The Winter's Tale

William Shakespeare

Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1623

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Summary

Background

Acts Summaries & Analyses

Act I

Act II

Act III

Act IV

Act V

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Themes

Jealousy’s Destructive Consequences

The overarching theme of The Winter’s Tale is the destruction caused by jealousy, as it sets the plot in motion. Jealousy rules Leontes for three acts. To all but him, his jealousy is baseless, yet Leontes is stubborn in his beliefs and refuses to listen to his advisors when they tell him Hermione and Polixenes are innocent. Moreover, it is never made clear whom Leontes is truly jealous of. At times, he raves over Hermione’s supposed infidelity, “the boldness of a wife” (1.2.271), suggesting he is jealous of her warmth toward the man he calls “our brother” (1.2.258). Yet, Leontes’s love for Polixenes is also made clear, opening up the possibility of him being jealous of his warmth toward Hermione. Leontes’s first aside comes after Hermione convinces Polixenes to stay in Sicilia despite his own failed entreaties.

The consequences of Leontes’s jealousy are almost immediate, beginning in the same scene as his suspicion of his wife and best friend’s relationship. He is unwilling to believe Camillo, who vouches for Hermione, despite telling him “I have trusted thee, Camillo, / With all the nearest things to my heart […] I from thee departed / Thy penitent reform’d: but we have been / Deceived in thy integrity, deceived / In that which seems so” (1.2.334-40). Rather than trusting his allies, he believes his kingdom has already started talking behind his back. Leontes’s belief in his wife’s infidelity is often called “madness” by Paulina, the voice of reason throughout the play. He proves angry and obsessed, tasking Camillo with poisoning his friend. The destruction caused by Leontes’s unfounded jealousy only compounds over the following acts, resulting in the loss of his entire family. Leontes’s hubris is epitomized by his defiance of the Oracle of Delphi (and by extension, the Greek god Apollo). His reliance on jealousy overcomes his request for truth, his denial of the Oracle’s prophecy continuing to cause him grief 16 years later.

Rebirth and Resurrection

Symbolic rebirths and resurrections reinforce the play’s focus on change over the passage of time. In Act III, Scene 3, when the Old Shepherd discovers Perdita while the Clown witnesses the death of Antigonus, the Old Shepherd says “thou mettest with things / dying, I with things newborn” (3.3.1607-8). With her banishment from Sicilia, Perdita is born anew, a common occurrence for other characters as well. With her return to Sicilia and the completion of the Oracle’s prophecy, Leontes is granted a new life and renewed friendship with Polixenes. A literal resurrection occurs when Paulina’s statue of Hermione comes to life after her supposed death 16 years ago. Though there is conflicting evidence that implies Hermione instead hid away—as Paulina “hath privately twice or thrice a day, ever / since the death of Hermione, visited that removed / house” where the statue is kept (5.2.3213-15)—either explanation implies rebirth, either literal or symbolic, for Hermione. With her innocence, Hermione functions as a Christ-like figure, acting as a scapegoat for Leontes’s jealousy and ending the play as a reward for his repentance—symbolizing the forgiveness of his sins and providing a new start.

All of the play’s rebirths and resurrections fall under the larger framework of Leontes’s rebirth. Though the play skips 16 years of his penance, it is clear that by the final act, he has atoned for his wrongs, or at least enough so that his moral compass, Paulina, feels he deserves to see his wife again. Though he cannot undo the past, his efforts toward redemption are rewarded by the return of his wife and daughter. Leontes’s growth is also symbolized by the changing of seasons throughout the play. Whereas his jealousy takes root during winter and causes death as the season is known to do, rebirth comes with summer. Overall, this focus on rebirth and resurrection highlights the human capacity for change, for happy endings.

Providence and Prophecy

Divine providence often impacts the characters in William Shakespeare’s plays regardless of genre, and in The Winter’s Tale, providence is linked to prophecy. Shakespeare uses syncretism—the amalgamation or comparison of different cultures—in many plays to compare the polytheistic culture of ancient Sicilia to Jacobean England, which was exclusively Christian and largely Protestant/Anglican. In both Shakespeare’s world and the setting of his play, the divine is believed to control people’s fates, punishing or rewarding based on one’s actions and morals. In the play, the Oracle’s prophecy is what dictates providence, and it is only after the prophecy is fulfilled that characters are rewarded for their good deeds. Much like how the Oracle acts as the voice of Apollo, Paulina seems to act as the voice of the Oracle, guiding Leontes’s repentance and only delivering the reward of Hermione’s return once Perdita is found and the prophecy is fulfilled, just as she prevents him from remarrying until the “first queen’s again in breath” (5.1.2924). In this way, the Oracle’s prophecy is directly connected to the divine, and providence is restored once the divine further proves itself to be in control of the characters’ fate.

Among Leontes’s wrongs is his refusal to believe the prophecy over his own jealous assumptions. His penance, not only for the sake of his family and kingdom, proves he is faithful by the end of the play and restores the natural order. He is rewarded with the return of his daughter and wife; with this return, Perdita and Florizel are wed, restoring their fathers’ friendship. The Old Shepherd and Clown become ingratiated with royalty by revealing Perdita’s origins to Polixenes and Camillo, and even the roguish Autolycus is rewarded for this connection to the situation, despite not having done anything to deserve it. In Shakespearean comedies, marriage is often seen as the ultimate reward for virtuous behavior, as it represents the continuation of family and the human species. Though there is a lack of evidence regarding Camillo’s attraction to Paulina and Paulina’s desire to remarry, Leontes vows to marry them to each other, cementing the return of virtue. Overall, the characters are rewarded by the fulfillment of both prophecy and penance.