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Character
Directory
LEONTES |
Leontes is the King
of Sicilia, husband of Hermione and father of Perdita. Leontes' insane
jealousy is the disorder at the centre of the Tragedy that comprises the
first half of the play. In 1.2, convinced that Hermione has committed
adultery with King Polixenes of Bohemia, Leontes orders her tried for
treason. In 2.3, believing the newborn Perdita to be Polixenes' child, he
condemns her to abandonment in the wilderness. Even when the oracle of
Apollo declares Hermione innocent in 3.2, Leontes refuses to believe it.
Finally, the death from grief of his son Mamillius, taken as an act of
vengeance by Apollo, convinces him, and he repents. However, Hermione is
apparently dead of grief also, and the mournful Leontes 'shuts himself up'
(4.1.19), emerging only in Act 5, after 16 years of 'saint-like sorrow'
(5.1.2), to learn that both Perdita and Hermione have survived.
Shakespeare gives
Leontes some weight as a particular person: he is about 30 in Act 1; he
has inspired love in Hermione and Mamillius and demonstrates his own love
for his son; he is conscious of public opinion when he sends messengers to
the oracle to 'Give rest to th' minds of others' (2.1.191) and holds a
trial that he may 'be clear'd / Of being tyrannous' (3.2.5). Nevertheless,
his personality is not well developed, for it is not as a person that
Leontes has importance. He functions as a symbol of disorder and chaos; he
is not intended to be a realistic human being so much as an obstacle to
happiness. He is villainous because the story calls for villainy, not from
any well-established motive. His madness is as much a surprise to the
other characters as it is to the audience or reader. Leontes is thus also
a victim, a man rendered suddenly insane, subject to the whims of fate. It
is highly significant that it takes an act of divine intervention to
effect his cure. One of the lessons of the play—and of the Romances in
general—is that humankind depends on providence for happiness in an
insecure world.
At the close of 3.2
Leontes subsides into grief, and there is a sense of calm acceptance of
evil's consequences that resembles a tragedy's close. However, Leontes'
repentance occurs as abruptly as the sin that made it necessary; it fails
to produce any spiritual growth or any profound expressions of torment
such as those offered by Othello and Lear. His repentance, like his
jealousy, is archetypal. Still, though Leontes' psychology is not
explored, his repentance nevertheless serves as a symbol of the gentler
world in which the climactic reconciliations can occur. |
MAMILLIUS |
Mamillius is the son
of King Leontes of Sicilia and Queen Hermione, who dies of grief when his
father persecutes his mother unjustly. In 1.1 Mamillius is presented as
the pride of his parents and the entire kingdom; his future as a man and
ruler looks brilliant. These sentiments, however, will soon seem ironic.
In 1.2 and 2.1 he appears a likeable boy, especially in 2.1, when he jests
with his mother's ladies-in-waiting and tells his mother a story 'of
sprites and goblins' because 'a sad tale's best for winter' (2.1.26, 25).
The remark confirms our sense of coming tragedy. Mamillius dies of grief,
off-stage, during his mother's trial. The shock of his death, reported in
3.2.144-145, stirs his father, too late, to recognize his own injustice.
The death of Mamillius, a completely innocent victim, demonstrates the
appalling cost of Leontes' madness; it is the low point of the play's
tragic development. Shakespeare created Mamillius from the mere mention
of the analogous figure in his source, the prose romance Pandosto by
Robert Greene. His name may have been derived from the title of two
earlier romances by Greene, Mamillia (1583, 1593). |
CAMILLO |
Camillo is an adviser
of King Leontes of Sicilia. The mad Leontes suspects his best friend, King
Polixenes of Bohemia, of committing adultery with his wife, and in 1.2 he
orders Camillo to poison Polixenes. Instead, Camillo informs Polixenes and
flees with him to Bohemia. Camillo reappears there in the second half of
the play, set 16 years later. He has been a faithful adviser to Polixenes,
and in 4.4 he helps the king thwart the romance between Prince Florizel
and a shepherd girl, Perdita. However, he then helps the couple flee to
Sicilia, where it is discovered that Perdita is the lost daughter of
Leontes, and the play ends in an atmosphere of general reconciliation and
love.
