Disguise in A Winter’s Tale

Posted on December 20, 2011 by erica.lin

The concept of disguise was really prominent in Act 4 Scene 4: everyone was in some sort of disguise: whether dressing up or just pretending to be someone entirely. This scene really reminded me of the “power of fashion” when we read the Taming of the Shrew, but it comes off even stronger here. The disguises seem to give each character a chance to reveal a side of themselves that would not otherwise be seen. We get to see perdita dressed up as a goddess instead of a farm girl, and the king leaves his court disguised a common man. In a sense, it seems that their roles (Perdita and Polixenes) are reversed and we see more of that “reversion’ later on when they discuss their opinions of mixing purebreed flowers with hardier wildflowers, but then again, can you apply reasoning of flower to humans? Polixenes stance on wildflowers made me think that he would have let Florenzo go through with the wedding were he more upfront about it. It seemed like he only got angry when Florenzo refused to invite him to the important ceremony. Disguise comes up again and again in all of shakespeare plays and every time it does, it shows us something important about each character in the scene the deception is taking place.

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Macbeth – Act 3 Scene 1 Study Scene Critique

Posted on December 14, 2011 by Chenda

This was a very difficult project.  First of all, we only had two members (Teshia and I) to act several parts of the scene such as Lady Macbeth, Banquo, Macbeth, the servant, and the two murderers.  Secondly, trying to manage the camera while acting is much harder than it sounds!  But overall, it was a challenging assignment that I benefited from.

I was actually able to memorize my lines (well, only the first part before Macbeth and the others came in).  We did cue cards because we were trying to live up to Group 5’s standards but that was hard as well!   But before we acted out the scene, Teshia and I read it together out loud and it helped me understand everything better.  Reading out loud does indeed makes a difference and because of that, I read all the other plays out loud to comprehend it better.

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The Winter’s Tale Finale

Posted on December 14, 2011 by nmartinez1

The finale of The Winter’s Tale reminded me of  act V in Much Ado about Nothing. In The Winter’s Tale, everyone except Paulina believed that Hermione was dead. Paulina presents a statue that looks exactly like Hermione would look now, if she were to be alive. To everyone’s surprise it is Hermione alive and well. Unfortunately there is no explanation as to why she was in hiding for the past sixteen years except to make Leontes suffer for his jealous illusions. In the beginning of this act, Leontes  is still in agony because of his wife’s and son’s death. Although he is motivated to move on, Paulina encourages him to continue in agony and makes him promise not to marry again. Hermione does not appear until Perdita returns to exempt her father from his suffering.

In Much Ado about Nothing, Hero is also believed to be dead. Once Claudio carries out with his punishment of writing a poem to her and agreeing to marry her cousin, Hero reveals herself. Hero and Hermione’s deaths are led by the false accusations against them. The reveal of their existence contributes to the order and happiness at the end of each play. They symbolize death and rebirth in both plays. Our current play started off with winter and two deaths and ends in spring with the return of Hermione and Perdita to Leontes.

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Why Time Skip?

Posted on December 13, 2011 by Andy Chu

The Winter’s Tale is the only play we’ve read (and perhaps the only play Shakespeare has written?) that takes up a period of 16 years. The importance of time in the play is obvious and I think multiple factors contributed to why Shakespeare decided to implement the usage of a time skip after act III. Below are just some of my thoughts as to why Shakespeare used the time skip as well as scenes/lines in the play that highlighted the significance of time.

1. Polixenes could’ve been staying at Leontes’s kingdom for 9 days, 9 weeks, 9 years but Shakespeare intentionally uses 9 months, “nine changes of the watery star” (1.2.1), to show the possibility that Hermione’s pregnancy is somehow caused by him (although it’s not). In this case, time plays a negative role in arousing Leontes’s suspicions about Polixenes and Hermione’s relationship.

2. By the time The Winter’s Tale was released, Shakespeare had already a done so many different plays. Perhaps he knew he was near the end of his career and reflected on what he had accomplished up till now. He might have realized the importance of time and how fleeting it was (the time between The Comedy of Errors, his first written play, and The Winter’s Tale is roughly around 16 years). Maybe at this point, Shakespeare also wanted to try something he had not done before in his previous plays and therefore went with a time skip.

3. The mass production of the watch: I remember Professor Berggren mentioned in class that more and more people at this time were getting watches. At first you had to be very wealthy and privileged to get your hands on one but by the early 1600s, it was more widespread than ever before. The idea of time ticking away must have played a role into why Shakespeare thought of speeding time up in The Winter’s Tale.

Why do you think Shakespeare used a time skip? Were there any other interesting moments in the play that stuck out to you in regards to time?

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The Winter’s Tale – Group 8 Critique

Posted on December 13, 2011 by Andy Chu

My group and I had a lot of fun performing scene 3 from Act III of The Winter’s Tale. Although the scene opened with a negative vibe – stormy weather, the Mariner’s words foreshadowing that vicious animals might appear, and the abandonment of an infant – it closed on a positive, cheerful note with the kind-hearted Shepherd and his son taking in the baby.

Performing the scene certainly helped my understanding because usually I would just read the lines silently, not aloud. More importantly, listening to the words being read aloud by other people made a huge difference. From the way my group members read their lines (tone, body language, etc.), I saw how they interpreted the characters and that contributed to my overall understanding of the scene.

