The Winter's Tale

Shakespeare used both the tragic and comedic device in his surreal play The Winter's Tale to emphasize the meaning of hope. Three details Shakespeare specified in the play include a seemingly dead queen resurrected back to life, a 16 year gap, and the entrance of a bear. All three seem oddly placed in a tragedy but are done so for a reason. Shakespeare combines the themes of Winter, like death, with those one might find in a fairy tale: fantastical events that somehow end with a happy ending. It is ultimately a story so absurd, so complicated, and so implausible that the audience has no choice but to follow along, with the sense that eventually all will be well.

Leontes' major flaws cause the deaths of Hermione, his son Mamillius, daughter Perdita and forever isolate him from his childhood best friend, Polixenes and loyal councilor, Camillo. His jealousy leads him to falsely accuse his wife of infidelity with his childhood friend, even when those he trust the most unsuccessfully attempt to convince him otherwise. He is so full of pride and self righteousness that he refused to listen, even rejecting the advice given from the god Apollo and his oracle. At this point in the play, Leontes seems like a pompous fool who has destroyed all the relationships he had with those he loved, all because of a feeling based upon superficial jealousy. All hope is not lost despite the numerous tragedies Leontes' actions have caused, though the emotional impact is exactly what Shakespeare wants to be evoked.

Hermione's daughter was destined to live. She escaped death from the hands of Leontes, and avoided a grizzly death, something Antigonus did not. The audience may ask why the bear would go through the trouble of chasing down a full grown man when a helpless baby was unharmed. This silliness helps to transition from the tragedy of Winter's Tale into the comedy. And on a deeper level, perhaps Shakespeare included the odd production issue of