Camillo represents a
familiar character type in the romantic literature on which The Winter's
Tale is based: the servant who aids his master by disobeying him. As such,
he is one of the good people who fight the evil that infects the play's
world. Only providence, supported by the power of love, can bring the
play's characters through to the happy ending, but human agency, chiefly
that of Camillo and Paulina, is an important auxiliary. Thus, Camillo
supports a major theme of the play, that humanity must energetically use
its capacity for good. Fittingly, he becomes engaged to Paulina, by royal
command, at the play's close. |
ANTIGONUS |
Antigonus is a
nobleman at the court of King Leontes of Sicilia. Antigonus, like his
wife, Paulina, defends Queen Hermione against the king's unjust accusation
of adultery, and he protests against the cruelty of killing the infant
Perdita, whom the king believes is illegitimate. Leontes threatens him
with death for failing to control Paulina's bitter criticism and orders
the old man to take the baby and abandon it in the wilderness. Antigonus
accepts the king's order and leaves the child on the coast of Bohemia,
where he is killed and eaten by a Bear. Shakespeare has Antigonus die
partly so that his knowledge of Perdita's whereabouts will not be
available to the repentant Leontes of Act 3. But, more important, the old
man's death has a moral point. The bear provides a particularly appalling
end for Antigonus, an emblem of the sin of co-operating with evil. Though
he is a generally sympathetic figure, humorous when admittedly overwhelmed
by Paulina, and courageous in his initial protests to Leontes, he must be
compared with his wife, who resists the king's tyranny. Antigonus, though
reluctant, is weak; he permits duty to the king to overrule his sense of
justice and becomes the agent of Leontes' evil madness. He even comes to
believe in Hermione's guilt, as he declares in his soliloquy before
abandoning Perdita.
Antigonus' death is
part of the workings of providence that underlies the play. At the same
time, since he is himself a victim of the king's madness, his death—like
that of Mamillius and the Mariner—is an example of the human cost of evil.
Antigonus comes to embody the tragic developments of the first half of the
play, and his death signals their end, as the drama moves from tragedy to
redemption.
Antigonus undergoes a
modest redemption himself. The hearty old gentleman who invokes 'the whole
dungy earth' (2.1.157) and acknowledges his overwhelming wife with a 'La
you now' (2.3.50) is altered by the experiences fate ordains for him. He
dares to criticize the king, even if he cannot persist, and he assumes
responsibility for Perdita. In his dream of Hermione, he also seems to
have a supernatural visitation from the dead. As he leaves Perdita, he
recognizes his involvement with evil, despairing, 'Weep I cannot, / But my
heart bleeds; and most accurs'd am I /To be by oath enjoin'd to this'
(3.3.51-53). About to die, he speaks in a poetic diction that elevates him
to a nobler level. |
CLEOMENES/DION |
Cleomenes (Cleomines)
and Dion are followers of King Leontes of Sicilia. Cleomenes and Dion are
virtually indistinguishable, and they share their only significant
function, so they are treated together here. Seeking support for his
accusation that Queen Hermione is guilty of adultery, King Leontes sends
them to consult the oracle of Apollo. They describe the oracle in
awestruck tones, with Dion ecstatically reminiscing, '0, the sacrifice! /
How ceremonious, solemn and unearthly' (3.1.6-7), and Cleomenes declaring
that •the ear-deafening voice o' th' Oracle, / Kin to Jove's thunder, so
surpris'd my sense, / That I was nothing' (3.1.9-11). Their remarks stand
in for the actual appearance of a god—a feature of the other Romances—and
introduce the climactic moment of the play's first half, the checking of
Leontes' madness through the apparent intervention of Apollo. However,
when the oracle's pronouncement is delivered in 3.2, Cleomenes and Dion
speak only half a line, in unison, swearing that they have not read the
message. They reappear briefly in 5.1, but they are merely pawns of the
plot. |
POLIXENES |
Polixenes is the King
of Bohemia. In 1.2 Polixenes, visiting his old friend King Leontes of
Sicilia, is persuaded by Leontes' wife, Queen Hermione, to extend his
stay. However, Leontes goes mad and imagines adultery between Polixenes
and Hermione. Warned by Camillo that Leontes intends to poison him,
Polixenes Hees to Bohemia and is not seen again until late in the play.
Leontes believes his infant daughter, Perdita, is the illegitimate child
of Polixenes, and orders her abandoned in the wilderness. In Act 4, 16
years later, Polixenes' son. Prince Florizel, falls in love with Perdita,
who has been raised by shepherds in Bohemia. Polixenes opposes the match
of a prince and a shepherdess, and the couple, pursued by the king, flees
to Sicilia. There Perdita's identity is revealed, the couple becomes
engaged, and Polixenes is reconciled with his old friend in 5.3, the
play's final scene.
