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A Tale of Jealousy

Psychological states, The Winter's Tale

One of the major Themes of The Winter’s Tale is jealousy. This is best embodied through Leontes; specifically how he jumps to conclusions and makes rash decisions throughout the play. Leontes is the King of Sicilia, a man of approximately 28 years old. He is married to Hermione and their marriage, up to the introduction of the play, can be described as an extremely loving and happy one. Leontes then invites his childhood friend and now King of Bohemia, Polixenes to visit. All is well, and they are enjoying each other’s company until Polixenes wants to return home after the 9 months he has spent with Leontes. He tells Leontes about his plan to go home and Leontes begs him to stay; it is unsuccessful. However Hermione asks him to stay and with relative ease convinces him to remain in their company. They then go off together holding hands and Leontes begins to ponder. He thinks that it is odd that they are this close, showing this type od affection for eachother, and this escalates into full blown madness and paranoia driven by a jealous rage. He states:

[Aside] Too hot, too hot!

To mingle friendship far is mingling bloods.

I have tremor cordis on me: my heart dances;

But not for joy; not joy. This entertainment

May a free face put on, derive a liberty

From heartiness, from bounty, fertile bosom,

And well become the agent; ‘t may, I grant;

But to be paddling palms and pinching fingers,

As now they are, and making practised smiles,

As in a looking-glass, and then to sigh, as ’twere

The mort o’ the deer– O, that is entertainment

My bosom likes not, nor my brows! Mamilius,

Art thou my boy? (1.2.108-118).

Essentially, he thinks that they have been sleeping together this entire time. Hermione is about 9 months pregnant, coincidentally the same amount of time that Polixenes has been visiting. This convinces Leontes that she is having Polixenes’ baby. He questions if Hermione was ever faithful and goes so far as to question if his son, Mammilius is really his son. His jealousy overwhelms him, resulting in the 16 year imprisonment and “death” (or so he believes) of Hermione.

Shakespeare’s Substitutions

Doubling, Measure for Measure, Stage techniques

In Measure for Measure, Shakespeare takes characters and plays with their identity, to the point that most people in the play have dual identities.  The best examples of this are: the Duke, Isabella and Claudio.  This duality creates two sides to each person, and in some cases it creates a private side and a public side to each person.  In the case of the Duke he is a man of power, yet he does not like to be in the public eye.  He is lenient when enforcing lesser crimes and for the most part is considered to be a good man.  When he needs to enforce the law, he shrinks away, putting another man, Angelo into power to clean the streets.  The Duke disguises himself as a friar, a very private figure; one who is often isolated from the world within the walls of a monastery.  He plays both sides, and in doing so, avoids blame for any actions he may have done.

Isabella is Claudio’s sister, soon to become a nun.  She is called upon to help save her brother, Claudio, who has been imprisoned and sentenced to death for sexual relations out of wedlock.  Claudio asks her to try to use her feminine charm against Angelo, the man the Duke left in power in his absence.  He hopes that she will do anything to save the life of her brother.  It is revealed that the only way to save Claudio’s life is for Isabella to sleep with Angelo.  Being a woman of God, she refuses, and the friar (Duke in disguise) suggests pulling the “bed trick”.  This entails switching Isabella for someone else; in this case it is Angelo’s fiancée Mariana.  This swapping is yet another instance of hiding someone’s identity in hopes of coming out of the situation untouched.

Finally, we have Claudio, who has been sentenced to death.  He is in jail and begged his sister to help him.  The bed trick was successfully pulled off, yet Angelo did not keep his word, as a result Claudio was to die by morning.  The Duke in disguise comes in and suggests yet another swap.  This time, they will say that Claudio has been beheaded, but they will send the head of a pirate in its place.  Then Angelo will be satisfied and Claudio can escape/be released once the Duke returns (receiving a pardon).  One of the themes of this play is concealing identity in order to avoid a punishment.  In other words, they don’t want to become victims and face the law, whether it is an eye for an eye, or as Shakespeare put it, measure for measure.

There is only Honor amongst thieves…

1 Henry IV, Character types

Honor is a topic that is quite frequently mentioned throughout Henry IV Part One. It was the glory which men sought, whether they be on the battlefield or for a doing a noble deed. When you try to picture an honorable person, a King or a Lord or may come to mind. At the very least it will be someone who truly lives by a code of moral justice. It is interesting then, that Shakespeare chooses to never have honor mentioned by someone whom we may consider honorable. Instead, only those people who we would normally consider to be dishonorable, mainly Falstaff and Prince Hal, speak of what honor truly is. These characters partake in robberies; loiter around the tavern drinking in excess and lie in order to avoid punishment. They seem to be dregs of society, yet almost exclusively have the privilege of speaking about honor.

The first mention of honor is spoken by Sir John Falstaff, ironically just before they are taking their positions to rob a passing train of people. He exclaims “A plague upon it when thieves cannot be true to one another…” (2.2.27-28) after he can’t find where Poins hid his horse. In this context, honor is a trust amongst those in the same line of work. Next, Prince Hal, equates honor with how much sack (wine) he can drink, the honor being the recognition he receives for it. This comes as he is celebrating with Poins about their joke of robbing their own crew, who just robbed the caravan. The next mention of honor is also from Prince Hal, this time speaking of honor in a more true to the definition manner. His father has essentially called him a shame for whom he keeps company with, and Hal responds that in order to regain his honor he will kill the honorable Knight Hotspur. By doing this, he hopes to win favor back from his father. To back up the claim that Hotspur is an honorable man, Douglass reaffirms this thought by saying to Hotspur “Thou art the King of honor. No man so potent breathes upon the ground But I will [oppose] him” (4.1.10-12).

Finally, the last mention of honor belongs to Falstaff. He gives us yet another perspective of what honor is:
“…a word. What is in that word honor? What
is that honor? Air-. A trim reckoning! Who hath it?
He that died a Wednesday. Doth he feel it? No.
Doth he hear it? No. ‘Tis insensible, then? Yea,
to the dead…”
(5.2.132-138)
Essentially, Falstaff is saying that honor means nothing. It is simply a word that men use to gain fame. In their search for this glory, they often die, thus their legacy lives on with the title “the Honorable Sir so-and-so”. However, if you want to live then you must rely on yourself, and do what you must to scrape by. This may lead you down a path of wrongdoing, but in his view, it’s better to be and old man who enjoys his drink than to be a young man slain and called honorable.