason,” “one fell swoop,” “primrose path,” “spotless reputation,” and “too much of a good thing.”Among some of the more memorable sayings in The Winter's Tale are the following: He makes a July’s day short
as December. (1. 2. 203-205)
I am a feather for each wind
that blows. (2. 3. 185)
What’s gone and what’s past
help
What you do
Hermione’s lowly servant, Paulina, bitterly upbraids the king for his unfounded jealousy and ruthless retaliation against imagined offenses. In so doing, she brings him to his senses and sets him on the road to penance and redemption. The passage in which she asserts herself–and changes the whole course of the plot–occurs in Act III, Scene II:
What wheels? racks? fires? what flaying? boiling? n leads or oils? what old or newer torture Must I receive, whose every word deserves To taste of thy most worst? Thy tyranny Together working with thy jealousies, Fancies too weak for boys, too green and idle For girls of nine, O, think what they have done And then run mad indeed, stark mad! for all Thy by-gone fooleries were but spices of it. That thou betray'dst Polixenes,'twas nothing; That did but show thee, of a fool, inconstant And damnable ingrateful: nor was't much, Thou wouldst have poison'd good Camillo's honour, To have him kill a king: poor trespasses, More monstrous standing by: whereof I reckon The casting forth to crows thy baby-daughter To be or none or little; though a devil Would have shed water out of fire ere done't: Nor is't directly laid to thee, the death Of the young prince, whose honourable thoughts, Thoughts high for one so tender, cleft the heart That could conceive a gross and foolish sire Blemish'd his gracious dam: this is not, no, Laid to thy answer: but the last,–O lords, When I have said, cry 'woe!' the queen, the queen, The sweet'st, dear'st creature's dead, and vengeance for't Not dropp'd down yet. Study Questions and Essay Topics 1. Which character in the play do you most admire? Which character do you least admire? 2. In courts of law in modern times, government officials accused of committing crimes often defend themselves by saying that they were ....just following the orders of their superiors. In The Winter’s Tale, Shakespeare gives us a character who refuses to carry out an order to ....commit what appears to be a heinous crime. Who is the character? Write an essay explaining the guidelines you would use in ....deciding whether to follow an order given by a superior? 3. What do Florizel and Perdita have in common with Romeo and Juliet? 4. Who was the Delphic Oracle? 5. What was the most important lesson that Leontes learned from his experience? |