Polixenes is a rather
colorless victim in 1.2—though his perspicacity in reading the situation
contrasts sharply with Leontes' obtuseness—and he is mostly an observer in
5.3. In Act 4 he is more prominent, even though his role is a stereotype
of the statusconscious adult who opposes young love. He is charmed by
Perdita at the shepherds' festival, but after he removes his disguise, he
threatens her with 'a death as cruel for thee / As thou art tender to 't'
(4.4.441-442). Thus, in the romantic Comedy of the play's second half,
Polixenes takes the role of villain that Leontes had in the Tragedy of the
first half. |
FLORIZEL |
Florizel is the son of King Polixenes of
Bohemia and suitor of Perdita. Florizel defies his father's anger at his
intention to marry Perdita, a shepherd girl deemed unsuitable for the heir to
the kingdom, and the couple flees to Sicilia. There her identity as the
daughter of King Leontes, is discovered, leading to the couple's formal
engagement and the reconciliation of their fathers. Florizel is present in only
three scenes—4.4, 5.1, and 5.3—and he does not speak in 5.3. Moreover, he is
something of a cardboard hero, a stereotype of the chivalric young knight of
traditional romantic literature—brave, handsome, and passionately loyal to his
lover but with little further in the way of personality. Nevertheless, though
his emotional range is restricted, Florizel is important to the play, for his
cheerful adoration of Perdita is a charming and forceful manifestation of young
love, and his courageous persistence in the face of Polixenes' wrath permits the
pair to remain together long enough for the solution to emerge. He is thus an
emblem of the power of love to withstand tyrannous opposition. His name probably
comes from that of a similar hero, Florizel de Niquea, the protagonist of a
chivalric romance by the 16th-century Spanish author Feliciano de Silva (c.
1492-1558).
|
ARCHIDAMUS |
Archidamus is a
follower of King Polixenes of Bohemia. In 1.1 Archidamus exchanges
diplomatic courtesies with Camillo, an adviser of King Leontes of Sicilia.
Their conversation informs the audience of the play's opening situation.
Archidamus has no real personality, but his fluent command of courtly
language lends the episode a distancing formality, appropriately
introducing an extravagant and romantic story. Nevertheless, his last
line, 'If the king had no son, they would desire to live on crutches till
he had one' (1.1.44-45). closes the scene with a harshness that intimates
the misery to come in the play's tragic first half. |
Old Shepherd |
Shepherd is the foster-father of Perdita. The
mad King Leontes of Sicilia, believing his infant daughter, Perdita, to be
illegitimate, orders her abandoned in the wilderness. In 3.3 the Shepherd
discovers her, wrapped in rich fabrics and supplied with identifying documents.
He raises her as his daughter. In 4.4, 16 years later, the Shepherd hosts a
country festival, at which King Polixenes threatens him with death, for Prince
Florizel has fallen in love with Perdita, offending the royal dignity. The
Shepherd and his son, the Clown, try to show Perdita's documents to the king, to
prove that they are not related to her and should not be punished, but they are
tricked by Autolycus into joining the fleeing couple and sailing to Sicilia.
There, Perdita's identity is discovered and the Shepherd is amply rewarded; in
5.2 he and the Clown display their new finery, having been created gentlemen by
King Leontes.
|
Clown |
Clown is the foster
brother of Perdita. The Clown is present in 3.3 when the abandoned infant
Perdita is discovered by his father, the Shepherd. In Act 4, 16 years
later, the Clown is part of Perdita's pastoral world, though he has no
direct contact with her. As his designation implies, he is an oafish
rustic, a likeable and well-meaning fellow who is somewhat stupid and
unconsciously comical. In 3.3 he is unwittingly funny when describing the
horrible deaths of Anticonus and the Mariner, helping to establish the
comic tone of the play's second half. A gullible victim, he is robbed by
Autolycus in 4.3, and in 4.4, at the shepherds' festival, his foolish
pleasure in buying gifts for his girlfriend, Mopsa, adds to our enjoyment
of the scene. He declares to the peddler (Autolycus in disguise), 'If I
were not in love with Mopsa, thou shouldst take no money of me; but being
enthralled as I am, it will also be the bondage of certain ribbons and
gloves' (4.4.233-236).
