The Winters Tale Analysis

Plot

Everything starts off all good in the hood. Leontes and his wife both are out in the courtyards just entertaining I believe some family friends' kids. The husbands are laughing and making jokes at each other while sword fighting in a courtyard. Then the conflict comes about which is, jealousy. Leontes thinks that one of his friends is sleeping with his wife. Then the climax happens, Leontes tells someone to make the little kid disappear somewhere never to be seen again, and then tries Hermione for committing adultery. Meanwhile, Leontes’s youngest child, Mamillius, was found dead and the audience is told that Hermione has fallen to death of a broken heart. After a lot more drama Leontes reconnects with his family and he feels bad that Paulina doesn’t have a spouse. So, there’s only one thing left to do is to announce that Paulina and Camillo should get married. Things end up just perfectly dandy.

Theme

The first few acts of The Winter’s Tale have focus on the principle of jealousy and its destructive effects. In the play, Leontes’s sudden internal fear that his pregnant wife is sleeping with his best friend dreads at him till he can’t stand it anymore. Leontes’s deep jealousy could be compared to the average high school relationship. Both men deceitfully suspect their wives of disloyalty and their violent responses destroy their families and upset the diplomatic balance. Leontes convinces himself of his wife’s “affair” all by himself; there’s no imaginary figure whispering in his ear and tempting him along. More importantly, Leontes’s abuse of his family is not entirely permanent. After repenting and suffering for sixteen long years, Leontes is reunited with his wife and supposedly gone forever daughter, which puts a redemptive spirit to The Winter’s Tale.

Diction

The language was the worst part of the play for me. I was having the hardest time following what they were saying. That being said I can completely understand how marvelous it is. It plays a very large role considering the fact that it is a tragedy. It used very poetic variations to add to the complexity of the play. One thing I did notice within the diction was the concrete terms they were using. There wasn’t going to be anything misworded.

Spectacle

I was very impressed with the costumes of the play. You could clearly tell that it was made during Shakespeare’s time period. There were very drastic differences in the high class to a middle class, and low class, all down to the roles they played in life. I was a little disappointed in the scene settings, you could never actually tell where they were.