The Winter's Tale Summary
William Shakespeare

Dramatis Personae Leontes, King of Sicilia Mamillius, his son Camillo, Sicilian Lord Antigonus, Sicilian Lord Cleomenes, Sicilian Lord Dion, Sicilian Lord Polixenes, King of Bohemia Florizel, his son ... Read more

Biography Essay"He was not of an age, but for all time." So wrote Ben Jonson in his dedicatory verses to the memory of William Shakespeare in 1623, and so we continue to affirm today. No other writer,... Read more

Considered by critics, scholars, and the theater-going public the most important dramatist in the history of English literature, William Shakespeare occupies a unique position in the pantheon of great... Read more

William Shakespeare's reputation is based primarily on his plays. With the partial exception of the Sonnets (1609), quarried since the early nineteenth century for autobiographical secrets allegedly ... Read more

In the following essay, Marshall argues that the statue scene in The Winter's Tale suggests a modification of orthodox Christian eschatology by denying the dualism of body and soul. Relating th... Read more

In the following excerpt, originally delivered as a lecture at the Ohio Shakespeare Conference in Dayton, 1981, Davidson discusses the symbolic significance of visual effects in a series of episodes i... Read more

In the following essay, Cohen compares the jealousy of Othello with that of King Leontes of The Winter's Tale, examining their fantasies of wifely infidelity and their need to regain social con... Read more

In the following essay, Nathan finds that Leontes's jealousy of Polixenes in The Winter's Tale appears quite suddenly, but is nevertheless properly motivated by Shakespeare. Perhaps t... Read more

In the following essay, Bergeron argues that Hermione's trial in The Winter's Tale reflects a triumph of rationality over passion. When Leontes and the others gather in the final scen... Read more

In the following essay, Bryant notes the indebtedness of William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale to the classical European and English pastoral traditions and argues that with this subtl... Read more

In the following essay, originally published in 1964, Tayler analyzes the underlying structure of The Winter's Tale and identifies the relationship between nature and art as a central concern. ... Read more

In the following essay, McCandless posits that Leontes's persecution of Hermione represents his attempt to cast away his source of sexual shame. Early in Shakespeare's The Winter�... Read more

In the essay that follows, Enterline examines Shakespeare's interpretation of Ovidian and Petrarchan rhetoric as a means of discussing the role of power and the female voice in The Winter... Read more

In the essay below, Henke examines the relationship between Battista Guarini's tragicomic theory and Shakespeare's drama, particularly focusing on The Winter's Tale. Genre conc... Read more

In the essay below, Crider contends that the “mythic” and “theatrical” readings of Hermione are not mutually exclusive—that Hermione can be read as being both ȁ... Read more

In the following essay, Cutts focuses on the issue of Leontes's jealousy, contending that the “boy eternal” complex from which Leontes suffers explains the apparently sudden onset... Read more

In the following review, Isherwood assesses the Public Theatre's version of The Winter's Tale directed by Brian Kulick, arguing that the production is not successful in handling the shif... Read more

In the following essay, Nichols contends that the genres of comedy and tragedy are not equally balanced in The Winter's Tale; rather, comedy is victorious, particularly in the play’s imp... Read more

In the following essay, Lim studies the way in which elements of The Winter's Tale, particularly the animation of Hermione's statue at the play's end, represent the conflict betwe... Read more

In the following essay, Van Elk views The Winter's Tale as an example of the “complicated, reciprocal relationship between gender and class” in the Jacobean period. What happen... Read more

In the following essay, Hartwig proposes that in The Winter's Tale Shakespeare used a miraculous resolution to create a sense of dislocation and wonder in his audience, using Leontes's p... Read more

In the following essay, Abrams examines the source of Leontes's jealousy, noting that “[under the spell of jealousy, Leontes is changed. His good angel, reason, abandons him, and the tem... Read more

In the following review, Isherwood acknowledges the difficulty faced by Barry Edelstein in directing a modern-day production of The Winter's Tale, but notes that the performance suffered not fr... Read more