Later in 4.4, when
King Polixenes, angry at Perdita's love for his son Florizel, threatens
the Shepherd with death, the Clown encourages his father to disclaim his
adopted daughter. Autolycus offers to take them to the king for a fee, but
he tricks them onto the ship carrying Perdita and Florizel to Sicilia,
where Perdita's identity as King Leontes' daughter is discovered. The
Shepherd and the Clown are rewarded with a raise in status, and in 5.2 the
Clown comically brags of being 'a gentleman born . . . and [having] been
so any time these four hours' (5.2.134-136). Despite his foolishness and
his single act .of cowardice—understandable in a shepherd facing a king's
wrath—the Clown is clearly a good person. As such, he contributes to the
atmosphere of human virtue that characterizes the second half of the play,
countering the evil of the first. |
AUTOLYCUS |
Autolycus is a
vagabond thief who wanders through Bohemia. Autolycus appears, singing and
bragging about his career as a petty thief, in 4.3. He picks the pocket of
the Clown and proposes to find further victims at the sheep-shearing
festival, making 'the shearers prove sheep' (4.3.117). In 4.4 he attends
the festival disguised as a peddler, singing songs, selling trinkets, and
picking pockets. His songs and patter, his cheerful irresponsibility, and
his insouciant delight in life add greatly to our enjoyment of the rustic
scene. When King Polixenes rages against the love of his son Florizel and
the shepherdess Perdita, Autolycus exploits the situation to rob Perdita's
foster-father, the Shepherd, who fears punishment and wants the king to
know that Perdita was a foundling. Autolycus terrifies the old man and his
son, the Clown, with accounts of the tortures they can expect and then
offers, for money, to help them reach the king. However, he actually turns
them over to the fleeing Florizel, in the hope of reward In this way
evidence of Perdita's identity gets to Sicilia—she is the long-lost
daughter of the Sicilian King Leontes-resulting in reunions for the play's
major characters and the incidental enrichment of the Shepherd and Clown
with vast rewards. In 5.2 Autolycus admits that his life has earned no
success, and he turns to flattering his former victims, now newly made
gentlemen, in the hope of employment.
Autolycus is for the
most part a charming rogue. He contributes greatly to the atmosphere of
gaiety that surrounds the shepherds' world and thus to the comic tone of
the play's second half. His crimes are petty compared with those of
Leontes in the tragic first half of the play, but in any case it is part
of the virtue of the pastoral world that it has room for this comical
villain. The importance of mercy as a moral virtue is emphasized by the
fact that Autolycus' depredations are accepted as a part of life. He even
has a place in the Play’s final forgiveness and reconciliation, though the
playwright could easily have left him in Bohemia Autolycus represents the
irrepressible mischievousness of human nature; that he selfishly views the
world entirely in terms of his own convenience is deplorable but he
compensates through his contagious pleasure in simple things and the
delightful songs in which he expresses this pleasure.
Autolycus resembles
traditional comic characters but he is not quite classifiable. He is too
sophisticated for a rustic Clown, nor is he a Fool, for he is not a
professional jester. He does, however 'resemble a Fool in his mockery, his
songs, and his disinterested position relative to the main developments.
He resembles Falstaff in his anomalous social position his predatory
nature, and his pretensions to an anti-ethic (he boasts of a piece
of'knavery', -therein am I constant to my profession' [4.4.682-683]). Both
characters. though amoral, are admirably independent and the conflict of
our judgments on the two traits yields subtle humor, as our own
pretensions and secret predilections are exposed.
Autolycus' nature
(like Falstaff’s) gradually changes At first he charms us, and we are
inclined to forgive his crimes. However, as the shepherds' festival closes
he seems less pleasant, crying, -Ha, ha! what a fool Honesty is!'
(4.4.596) and gloating over his victims who are sympathetic characters.
