Re-reading Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale! The lengthy act 3 scene 2 comes to a close, with two characters facing life with new attitudes.

We’re still in the middle of Hermoine’s trial. Young Prince Mamillus has died, Hermoine has fainted and been carried off stage, and Leontes has had a sudden repentance. If that wasn’t enough, then Paulina enters the scene. Remember that she’s one of the ladies of Leontes’ court and is married to Antigonus, who will soon…. exit, pursued by a bear!!! Paulina unleashes a long list of insults at Leontes before finally revealing that Hermoine has died.

Here’s a fun question: Why does Hermoine faint, only to be dragged offstage and then die minutes later? Why does she not collapse and die on stage, in front of the audience, for maximum drama? Maybe attitudes toward violence on stage had changed so Shakespeare could no longer do the big murders that he’d done in the likes of Julius Caesar and Titus Andronicus. Or, maybe, he didn’t want to dilute the impact of Hermoine’s reappearance at the end of the play.

Paulina makes with more foreshadowing, daring Leontes to bring Hermoine back to life. She uses the phrase “heat outwardly,” predicting Leontes’ line “She’s warm” at the end of the play. But just as Leontes had a sudden change of heart, so does Paulina. She begs forgiveness. She calls herself a fool, and she promises never to speak of Hermoine again. It’s possible that she’s being duplicitous as she says this, and that would be an interesting way for an actress to play it, but more likely she’s just wracked with change and tragedy as the rest of the characters are at this moment.  

In his final (for now) speech, Leontes speaks very plainly. He orders that Hermoine and Mamillus be buried in a single grave, with their causes of death carved onto the tombstone. He swears that someday he will visit the grave, and “tears shed there shall be my recreation.” Again, more foreshadowing for the magical ending of the play. Note that Leontes also says, “Nature will bear up with this exercise.” This is also foreshadowing… we’ll get to that next week.

Next: Into the woods.

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