In the following essay, Viswanathan theorizes that in his later plays, particularly The Winter's Tale, Shakespeare was extremely experimental with his theatrical techniques, mixing “self... Read more

In the following excerpt, Kitch examines Shakespeare's representation of the print industry as a metaphor for paternity and illegitimacy in The Winter's Tale. According to Kitch, this th... Read more

In the following review, Macaulay derides Matthew Warchus's 2002 Royal Shakespeare Company production of The Winter's Tale for its unnecessary length and for the English actors' d... Read more

In the following essay, Rosenfield maintains that The Winter's Tale exploits prevailing Jacobean cultural and ideological attitudes that associated feminine sexuality, maternity, and outspokenn... Read more

In the following essay, Estok petitions for the academic recognition of a new critical theory called ecocriticism, or the study of how the environment has been perceived and represented in literary te... Read more

In the following essay, Curtright challenges the critical position that Leontes displays characteristics of a tragic hero, arguing instead that Shakespeare envisioned him as a melodramatic villain who... Read more

In the following review, Canby praises Ingmar Bergman's 1995 staging of The Winter's Tale at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York, for its lucid artistic vision that succeeded with mi... Read more

In the following review, Jays asserts that Gregory 1999 Doran's Royal Shakespeare Company rendering of The Winter's Tale was a “supremely intelligent production, lucid in every de... Read more

In the following essay, Frye examines the dramatic contrast found in The Winter's Tale, focusing on the differences between the human arts—music, poetry, and magic—and the power o... Read more

In the essay below, Hieatt examines "the adherence of mortals to a standard of ideal behaviour" as the shaping principle which forms a coherent basis of the play's structural segm... Read more

In the essay below, Uphaus discusses the role of language in establishing the integration of tragic and comic perception in The Winter's Tale. There are some striking affinities between trag... Read more

Here, Gourlay traces Shakespeare's use of female metaphors in the play to explore elements of Leontes' own nature, and asserts that he opposes dark masculinity with the qualities of love... Read more

In this excerpt, Young discusses the significance of the parental blessing in The Winter's Tale—both the offering and the denial—and its function in conveying grace. The parent... Read more

In the essay below, Wright argues that the contro versy surrounding the beginning of Leontes' jealousy overshadows Shakespeare's own dramatic emphasis of the collapse of Leontes' ... Read more

In this essay, Bevington relates The Winter's Tale to Shakespeare's late romances in an effort to highlight its tragic elements, particularly Leontes' jealousy. The Winter�... Read more

In this excerpt, Orgel explores the importance of Bohemia to Shakespeare's development of pastoral elements, as well as the play's treatment of the relationship between nature and art. ... Read more

In the following essay, Nevo contends that, while the traditional dramatic unities are flouted in The Winter's Tale, fantasy shapes the drama's two interrelated plots around a pair of dr... Read more

In the following excerpt, Garber examines the importance of time in The Winter's Tale, especially with regard to dreams and the metamorphoses concomitant with seasonal changes. The Winter&#x... Read more

In the following essay, Dolan examines early modern legal discourses and literary representations regarding infanticide, and asserts that despite its connection to other literary works in which child ... Read more

Lynn Enterline, Yale University Between Leontes's opening imperative, "Tongue-tied our queen? Speak you" (1.2.28), and the final act, where Hermione as living statue retu... Read more

The Winter's Tale The Winter's Tale is one of jealousy, betrayal and redemption. While this story involves many characters and opens questions of the flaws in human nature and the power of forgivene... Read more

"The Winters Tale" is recognized as one of Shakespeare's late plays. After Shakespeare's death, his plays were classified into three sections: tragedies, comedies and histories. "The Winters Tale" is ... Read more

The Winter's Tale was written in 1611, after Queen Elizabeth was on the throne for 44 years. Queen Elizabeth was an extremely powerful ruler, and was dubbed "the Virgin Queen", which highlighted her ... Read more