When he plots how to profit from the desperate young lovers' situation, he
is still funny, but we can no longer ignore his amorality, for it
threatens the hero and heroine. His terrorizing of the Shepherd with truly
horrible descriptions of torture adds to our unease, and Autolycus
acquires a darkly satirical cast as he replicates Polixenes' wrath while
himself disguised as a courtier. He has changed sides in Shakespeare's
opposition of pastoral innocence and sophisticated machinations. It is the
Clown who is the comic character in 5.2, while Autolycus is merely another
practitioner of the courtier's bowing and scraping to which he at first
seemed antithetical Autolycus' only real connection to the plot, his role
in preventing the Shepherd from revealing Perdita's origins too early,
comes from the play's main source the novella Pandosto by Robert Greene in
which a servant of the prince—and Autolycus was once Florizel s
servant—performs this function. However making this figure a vagabond and
thief was Shakespeare's invention. The playwright probably took the idea
as well as the name Autolycus, from Ovid’s description of the god
Mercury's son in The Metamorphoses Shakespeare's Autolycus brags of the
connection, -My father named me Autolycus; who, being as I am, littered
under Mercury, was likewise a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles'
(4.3.24-26). |
Mariner |
Mariner is seaman who
sets Antigonus ashore in Bohemia in 3.3 for the purpose of abandoning the
infant Perdita. The Mariner dislikes their task, which has been ordered by
the mad King Leontes, and he fears that the gods will dislike it as well.
He warns Antigonus to hurry because bad weather is approaching and because
the coast is famous for its wild animals. He is borne out on both points
as a storm arises—he perishes in it, as is reported in 3.3.90-94—and
Antigonus is eaten by a Bear. The Mariner offers a point of view outside
the story, that of the common man who pities the infant and fears the
gods. Like a Chorus, he provides a brief commentary on developments.
The Mariner's death
has a dual significance in the play's scheme. A good man, repelled by
Perdita's fate, he is himself a victim of Leontes' madness. As such he
represents the human cost exacted by evil. On the other hand, as
Antigonus' guide, he is Leontes' agent, albeit an unwilling one. His death
is part of the necessary workings of providence, for the evil of Leontes'
deeds must be thoroughly extirpated as a condition of redemption, and the
Mariner, like Antigonus, embodies that evil to some degree. |
Gaoler |
Gaoler is the
custodian of the imprisoned Queen Hermione. When Lady Paulina visits the
unjustly incarcerated queen, the Gaoler is sympathetic—calling her 'a
worthy lady / And one who much I honour' (2.2.5-6)—but he sticks to his
duty, only allowing her to see Hermione's ladyin-waiting, Emilia, and only
in his presence. When Paulina proposes to take Hermione's daughter—born in
the prison—to the king, the Gaoler is reluctant, saying, 'I know not what
I shall incur to pass it, / Having no warrant' (2.2.57-58), but in the
face of Paulina's insistence he accedes. This weak figure provides a foil
for Paulina, establishing her as the powerful presence that will dominate
several later scenes; at the same time, by reminding us of the authority
he represents, he contributes to our growing sense of tragedy. |
HERMIONE |
Hermione is the wife
of King Leontes of Sicilia and mother of Perdita. Unjustly accused of
adultery by her mad husband, Hermione gives birth in prison to Perdita,
whom Leontes condemns to be abandoned in the wilderness; then her son
Mamillius dies just as Leontes sentences her to death. The shock of this
loss kills her, according to her ally Lady Paulina. However, Paulina keeps
Hermione alive in secret, awaiting the time when Leontes shall have
sufficiently repented. In 5.3, after Perdita has miraculously reappeared,
Paulina offers to display a statue of Hermione, which is actually the
still-living queen herself. As the others watch in awe, Hermione comes to
life, and the play closes with reunion and reconciliation.
Hermione is a passive
but highly important figure in the play. Her fate in the tragic first half
makes her an emblem of a major theme of the play—indeed, of all
Shakespeare's Romances—the critical role of providence in securing human
happiness in an unreliable world. Even more, she helps illustrate that the
efficacy of providence depends on the moral strength of good people in the
face of evil. Her dignity in the face other undeserved fate is highly
impressive. Even the steady strength of the poetry she speaks contrasts
favorably with the hysterical ranting of Leontes. She puts her faith in
providence, saying, 'if powers divine / Behold our human actions (as they
do), /1 doubt not then but innocence shall make / False accusation blush'
(3.2.28-31). Upon her reappearance she restates this attitude when she
invokes a blessing on Perdita—'You gods, look down, / And from your sacred
vial pour your graces / Upon my daughter's head' (5.3.121-123).
