"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 quite different to the usual selection of Shakespearean plays and has been difficult to classify because it contains not only tragic elements, but comic elements too. Therefore, the play was later categorized as a "tragicomedy." The tragic elements are evidently at the beginning of the play due to the sorrow and suffering of King Leontes and the tragic deaths of Antigonus and Mamillius. However, almost exactly half way into the play, the tone becomes particularly romantic and cheerful. The play ends with themes of reunion and harmonization therefore the play doesn't belong in just one genre. "The Winters Tale" was then eventually labeled a Romance due to the comic elements of fairytale and the unimaginable plot.

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