The Winter’s Tale Act I & II
Comments(5) It is interesting to see how passion shifts Leontes from tenderness (toward both his wife and his friend so much so as to ask the former to prolong the latter’s stay) to suspicion to conviction. Each stage is marked by a certain stubbornness— Leontes would not stop asking his friend to keep him company, plaguing himself with doubts about his wife’s fidelity/his friend’s loyalty, and planning to rid the suspected couple once his belief is established. Yet I find it curious too how quick each stage transitions into another. When he starts questioning his wife and Polixenes’s interactions, he at least asks Camillo for confirmation (“Didst note it?” “Didst perceive it?”). Once he convinces himself, though, nobody can (or is even allowed to) say otherwise. Since the critical event lacks stage directions, I wonder how Polixene and Hermoine’s supposedly flirtatious gestures are portrayed on stage. What exactly does Leontes see, if anything at all, that would launch him into such incredible assaults toward those he holds so dear? How is it different than the intimate (and innocent?) act (“give’t me in mine ear”) between Hermoine and her own son?
We come across the idea of innocence quite often in both acts. Piloxene mentions it when describing his and Leonte’s youth but suggests that it has been corrupted after they met their wives. Hermoine appeals to it when she is condemned by her husband. Is Leontes in a way still innocent because he sees only what he wants to see and remains ignorant of what lies outside his (somewhat perverse) imagination, like a boy? Is he sinful because he allows himself to be overwhelmed by jealousy? I have yet to find a redeeming quality in Leontes, but I can’t help but think that he’s somewhat a victim of his own childish demeanor. He calls people liars the second they disagree with him.
We also see a battle between sensual information and words. Leontes’s impression of what happens leads him to deny other people’s loyalty and intelligence, but Hermoine (who has “twice said well” and chooses words instead of tears ) and Paulina (Hermoine’s “advocate to the loud’st”) try to fight back with their speech. It seems that Leonte’s force has superiority by the end of Act II–for Hermoine is imprisoned and Paulina sent back–but perhaps the oracle from Delphi ( a supreme form of words?) could reverse this.
I agree with your thought that Leontes is a total control freak. Not only does he try and silence and ignore his opposition, but even in the very beginning Hermione doesn’t speak until Leontes grants her permission too.
However, I would disagree with your sentiments that Leontes is progressing too fast with his idea that Hermione is unfaithful, as we enter the play “in media res”. We can only assume that this suspicion has been bottling up in Leontes for a long time. In 1.2.267-73, Leontes asks Camillo if he’s head of Hermione’s reputation, so it is already established that Leonte’s wife is “slippery.”
I also agree with Leontes being way too much of a control freak. It’s interesting because this reminds me of Othello and once ideas are planted in our minds about a significant other being with another man or woman, we obsess over the facts that can make it true or untrue. Leontes is a baby and needs to learn to trust his wife and his good friend whom he thinks is sneaking around his back.
I disagree with Ryan. I think Leontes wasn’t jealous prior to the beginning of the play because of his affectionate words with Polixenes and his seemingly earnest pleas for his best friend to stay longer. I believe the problem is that Hermione has intervened for the first time. We learn that Leontes and Polixenes have been engaging in a friendly competition by “interchange of gifts, letter, and lov-/ing embassies” (1.1.29-30). So far it has been a competition between two men until Leontes asks his wife for assistance. Leontes realizes that Hermione’s words are more convincing than his own and feels inferior to his wife in that regard. Leontes demonstrates his insecurity when instead of congratulating his wife for having persuaded Polixenes to stay, he tells her “at my request he would not” (1.2.87). I have a feeling that Leontes is inwardly sulking at the fact that his wife bested him when he says this. Polixenes is a perceptive enough to notice Leontes’s change of behavior despite Leontes’s usual choice of pleasing words. Polixenes notes that “The King hath on him such a countenance,/As he had lost some province…even now I met him with customary compliment, when he,/wafting his eyes to th’ contrary, and falling/A lip of much contempt, speed from me” (1.2.369-374). Polixenes quickly notices a change in behavior including different facial and body expressions. Polixenes’s description of Leontes’ actions is very observant as he notices that Leontes looks away from him and wears an expression of anger and haste to get away from him. Polixenes then deduces that something is very wrong which leads him to pressure Camillo into revealing the problem. Polixenes’s perceptive nature would have made him notice sooner any irregular behavior from Leontes which makes me believe that the jealousy began during the play and not before.
Leontes’ inexplicable jealousy is as reasonable as it is for many real people. There are many who exhibit Leontes levels of unprovoked jealousy and believe a certain truth to the point that it makes them into something else entirely. My problems with the play were more related to the aftermath of Leontes’ decision, and the ultimately hasty plan to hide Hermione for sixteen years, rather than with the jealousy itself. That it is so irrational makes it more compelling in some ways, because it allows us to relate to it more openly.
And yes, it is quick, but there is a lot at stake. She is the queen, after all, and Leontes will feel the kind of paranoia that any person with power or prestige would. The fear of being a cuckold drives him, as it does most characters of Shakespeare, but even more so than most because it threatens the purity of his lineage. It raises some interesting scenarios; if Leontes raised Polixenes’ child as his own, theoretically speaking, it would cause quite a dilemma, and one which could have caused war. I think the only understandable aspect of the entire play is his irrational anger, actually, because everything else seems muddled or has a cause and effect which doesn’t necessarily connect in a logical enough progression.
I too would love to know if there were any tell tale signs, body language or reasons for Leontes to jump the gun and accuse his best friend of betraying him and laying with his Queen. Were they holding hands, were they extra flirty, or laughing a lot amongst one another? It doesn’t add up to me why he would jump to the conclusion he did without having some type of predetermined jealousy towards Polixenes or perhaps Hermione and him are on the rocks? Of course Shakespeare throws the fact that Hermione is 9 months pregnant and Polixenes has been a guest for 9 months, just to really put it in your head that maybe there is something going on. Regardless Leontes still reacts irrationally and I can’t help but have a distaste towards him.