A Shakespearean story in which jealously and insecurity combines to create a unfortunate tragedy, there is no doubt that there is a light that shines within this piece that can go unnoticed if one does not pay close attention to detail. After King Leontes punishes his wife Hermione, eventually leading to her death, and sends his new-born infant out into the woods, one can only imagine the dread he must have felt after coming to his senses years later. The 2nd part of the play, which takes place nearly 16 years after Act 1, showcases a mischievous character named Autolycus who is viewed as a pickpocket con-man attempting to manipulate the characters within the play for his own benefit. Though unknown to himself he helps lead Perdita back to her biological father Leontes, which unravels numerous amount of heartfelt events towards the end of the play. The average audience member would view Autolycus as a comic relief based character that Shakespeare would utilize in order to lighten the mood of the story. Personally I see the character as a metaphoric angel type of being who slowly bring the conflict and tragedy of the story to a more dramatic, yet joyful conclusion. Shakespeare has a knack for puttting mischievous characters within his plays that eventually help in leading to a revelation or explaining the outcomes that are to follow (i.e. Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream). Though with Autolycus I sense an angelic presence in him as he leads to the revelation of Hermione (whether it be real or not) descending from her statue like state towards her husband and daughter. During this time of the holidays I would like to think of Autolycus as a fallen angel who has earned his way back into the heavenly gates, but my opinion is a little far fetched and is only going to be seen as a simple Winter’s Tale.
Category Archives: The Winter’s Tale
Forgiveness is a long time coming
I want subscribe to the idea that Hermione’s return is somewhat supernatural. I really do like the concept of awakening from stone and returning to the world as if exiting a state of limbo. However, it seems to me that Hermione is no wife of Pygmalion, and where his statue comes into breath at his unfettered desire we are supposed to believe her breath comes at Leontes’ true remorse. I simply cannot buy it.
To quickly reiterate the evidence of Hermione’s cloistered existence, she is found to be dead by Paulina, potentially cared for by Paulina (see her daily entrances and exits from Hermione’s possible residence), Leontes is forbidden to wed again, despite being a very eligible widower, solely at the discretion of Paulina, and Hermione is ultimately “awoken” by the ministrations of Paulina and otherworldly music. The entire event screams of a long con. But to whose benefit really? The boy remains lost, Hermione has lost 16 years with her daughter, and for what? To satisfy the whims sexually frustrated, jealous, and suddenly maniacal king? I think I would require much longer than the given 16 years to recover from that slight, if I ever did. So then, is it simply a question of “enough is enough?” As a man who condemned two children to death, one of which is intentional and thwarted, the other, pure negligence and successful, Leontes is a most deplorable figure.
Are we moved by his tears of remorse? Certainly, are they enough to warrant the seclusion of 16 years and the company of all but a single woman? No, probably not. What becomes of The Winter’s Tale if it is stripped of its restorative ending? Perhaps without such a moving, emotional scene the importance of the cyclical seasons is undermined, or we as an audience simply could not tolerate it. Or perhaps it expresses the existence of the redeemed penitent, and Leontes, having borne the weight of his unfortunate actions all these years can be granted the return of joy. But if one considers the lonely 16 years, the loss of Autolycus to a passing bear, Mamillius, and even the loss of a beneficial political alliance, it would seem that 16 years may not even begin to compare to the crimes committed.
A Letter to Leontes
Dear Leontes,
You may think you are not one of the beloved characters to the audience of The Winter’s Tale. You may think every one in the audience of The Winter’s Tale has a negative attitude towards your character. You treat Hermione out of jealousy; you treat Polixenes unfriendly; you are to blame for the death of Mamillius, your young son whom you love as much as every father on this earth loves his child; you are also to blame for the death of dearest Hermione; and finally, under your command newborn Perdita is left on the seacoast of Bohemia.
All these events take a toll in your life. You have suffered for 16 years. These 16 years, you have mourned over your virtuous queen’s death. Yes, you are wrong to think of her having a romantic relation with Polixenes. Georges Duby would support your suspicions, though. In his A Courtly Model, Duby explains that courtly love is secret and not seen in marriage life since medieval marriages were not based on love. Nonetheless, you have proved that maybe you didn’t wed Hermione out of love, but you have showed the audience that the magical thing that has kept you in mourning all those years is nothing but love, your passionate love.
You are very cruel to newborn Perdita, who you think isn’t your legitimate daughter. So, you order her to be abandoned, because you don’t want to be called Father by a bastard. Your decision to abandon Perdita is very common for a royal family in the medieval age where bloodline determines the heirs to thrones.
