SOURCE: "The 'Comic' Mode of The Winter's Tale," in Genre, Vol. III, No. 1, March, 1970, pp. 40-54.

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 tragedy and comedy, not the least of which is their mutual concern with perception. Both kinds of plays represent actions whose fulfillment, in diverse ways, is the fulfillment of feeling. (Susanne Langer has said that feeling is the intaglio image of reality, and I see no reason to argue against this point.) Both kinds of plays frequently challenge the meaning and, ultimately, the seriousness of the universe we live in, and for this reason alone the problems of tragedy are as easily accommodated, though less easily solved, in the comic form. Both kinds of plays also work within well-defined conventions and are built...