Hermione displays a
loving nature that anticipates the role of Perdita in the second half of
the play. Her charm is evident in 1.2, when, at Leontes' request, she
persuades King Polixenes of Bohemia to extend his .visit. This arouses
Leontes' jealous suspicions, but it also demonstrates Hermione's fine
qualities: a readiness for friendship and an intelligent appreciation of
the previous affection between her husband and Polixenes. Her capacity for
love is delightfully demonstrated in 2.1, where we see her playing with
Mamillius. Her evident goodness makes her apparent death all the more
tragic and her apparent resurrection all the more Christlike. Although
Hermione's significance diminishes in the second half, in the first—and at
the conclusion—she is key to The Winter's Tale's presentation of
humanity's capacity for good. |
PERDITA |
Perdita is the
long-lost daughter of King Leontes and Queen Hermione of Sicilia he love
of Perdita and Prince Florizel of Bohemia is the central element in the
romantic Comedy that constitutes the second half of the play, balancing
the Tragedy of Leontes' mad jealousy in the first Though she is prominent
only in 4.4, her virtue, beauty, and charming personality make Perdita a
powerful symbolic force in the remainder of the play.
At the turning point
of the play, in 3.3, the infant Perdita is abandoned in the wilderness
because Leontes believes she is the offspring of Hermione’s alleged
adultery with King Polixenes of Bohemia. A Shepherd adopts Perdita, and by
Act 4, 16 years later, she has become a charming young woman the •Mistress
o' th' Feast' (4.4.68) at the shepherds' festival Florizel's father, King
Polixenes, disapproves of the love between his royal son and a peasant
girl. When he attends the feast in disguise, he is charmed by Perdita,
finding her 'Too noble for this place' (4.4.159) but he will not accept
her as a daughter-in-law. He threatens her with death, and the couple
flees to Sicilia, where Perdita's identity is discovered. This leads to
their formal engagement, the reconciliation of Leontes and Polixenes, and
the restoration of Queen Hermione, who has been kept in hiding. The
prophecy of the oracle of Apollo—that only Perdita can restore the
happiness Leontes has destroyed—is thus fulfilled. Perdita's love is
essential to the workings of providence in the play's outcome, thereby
supporting the play's major theme, that the moral virtue of good people is
necessary for providence to function as a savior in human affairs.
Raised as a
shepherdess, Perdita is an honest, open young woman with no trace of
pretension or sentimentality. She is embarrassed to be 'most goddess-like
prank'd up' (4.4.10) in a fancy costume for the festival, and she is
frankly worried about Polixenes' opposition to her, though more for
Florizel's sake than her own. A clever lass, she briskly counters
Camillo’s flattery in 4.4.110-112 and more than holds her own in the
debate with Polixenes in 4.4.79-103, in which she defends the simple ways
of nature against the sophistication of art. She values a maidenly decorum
in sexual matters, while acknowledging the physical side of love. She
mentions, for example, a 'false way' of love (4.4.151) and speaks against
'scurrilous words' (4.4. 215) in ballads, yet when Florizel jests that
strewn with flowers he would be like a corpse, she replies, 'No, like a
bank, for love to lie and play on: / Not like a corpse; or if—not to be
buried, / But quick, and in mine arms' (4.4.130-132).
This lovely passage
is suggestive of primordial rituals of death and rebirth. Along with her
remarks on the Proserpina myth and mythological flower lore in
4.4.116-126, it links her with the ancient veneration of natural
fertility, of which the shepherds' festival is a survival. As Florizel
puts it, 'This your sheep-shearing / Is as a meeting of the petty gods, /
And you the queen on 't' (4.4.3-5). All this reinforces Perdita's
association with providence. It was the protection of providence that
brought the tragic first half of the play to an end, and it is the love
Perdita represents that proves instrumental in effecting the final
reconciliations of the second. |
PAULINA |
Paulina is the
defender of Queen Hermione against the injustice other husband, King
Leontes, and later the instrument of their reconciliation. Paulina boldly
criticizes the king for accusing Hermione of adultery, and her courage and
common sense contrast tellingly with the king's jealous madness. After
failing to prevent the king from exiling Perdita, the infant daughter he
believes illegitimate, Paulina enters into an amazing scheme: she stages
Hermione's death and isolates her for 16 years, against the time when
Leontes will have thoroughly repented. Perdita's return signals the
ripeness of this plan, and Paulina reveals Hermione's existence in 5.3—in
a stage-managed presentation of the long-lost queen as a statue. This
revelation brings about the play's final reunion. Thus, Paulina, despite
her bluff worldliness and overpowering manner, is an agent of redemption.
