Twinned Lambs
Polixenes’s description of his childhood friendship with Leontes is probably the most famous example of imagery in The Winter’s Tale. According to Polixenes, when they played together as innocent young boys, they were like “twinn’d lambs that did frisk i’ the sun,” which is a very sweet way to describe the innocence and joy of a carefree childhood friendship between two boys. It also implies that Polixenes and Leontes were so close that they were practically identical (“twinn’d”). By the way, this is also a simile, which compares one thing directly to another. As in, the boys were like lambs.
So, you’re probably thinking, “Aww, what a sweet way for Polixenes to talk about his best childhood bud.” Well, we might want to rethink this because Polixenes’s lovely description of the nearly identical boys gives way to something darker:
We were as twinn'd lambs that did frisk i' the sun,
And bleat the one at the other: what we changed
Was innocence for innocence; we knew not
The doctrine of ill-doing, nor dream'd
That any did.
Had we pursued that life,
And our weak spirits ne'er been higher rear'd
With stronger blood, we should have answer'd heaven
Boldly 'not guilty;' the imposition clear'd
Hereditary ours. (1.2.10)
What’s interesting is that Polixenes claims that he and Leontes would not even have been “guilty” of original sin if they had remained young and innocent. Note: The doctrine of “ill doing” (a.k.a. “original sin”) is the idea that all human beings are born tainted because Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, according to the Bible’s book of Genesis. In other words, Polixenes suggests that he and Leontes would have remained totally innocent if they hadn’t grown up to become interested in sex (“stronger blood” means “sexual passion”) and girls (like Hermione and Polixenes’s wife). This implies that sexual relationships with women mark the end of childhood and are probably the reason why Polixenes and Leontes aren’t as close as they once were.
So, you’re probably thinking, “Aww, what a sweet way for Polixenes to talk about his best childhood bud.” Well, we might want to rethink this because Polixenes’s lovely description of the nearly identical boys gives way to something darker:
We were as twinn'd lambs that did frisk i' the sun,
And bleat the one at the other: what we changed
Was innocence for innocence; we knew not
The doctrine of ill-doing, nor dream'd
That any did.
Had we pursued that life,
And our weak spirits ne'er been higher rear'd
With stronger blood, we should have answer'd heaven
Boldly 'not guilty;' the imposition clear'd
Hereditary ours. (1.2.10)
What’s interesting is that Polixenes claims that he and Leontes would not even have been “guilty” of original sin if they had remained young and innocent. Note: The doctrine of “ill doing” (a.k.a. “original sin”) is the idea that all human beings are born tainted because Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, according to the Bible’s book of Genesis. In other words, Polixenes suggests that he and Leontes would have remained totally innocent if they hadn’t grown up to become interested in sex (“stronger blood” means “sexual passion”) and girls (like Hermione and Polixenes’s wife). This implies that sexual relationships with women mark the end of childhood and are probably the reason why Polixenes and Leontes aren’t as close as they once were.
The Bear
If you’re like us, you were probably completely blown away when that bear ran out and chased Antigonus across the stage before devouring the poor guy (3.3). Yep, that’s pretty random alright, and to tell you the truth, we’re not quite sure what to make of it (except to say that Shakespeare obviously has a sense of humor). So, let’s think about this for a minute by reviewing some popular interpretations of the incident:
Option 1: Lots of people think that Antigonus gets mauled by a bear because he’s just done a really horrible thing – dumped off baby Perdita in the middle of nowhere. It certainly seems reasonable to assume that Antigonus suffers from bad karma. On the one hand, however, we could also point out that Leontes has got some pretty bad karma too but he’s never mauled by a wild animal.
Option 2: Leontes’s bad behavior brings us to our second option. According to some critics, the bear is a symbol of Leontes’s wrath, which means that Antigonus isn’t so much a villain as a victim. He’s bullied into ditching Perdita by Leontes and the bear mauling is just another version of Antigonus being attacked by a ferocious figure.
