English 117E: Winter's Tale discussion topics
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English 117E: Shakespeare for Non-Majors
TA: Melissa Stevenson
Fall 1998
These topics are intended to facilitate our discussions and, possibly, to spur ideas for writing your papers. Please consider them while you read, and be prepared to discuss them in section.
1. Tragicomedy/Romance
The Winter’s Tale is unlike any of the the plays we have read this quarter. It is neither a pure tragedy or comedy but contains elements of both. This genre is referred to as tragicomedy or, more commonly, romance. Pay attention to how these two parts of the play function, or don’t function, together. Notice the different choices in the tragic versus the comedic section, and how the transition is made from one to the other (the chorus Time). How does this blending of genre effect the mood and meaning of the play?
2. Tragedy
The first section of the play is the tragic story of Leontes’s misbegotten jealousy and its disastrous consequences among his family and friends. Notice that this part of the play is set in winter, and pay special attention to the metaphors of snakes, spiders, and darkness that Leontes uses. What else contributes to making this part of the play a tragedy?
3. Comedy
The second portion of the play is concerned with the love between high, Florizel the prince of Bohemia, and presumed low, Perdita who has been raised as a shepherdess. This part of the play takes place during the spring and uses metaphors of life rather than death. Here we also see festive comedy in songs and dances. In what other ways is this part of the play marked as a comedy? What effect do the songs and dances have on the mood of the play?
4. Parents, Children and Friends
Coming from King Lear, where the relations between parents and children were marked by legitimacy and illegitimacy, “thankless” children, and untrue friends, how do these kind of character and themes recur in The Winter’s Tale? How must these characters differ in light of the comedic ending of the play?
5. Jealousy and Tyranny
Leontes’s jealousy is the cause of the first tragedy, and Polixenes’s anger at his son nearly turns the second portion of the play tragic as well. Where do these emotions come from and how are they understood in the course of the play?
6. Love
What is true love? Who are true lovers? In the second portion of the play the question arises about marriage across social classes? Is this question ever resolved, or does Perdita’s true identity (which was already in evidence through her innate nobility) nullify this question.
7. Fools and the Foolish
How are the fool-characters (Paulina and Autolycus) different from the clownish characters (the shepherds and shepherdesses)? Is this more than the dry/sly fool differentiation?
8. Court and Country
Earlier, when we read Midsummer Night’s Dream, we noticed that the court was the place of potential force and tragedy, and problems were resolved comically in the woods. It seems that to some degree this play follows the same path. The tragedy is tied to the court and the comedy to the country (notice we don’t get to see the reconciliation and discovery in the court, we only hear of it). How else does court and country function in the play?
9. Paulina and Autolycus
Throughout we have paid special attention to truth-tellers, fools, and stage-masters. Paulina in the court and Autolycus in the country (though he was once a courtier) play these roles in Winter’s Tale. How are they alike and like other characters we have seen? How does their location (court or country) change their function?
10. Art, Death, and Rebirth
Hermione’s rebirth is one of the most interesting and problematic parts of the play. Is there a way in which the reader can interpreted this scene as a tribute to art itself? What other appearances do art and artifice make in the play? Are Paulina and Autolycus artists? How do we understand this play as one of Shakespeare’s last works?
Assignment:
Final’s coming up, so it is time to reassess all the work we have done this quarter and prepare for the final. Please come with at least five written questions (each on a different play) to share with the class. We may do a Jeopardy-like contest for prizes and acclaim.