Human beings are not angels. Like angels, we don’t live in a divine realm where mistakes presumably don’t exist. We live in a human world where making mistakes is obvious. We make mistakes because our knowledge is limited. Therefore, making mistakes from not knowing should be justified.
In the beginning of the play, you are the King Leontes, Father Leontes, Friend Leontes and Husband Leontes. But only one mistake, one unknowing mistake destroys the whole chain of relationship. You suspect Hermione and Polixenes, which makes you angry, which leads to a break in life-long friendships, which causes a motion to throw Hermione into the prison, which leads to the separation of Mamillius from his mother and to his death, which forces you to abandon Perdita. You cause the disruption 16 years ago in Sicilia with a mistake.
Now, after 16 years here you are again, King Leontes, facilitating the reunification of all broken relationships. In Sicilia, Perdita finds her father, Polixenes meets his old true friend, and fair Hermione is restored to life with a magic touch.
It all starts from Sicilia, at the court of Leontes, it all ends now in Siciclia, at the court of Leontes. This 16-years-later Leontes has learned from the time, from his mistakes.
A Beautiful Dramedy
The Winter’s Tale is a play that requires major suspension of disbelief. It is at several moments more unrealistic than A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a play that contains fairies and pixies, and the king’s madness is more irrational than that of even Lear. Though thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining the story itself is a preposterous flight of fancy. The king is petulant and sullen without just cause, and his moods flicker at the flick of a switch. The queen’s resurrection is a fantastical, and a pleasant surprise in an ending that seems made for “happily ever after” end credits. Even Antigonus’ death, which is both grotesque and abrupt, becomes humorous and lighthearted in this story line.
However, in my mind the humor and fantasy are marred by the death of Mamillius. This is my one point of contention and the only scene that ties the play to tragedy of any kind. But Shakespeare masterfully fills in the gaps left by the characters taken away by death; Hermione is reborn, Florizel, who is similar in age to Mamillius, comes to the kingdom as Leontes’ son by marriage, and Paulina regains a husband of proven virtue and honor. All of the loose ends are tied, no one is left suffering or in pain, and it is sweet, but too good to be true. Overall, The Winters Tale is a funny lighthearted tale that handles dark, loaded topics with just the right measure of sugar to coat over the uncomfortable patches.
Scene Staging in The Winter’s Tale
In a number of the plays we’ve read this semester, we’ve seen Shakespearean characters take part in scene staging. One of the earliest examples of this was in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with Bottom and the craftsmen piecing together a performance for Theseus and Hippolyta. Other cases of scene staging, however, have not been so explicit. For instance, in Measure for Measure, when Lucio coaches Isabella during her first meeting with Angelo, he acts much like a stage director would: providing guidance to his “performers.”The Winter’s Tale is no exception to this pattern of scene staging. In the play’s closing scene, we can see some of the previous strands of scene staging arise–especially with regards to Paulina. Orchestrating Hermione and Leontes’ reunion, Paulina takes on the role of director in the final scene of The Winter’s Tale.
A Tale of Jealousy
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.
Autolycus: The Wolf [Him]self
There is a great deal of talk talk about bears, lions, and other beasts such as wolves in The Winter’s Tale, but by the second half of the play, we realize that the only wolf we are going to meet is Autolycus. This is not to say that this rogue is simply an antagonist, though. He is a highly complex character who falls somewhere in between the realms of good and bad: the realm of mankind.
To start, it is important to mention that the name Autolycus means “The Wolf itself” and has an extensive background in Greek mythology. In short, the mythological Autolycus was the son of Hermes and the grandfather of Odysseus. He is said to have been a great thief who had the gift of never being caught. It is interesting that this is the meaning behind his name, especially after we see him stealing fleece at sheep-shearing festival. In addition to this, he calls people “the herd” (4.4) after he completes this task. As we all know, wolves typically prey on sheep, and therefore, the sheep tend to fear them. This fact of nature would normally lead us to believe that Autolycus is evil and wishes to cause the people harm. Yet this is not the case. The people (or the “herd”) don’t fear Autolycus because he’s not really hurting anyone with what he’s doing. It is more likely that he deems these people “the herd” not because he wishes them harm, but because he is extremely clever and cunning and can constantly outwit and win these mindless sheep-like individuals over with his charming personality. It should also be noted that prior to this festival, Autolycus has been stealing sheets. There is an apparent sexual connotation here that brings to mind it the issue of Leontes, who thought Hermione was sleeping with King Polixenes. This links the latter half of the play back with the first and gives us reason to believe that Autolycus is a foil of Leontes. Autolycus uses his “profession” to his advantage and sparks a comedic element in the play, while Leontes is suffering the consequences of his false accusations and represents the tragic aspect of the play.