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The Winter’s Tale – Act IV and Disguise

Posted on December 12, 2011 by asmit

Act IV reminds me of previous plays we’ve read as it brings the heavy use of disguise and unknown identity. We see Perdita, whom nobody knows is actually a princess; Florizel, who hides the fact that he’s a prince and is going by “Doricles”; Autolycus in multiple disguises; and Polixenes, in disguise so no one see’s he’s the king.

Florizel as Doricles reminds me of The Taming of The Shrew, where Lucentio disguises himself as Cambio to gain access to Bianca. Also, Polixenes in disguise reminds me of Henry V, where Henry disguises himself in order to find out what people really think of him.

The use of disguise doesn’t seem to bring about much disaster here; it is the “Spring” (read: happier) part of the play after all. However, I wonder about whether it’s right for Florizel and Polixenes to be in disguises. There seems to be a recurring theme in Shakespeare of kings and noblemen disguising themselves as “lesser” men – and like we brought up in Henry V, is that really moral? And how do we judge its morality – if disguise is a means to a good end (as is what happens to Florizel), is it still moral, or is the very act of disguise – of leaders taking a peek on society without its knowing – immoral?

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Time in The Winter’s Tale

Posted on December 10, 2011 by Mary Iannone

As we enter Act IV of the play, we get something that’s very reminiscent of the Prologue in both Henry V & Troilus and Cressida.  This one seemed more like the Prologue in Henry V, as it is asking for the audience’s suspension of disbelief and is somewhat apologizing to the audience for something that may seem jarring or confusing.  The Prologue here is called simply “Time”, leading me to wonder how Shakespeare would have costumed the man playing this role.  In one of the essays in the back of our Signet edition, Sylvan Barnet claims that in one production, the man who played the bear in 3.3 came out again at this time and revealed himself to be Time.  

I thought the use of Time here as a personification was very smart on Shakespeare’s part; there are very few Shakespearean plays in which he has a passage of time like this, and therefore the audience would not be expecting it, and may have had a hard time if all of a sudden Perdita was onstage as a teenager with no explanation.  I took a screenplay writing class a few semesters ago in which we spent a long time (no pun intended) on this issue of time passage.  You can show a clock speeding up, you can show the seasons changing, you can show someone rapidly aging – but that’s all on camera.  Showing time passage onstage is a very tricky matter and I think the use of Time here works well.

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Macbeth vs.Leontes

Posted on December 7, 2011 by Elizabeth Steele

It’s no secret that I dislike Macbeth. However, after reading the first few acts of The  Winter’s Tale I’ve learned to have a little more patience for him. See, Leontes is at a huge advantage. Macbeth’s insanity and irrational judgement was influenced by his wife and excused by his court. He was being enabled. With Leontes the opposite is true. His most trusted subject alerts the other king of his plot and aids him in escaping. As we discussed in class, Leontes’ court isn’t afraid to stand up to him, something that may have changed Macbeth’s dive into complete insanity. While I’m not sure how Leontes’ story will end, already steps are being taken to protect him from himself. Hopefully he’ll fare better than Macbeth.

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Polixenes’ Repressed Feelings

Posted on December 6, 2011 by Chenda

Perdita has grown up to become a beautiful young lady and she and the Prince of Bohemia, Florizel, have fallen in love with each other.  He secretly visits her in disguise at the Shepherd’s cottage with who they both believe is her real father.  Although Polixenes (Florizel’s father and King of Bohemia) is worried about his son, he over reacts just a little bit when he breaks up the young lovebirds’ engagement.  He plans to have the Shepherd hanged and Perdita’s pretty face “scratched with briers and made More homely than thy state” (4.4.429-430).  Although Polixenes eventually changes his mind, this was still a harsh punishment for finding out about his son’s almost-wedding with a beautiful young girl.

It is almost as if Polixenes has repressed feelings from his lost friendship with Leontes.  His anger and resentment has stimulated around his son for marrying a fellow civilian of no royal blood.  When was Polixenes ever like this?  The audience has always known him to be kind and gentle and warming.  After all, he spent nine months in his best friend’s kingdom when he himself had a country to attend to.  Maybe he has hidden feelings about Leontes for treating him and suspecting him of sleeping with his wife.  Maybe he has grown to resent him for that.  Polixenes knew he never did any wrong yet Leontes was stubborn and believed his own suspicions.  Maybe the way Polixenes treated Florizel was mirroring what Leontes did to Hermione, even though Polixenes was not there for her trial.  Could old friends have similar characteristics?  They did grow up together, did they not?

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Lady Macbeth

Posted on December 6, 2011 by sh106046

What I found most interesting as Lady Macbeth is that she keeps prodding her husband to “be a man”. In some ways, Lady Macbeth seems to be having so much more courage than her husband. However, we see that Lady Macbeth probably would not have been able to murder King Duncan herself, as she mentions how he looks too much like her father. I just thought it was humorous how she keeps telling Macbeth to be a man. It just brings me to question the roles that each of them are playing and how much influence Lady Macbeth has over her husband. For some reason I feel as if she really doesn’t have the influence over her husband. She also lacks the mental capability to keep living after murdering the King. Also, if Macbeth and Lady Macbeth switched genders, would the murder and ascendancy to the throne been ever more possible? And, who really is wearing the pants?

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