Paulina thinks
clearly and acts decisively; she courageously takes it on herself to
defend the queen as soon as she hears other plight, and she handles the
Gaoler with the powerful courtesy of the grande dame that she is. Her
criticism of the king is excoriating; he is reduced to insult—calling her
a 'witch' (2.3.67), a 'callat [prostitute]' (2.3.90), and a 'gross hag'
(2.3.107). When he threatens to burn her as a witch, she boldly replies,
'I care not' (2.3.113). Her boldness, however, does not always produce the
envisioned results; her tactic of presenting the infant Perdita to the
king merely aggravates his anger and results in the child's abandonment.
Paulina alone cannot remedy the defect in the play's world—providence must
see to that—but her efforts are important evidence that good has not died
and may be restored.
Paulina has often
been compared to King Lear’s faithful Kent. Like him, she offers a cure
for the king's madness, declaring, 'I / Do come with words as medicinal as
true' (2.3.35-36). Her therapy is a raw and intrusive one. In Act 5 she
continues her powerful ministrations. She reinforces Leontes' repentance
by continually reminding him of the supposedly dead Hermione and demands
that he vow never to take a wife without her approval. She reveals
Hermione's survival with a fine theatrical sense, raising dramatic
expectations of sorcery by disclaiming 'wicked powers' (5.3.91), and she
prevents Hermione from disclosing too much with a hasty There's time
enough for that' (5.3.128). At the close, within the atmosphere of love
and reconciliation, Paulina finally permits herself to lament the loss of
her own husband, Antigonus, which stirs the king to ordain her remarriage
to Camillo. Her value in the world of the play is acknowledged when the
king calls her one 'whose worth and honesty / Is richly noted'
(5.3.144-145). The central theme of The Winter's Tale is that human
moral energy must support divine providence, and Paulina's valiant efforts
are a prime source of this ingredient. |
EMILIA |
Emilia is a
lady-in-waiting to Queen Hermione. In 2.2, when Paulina attempts to visit
the unjustly imprisoned Hermione, the Gaoler only lets her see Emilia. She
tells Paulina that the queen has given birth and returns to her mistress
with Paulina's suggestion that the infant be brought to the king in a bid
for mercy. Emilia's role is small, and she is an uncomplicated messenger,
a simple tool of the plot without any real personality. |
MOPSA |
Mopsa is a
shepherdess. Mopsa appears only at the shepherds' festival in 4.4, where
she is a charming representative of rustic youth. She is engaged to the
Clown, for which she is teased by her companion, Dorcas. She and Dorcas
sing a ballad with Autolycus, and their enthusiasm is infectious,
contributing to the pleasure of the occasion, which contrasts sharply with
the pathos and stress of the first part of the play. Mopsa is pleasingly
comical as well. When she declares that she wants the Clown to buy her
some sheet music, she adds naively, 'I love a ballad in print ... for then
we are sure they are true' (4.4.261-262). She then supposes there is truth
in a ballad about a usurer's wife who gives birth to bags of money.
The name Mopsa was
conventionally rustic, used for peasant women in several 16th-century
romantic works, including the greatest of them, Sir Philip Sidney’s
Arcadia. It may have been a feminine version of Mopsus, a name given
to several mythological Greek prophets. However, Shakespeare clearly took
the name directly from the play's chief source, Pandosto by Robert
Greene, where Mopsa is the foster-mother ofPerdita's equivalent. Oddly,
Mopsa is the only name taken from Greene, though Greene's Mopsa is the
only character in Pandosto that does not reappear, under a
different name, in Shakespeare's play. |
DORCAS |
Dorcas is a
shepherdess and appears only in the shepherds' festival in 4.4. She speaks
briefly, chiefly to tease her friend Mopsa about her engagement to the
Clown, and she sings a Song with Mopsa and Autolycus. She has no
personality to speak of, but she contributes to the festive atmosphere of
the occasion. Dorcas' name is from the Bible (see Acts 9:36-39). |
Lords |
Lord are followers of
King Leontes of Sicilia. A Lord, one of several present, objects to
Leontes' brutal imprisonment of his Queen Hermione for adultery with King
Polixenes of Bohemia. When another Lord, Antigonus, supports the first in
his certainty that Hermione is innocent, the king goes so far as to admit
that he has submitted the question to the oracle of Apollo. The Lords are
present in 2.3 when the raging king sentences his infant daughter,
Perdita, to death. Again, they and Antigonus temper the king's course
somewhat, although Leontes still orders the baby abandoned in the
wilderness. The Lords are present at Hermione's trial in 3.2 and a Lord
announces the return of King Polixenes in 5.1, but their chief function
has already been filled. They help maintain a background of outraged
virtue against which the madness of Leontes stands out in the first,
tragic half of the play. |
Gentlemen |
Gentleman are
courtiers at the court of King Leontes of Sicilia. They report to
Autolycus on the off-stage encounter of Leontes and his old friend King
Polixenes, whom he had earlier wronged, and of the discovery by Leontes of
his long-lost daughter, Perdita. The First Gentleman knows only that
something extraordinary has happened, the Second knows the result, but
only the Third Gentleman can describe the events as they happened, which
he does at length, in 5.2.31-103. The language of all three Gentlemen is
flowery and ornate, typical of the courtly idiom of the 17th
century. Although they display little individual personality, they are
nevertheless interesting as miniature portraits of Jacobean courtiers.