Option 3: Alternatively, some literary critics have pointed out that the whole bear mauling incident seems to echo fertility rites myths. As literary critic Jean E. Howard tells us in her introduction to the Norton edition of the play (2008), these kinds of fertility rites usually involve some poor old guy being sacrificed in order to usher in the spring season (think “out with the old and in with the new”) and bring about some sort of sexual fulfillment.
Option 4: The bear mauling isn’t symbolic of anything. It’s just Shakespeare’s way of having fun and making reference to a popular sixteenth- and seventeenth-century blood sport (bear baiting – when bears are chained up and set upon by a pack of dogs). Bear baiting took place in the same neighborhood as Shakespeare’s plays and there are references to it all over his work.
Option 1: Lots of people think that Antigonus gets mauled by a bear because he’s just done a really horrible thing – dumped off baby Perdita in the middle of nowhere. It certainly seems reasonable to assume that Antigonus suffers from bad karma. On the one hand, however, we could also point out that Leontes has got some pretty bad karma too but he’s never mauled by a wild animal.
Option 2: Leontes’s bad behavior brings us to our second option. According to some critics, the bear is a symbol of Leontes’s wrath, which means that Antigonus isn’t so much a villain as a victim. He’s bullied into ditching Perdita by Leontes and the bear mauling is just another version of Antigonus being attacked by a ferocious figure.
Option 3: Alternatively, some literary critics have pointed out that the whole bear mauling incident seems to echo fertility rites myths. As literary critic Jean E. Howard tells us in her introduction to the Norton edition of the play (2008), these kinds of fertility rites usually involve some poor old guy being sacrificed in order to usher in the spring season (think “out with the old and in with the new”) and bring about some sort of sexual fulfillment.
Option 4: The bear mauling isn’t symbolic of anything. It’s just Shakespeare’s way of having fun and making reference to a popular sixteenth- and seventeenth-century blood sport (bear baiting – when bears are chained up and set upon by a pack of dogs). Bear baiting took place in the same neighborhood as Shakespeare’s plays and there are references to it all over his work.
The Seasons
Winter
The first half of The Winter’s Tale is set in King Leontes’s Sicilian court during the cold winter months. the evidence is when Mammilius tells his mother “A sad tale's best for winter” (2.1.7) after she asks him for a story. The frigid season seems completely appropriate in a court where Leontes’s cold-hearted behavior destroys his family and brings about the worst kind of suffering imaginable.
Spring/Summer
In the second half of the play (which occurs sixteen years later), the Sicilian winter gives way to the Bohemian countryside during the spring or summer. The spring and summer seasons, as we know, are frequently associated with life and renewal and life. Fittingly, Bohemia is a festive world that’s full of youthful spirit and possibility. This is where we meet the lovely young Perdita, who resembles Flora, goddess of flowers. Bohemia is also where Florizel’s and Perdita’s young love blossoms and just about anything seems possible, especially during the colorful sheep-shearing festival.
When Florizel and Perdita travel to Sicily in Act 5, the “cold” Sicilian landscape is dramatically altered. Leontes says, “Welcome hither, / As is the spring to the earth […] The blessed gods / Purge all infection from the air / Whilst you / Do climate here” (5.1.13-15). Leontes, whose been suffering a winter-like existence in Sicily for sixteen long years, suggests that Florizel’s presence is like the arrival of spring after a long, cold, harsh winter. What’s more, Florizel and Perdita’s youthful presence seems to have a healing effect on the king and his ailing court, which never really recovered from the deaths of Hermione and Mammilius and the loss of baby Perdita. So, we might say that Florizel and Perdita bring with them the spirit of spring/summer and inject the play with love, warmth, and the spirit of forgiveness.