Autolycus appears in disguise several times (as peddler at the sheep shearing festival and later as a nobleman), tricks nearly everyone he comes in contact with by picking their pockets, and also captivates them through bawdy songs which are often about marriage, love, and sex. Shakespeare has presented us with a highly seductive character, which is likely one of the reasons why audiences and the people around him in the play seem to take a liking to him so much. His behavior is anything but honorable and he often speaks and sings crudely, but his songs are still expressed in a way that is artful and appeals to the senses and interests of his audience, and his deeds are almost overshadowed by his skillful wit and honesty with the audience. Autolycus might bring to mind Milton’s interpretation of the devil in Paradise Lost; though he is acting immorally and takes on different forms, we cannot help but also feel some sort of sympathy for and attraction toward him as a character. It helps that he really conveys the plight of the working class and shifting times on a larger level. We can see through his description of himself (4.4, 95-102) and also his actions that sometimes he works, sometimes he steals, and sometimes he begs. It is clear through many of the plays we have read (especially through Measure for Measure and King Lear, in my opinion) that Shakespeare was aware that life was not easy for most people living in 17th century England. It was a struggle to put food on the table each day, but Autolycus makes light of the situation through his humor, and would therefore be appealing to and appreciated by this large portion of the population.
In addition to this, when we learn that he used to work in the court, it becomes evident that he also serves as a link between the royal world and the pastoral world. He isn’t your typical member of the bourgeoisie. Autolycus always masters every situation he’s in and he is a jack-of-all-trades. He is not unlike Falstaff in terms of his wit and general competence; there is no doubt that he is in control and very aware of what is going on around him. I might go so far as to argue that Autolycus is what the every day workingman might dream to be. He is admirable in that he makes the best of his situation and doesn’t seem to be suffering, though he goes about it in a less than admirable manner. Even so, his character gives a sense of hope to the working class poor in the audience in Shakespeare’s time, and even today.
Through all of this, it becomes quite difficult to characterize Autolycus as a predatory wolf. He is always honest about his intentions from the start. He never presents them as honorable, and although his intentions aren’t pure in any sense of the word, they are not really “evil” either. His crimes are what we would consider relatively petty, especially when juxtaposed with the crimes of King Leontes. And we cannot forget that Autolycus’ actions eventually lead to reconciliation and harmony at the play’s end. It is undeniable that he is a complex character who is difficult to define explicitly, but we might all be unified in the notion that in all of its mystery and chaos, Act 3 scene 3 was setting us up for the entrance of a character of this nature. Through Autolycus, laughter and joy are brought into a play filled with tragic undertones, and beyond all of the fantastical elements we are presented with on stage, we finally meet a character that is truly human.
The Performance of Time
Making Time a character seems fitting for a ‘winter’s tale” that captures aspects of fantasy such as man-eating bears. The character of TIme bridges the 16-year-gap, which is necessary because such time lapses are not common in plays. One of the sources for Shakespeare’s play, Robert Greene’s Pandosto, is a much more tragic tale that lacks any of these fable aspects. What’s most interesting about this omnipresent character that is Time with the capital T is that it apologizes to the audience for the time gap. Most people would identify time as a relentless entity, yet Shakespeare’s version seems to be much more conscious of its effect on people.
Even though Time is referred to as “the Chorus”, which to me implies a group of performers, the more recent depiction of Time that I’ve found via the great wide Web all seem to be a single performer. Folger’s Theater goes takes Time as a character to a whole different level by having the Oracle serve as Father and Time as son to reinforce “the omniscient quality of the Storyteller.” This is fitting with the Greek roots for the dramatic role that a chorus would perform as a guide for the audience. This guidance would come in the form of background information, commentary and even insight on what the characters on stage were unwilling to say. Perhaps it is this last action that made me think of the similarities and differences that Time had with the other soliloquies we’ve read this semester. Nevertheless, the reinterpretation of TIme by Folger seems to be an adjustment to the modern audience that would not be overly familiar with the chorus performances of the ancient Greeks.
There’s even an important prop given and associate with time referred to with the line, ” I turn my glass” that invokes the image of an hourglass. It complements the symbolism present on stage that comes from the earlier references to time. This theme is brought to life and I think was written by Shakespeare with the audience very much in mind. This is perhaps why there’s so much variety present with how it can be performed and to what end.