(Some editors presume that the Servant of 5.1 is another such courtier and
designate him a Gentleman.) Shakespeare's presentation of crucial events
through the reporting of minor characters is sometimes criticized, but
here he avoids a scene that would repeat much that the audience already
knows. He also provides a contrast with the play's true climax, still to
come in 5.3. |
Time |
Time is an
allegorical figure who appears as a Chorus in The Winter's Tale.
Time appears only in 4.1, where, alone on the stage, he informs us that 16
years will have passed before the play resumes in Bohemia. He briefly sums
up the intervening years for King Leontes and Perdita and tells us we
shall meet Florizel, the son of King Polixenes. After wishing the audience
a good time, he withdraws. This isolated speech, which is virtually a
Prologue, makes it clear that we are about to witness a new drama
altogether. From Time's pleasant, mildly humorous manner, we sense that
the Tragedy of the first half of the play will be replaced by a Comedy.
Time's stilted
language, which sounded somewhat old-fashioned even in Shakespeare's day,
is arranged in rhyming couplets, unlike the speech of any other character.
This is appropriate to his singular role, for as a chorus, Time is outside
the world of the play and should not sound like anyone in it. Time says,
'remember well /1 mentioned a son o' th' king's' (4.1.21-22), referring to
earlier passages (1.2.34, 165-170) where Florizel was spoken of but not
named; the use of the first person singular here has suggested to some
commentators that Time represents the author of the play—Shakespeare
himself. However, this is unlikely, for as a virtually abstract figure,
Time is distinctly not human. He is expressly immune from the change he
brings to others—'The same I am, ere ancient'st order was, / Or what is
now receiv'd' (4.1.10-11)—and as he is winged, he is visually non-human as
well. The reference to his having 'mentioned' simply means—with the mild
humor that characterizes this figure—that the mentioning occurred in the
past, which is a function of time. |
Servants |
Servants are workers in the household of
King Leontes of Sicilia. In 2.3 a Servant informs the king of the progress
of his son, Mamillius, who is ill thereby preparing the ground for the
announcement by another Servant (or perhaps the same one) of the boys
death m 3.2. In 5.1 a Servant announces the approach of Florizel and
Perdita, describing Perdita's charms rapturously. This last Servant seems
to be a Gentleman of the court, the king speaks with him of his poems
about Queen Hermione. He is probably one of the Gentlemen who appear in
5.2, and many editions designate him as such. He is often referred to by
commentators as the Gentleman-poet.
Another servant is the employee of the
Shepherd. The Servant appears twice in 4.4, to announce the arrival of
Autolycus and the presentation of a Masque at the shepherds' festival. His
comical enthusiasm heightens our pleasure in the festivities. He comments,
for instance, on Autolycus' singing -O master! if you did but hear the
pedlar at the door, you would never dance again after a tabor and pipe;
no, the bagpipe could not move you' (4.4.183-185). He is a rustic Clown
whose naivete contributes to the fun; for example, he foolishly construes
Autolycus' songs as 'without bawdry', but adds 1 that they contain
'delicate burdens [choruses] of dildoes and fadings, jump her and thump
her' (4.4 I 195-196). |
Officer |
Officers are
officials of the law court assembled by King Leontes to try Queen Hermione
for adultery. In 3.2.12-21 an Officer reads the formal indictment of
Hermione, and in 3.2.124-129 he (or another) swears in Cleomenes and Dion,
who bring a message from the oracle of Apollo. He then reads the oracle's
proclamation that Hermione is innocent. As extras, merely providing an
official presence to a trial scene, the Officers have no personality. |
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