When Florizel and Perdita travel to Sicily in Act 5, the “cold” Sicilian landscape is dramatically altered. Leontes says, “Welcome hither, / As is the spring to the earth […] The blessed gods / Purge all infection from the air / Whilst you / Do climate here” (5.1.13-15). Leontes, whose been suffering a winter-like existence in Sicily for sixteen long years, suggests that Florizel’s presence is like the arrival of spring after a long, cold, harsh winter. What’s more, Florizel and Perdita’s youthful presence seems to have a healing effect on the king and his ailing court, which never really recovered from the deaths of Hermione and Mammilius and the loss of baby Perdita. So, we might say that Florizel and Perdita bring with them the spirit of spring/summer and inject the play with love, warmth, and the spirit of forgiveness.
Time
At the beginning of Act 4, Time, a winged figure with an hourglass, appears on stage. Time is an allegory. (An allegory is a kind of extended metaphor that’s weaved throughout a poem or play in which objects, persons, and actions stand for another meaning. In this case, Time stands for, well, time.) Because Time announces that the play has fast-forwarded sixteen years into the future and tells us that the setting has changed from Sicily to Bohemia, where Perdita has grown up, Time is also acting the part of a Chorus (kind of like a narrator).
During his speech, Time apologizes to the audience for all of this: “Impute it not a crime / To me or my swift passage, that I slide / O'er sixteen years and leave the growth untried / Of that wide gap” (4.1.1). Translation: “Don’t be mad that the play has skipped ahead sixteen years.” Why is Time apologizing? Well, flash forwards and major setting changes were a big no-no on the English stage in Shakespeare’s day because they disregarded the “classical unities” (of time, place, and action), a set of literary rules that said all plays should have the following features: 1) the action should take place within a 24 hour time span; 2) the action should take place in one geographical place/setting; 3) the play should have one main plot and no sub-plots. The Winter’s Tale pretty clearly breaks all of these rules (as did many other Shakespeare plays).
During his speech, Time apologizes to the audience for all of this: “Impute it not a crime / To me or my swift passage, that I slide / O'er sixteen years and leave the growth untried / Of that wide gap” (4.1.1). Translation: “Don’t be mad that the play has skipped ahead sixteen years.” Why is Time apologizing? Well, flash forwards and major setting changes were a big no-no on the English stage in Shakespeare’s day because they disregarded the “classical unities” (of time, place, and action), a set of literary rules that said all plays should have the following features: 1) the action should take place within a 24 hour time span; 2) the action should take place in one geographical place/setting; 3) the play should have one main plot and no sub-plots. The Winter’s Tale pretty clearly breaks all of these rules (as did many other Shakespeare plays).
Hermione’s Statue
The statue of Hermione is one of the most controversial issues in the play. By the time Paulina invites everyone to see Hermione’s life-like statue in the play’s final act, Hermione has been presumed dead for the past sixteen years. This is why everyone is so shocked to see that an artist has created such a realistic and stunning statue. (The artists even seem to have taken into account how Hermione would have aged over the years.) Everyone is even more shocked and amazed when Paulina calls for some dramatic music and says “Tis time. Descend. Be stone no more” (5.3.11) and Hermione steps down from the pedestal and gives Leontes a hug. Clearly, this is a pretty dramatic and moving scene, for the characters and the audience.
The problem is this: it’s not entirely clear if Hermione is somehow brought back from the dead, or if she’s been alive the whole time. Some critics argue that Hermione is magically and miraculously resurrected when her long lost daughter (Perdita) returns to her. Others argue that Paulina just hid Hermione away for sixteen years so that 1) Leontes wouldn’t hurt her and 2) she could teach Leontes a lesson. There’s enough evidence in the play to argue either way. So, what do you think? Is this magic, or is it just Paulina’s parlor trick?
The problem is this: it’s not entirely clear if Hermione is somehow brought back from the dead, or if she’s been alive the whole time. Some critics argue that Hermione is magically and miraculously resurrected when her long lost daughter (Perdita) returns to her. Others argue that Paulina just hid Hermione away for sixteen years so that 1) Leontes wouldn’t hurt her and 2) she could teach Leontes a lesson. There’s enough evidence in the play to argue either way. So, what do you think? Is this magic, or is it just Paulina’s parlor trick?
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