Stupidity

Because of the King stupidity he suffers terribly. Do you think he got what he deserves. Justify your answer.

King Leontes works himself into a great hatred with jealousy over false accusations. William Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale portrays jealousy within different degrees. Mainly in the character King Leontes who perceives the notion that he being is cuckolded. Due to this he has an unexpected turn of mishaps which bring the king nothing but misery. It can be stated that he deserves such misfortunes after all he does, though others will see him as an innocent victim to the consequences. However this essay will focus on the fact of the King deserved his misfortunes.

In Act 1-3 we see the story unfolding as King Leontes watches his wife and his friend. He then proceeds to accuse the Queen of adultery because he thinks Polixenes and her are too close to be friends. As a result his misery begins. His jealousy carries his wife and son to their graves with grieve. He is very paranoid and in some cases superstitious. He sends for word to the oracles for support in his accusation and upon hearing otherwise he takes the mentality of a true man in Shakespearean time. This type of man sees the woman as wrong and men are always right.

Furthermore his stupidity increases when his daughter is brought to him after he throws his wife in jail. He plans to burn the child to save his conscience as he posit in Act 3 scenec three

“Shall I live on, to see this bastard kneel and call me father?

Better burn it now, than curse it then.”

   With this he is stating it is better to kill his own child than have her call him father and he curses her. However the resemblance according to Paulina is a strong resemblance of King Leontes only the hair is like the Queen’s. he still assumes the mind of unreason and thus forces his child to be banished to left alone in the cold without a family. Remorse only hits him; he notices he has no heir to Sicilia’s throne. Upon this news of death his wife dies due to the overbearance of knowing without her children she is nothing.

The King indeed deserved such suffering to bring forth his commonsense to see the nature of his wife was forever in his favour and love. However he had to learn life was not all about what happened to others but how much you understood your family and not let jealousy cause you pain and damage beyond repair in your life.

Hermione's Symbol: The Phenominal Woman

Create a symbol for Hermione. Why does your symbol represent her? Write a short description of your symbol.

Hermione represents the phenomenal woman. She is bold, she is a ray of hope, Innocent to the evil thrown at her and loves her children and wants only the best. The phenomenal woman stands in the face of wrong and states what is right. In the case of Hermione, she tells her husband of her innocence in his mistaken perception of her committing cuckoldry. She rises to the challenge of what most Shakespearean women refused to do  which was prove themselves above the submissive role they played in society. The phenomenal Woman loves her children; Hermione loves both her children and thus faints and dies upon learning the death of her son and the banishment of her daughter. She however in death reaches out and gives her nameless daughter at the time the name of Perdita to Antigonus in a dream. This shows despite all odds she goes great lengths to give her child an identity. Queen Hermione is indeed the symbol of the Phenomenal Woman.

Mamillus's veiws of women

Question: The beginning of Act2 scene 1 Mamillus exchanges ideas about women with his mother and ladies in waiting. How might his conversation evoke larger social arguments about men and women in Shakespearean culture?

In the Winter’s Tale Act 2 scene1 looks at the character Mamillus portraying his views of women to his mother and her Ladies in waiting. This conversation may evoke social arguments of women being judged differently to the idea members of Shakespearean society would disagree with his sentiments. The Shakespearean society viewed women as the weaker sex and men were always the ones in the right. They saw Beauty as a mask and the nature of women to be unrefined as men.

Mamillus sees that women should be judged based on their beauty and nature. However to Shakespearean societal views women should be judged on their actions and the society’s view of them. In Shakespeare’s era women were expected to be submissive to the men at all times no matter the male’s age. Mamillus judges women based on his mother and Ladies in waiting. He sees them as being different in the society in the fact they are bolder than and not as submissive as the ordinary woman. Due to this fact he bases his judgement on what he sees through his mother and her ladies- in –waiting and what he is taught by his father. Furthermore he puts his power as a boy and decides to judge on beauty and their nature. As it is shown in the scene as he chooses his maid by her beauty and her treatment of him. Society would argue that women are not to be judged by their beauty.

It can be said that beauty is used by women as a mask to cover whatever crimes such as adultery that they commit.  Beauty according to a saying “is in the eyes of the beholder” which is exactly what Shakespearean culture based their lifestyle upon. It was forever strife for women to attain what was termed as beauty for that era. In the aspect off cuckoldry men were always seen as the victim due to the fact of the women being the weaker sex in society’s eyes are seen as the Eves of society. Eve’s down fall in the creation was always seen as woman’s demise. Women being the weaker sex were prone to subdue to desires and trickery to which men fall prey because of what is termed as “Beauty”. Mamillus displays his like for physical beauty when he judges his ladies in waiting upon their eyebrows. Society would state clearly do not judge a book by its cover as women were forever deceivers.

For a woman to treat a boy or man as a baby was an insult, she should not assert herself in any form or even aspire to be better than the man. The nature of a woman was to be gentle and submissive at all times. Mamillus tells a lady in waiting he does not like her because she will kiss him too hard and talk to him as a baby. Thus he judges her on her nature of being overly affectionate as she knows him from a baby. This in most cases is within a woman’s nature to keep close and show affection for a small child. Mamillus to this effect now portrays societal views of what a woman ought to do. He chooses the other maid because she treats him society’s view of the perfect eyebrow for a woman the object of beauty. Society would agree to the point of her beauty however, based on the other lady in waiting treatment of the prince they would say she has no right to treat him as such because she should know her place in society which is below the male.

In conclusion it is seen that upon the views of Prince Mamillus on women it can be said that society would argue against his views strongly. They would state that beauty and Nature are not what defines a woman, it is her actions. Beauty is only a mask to cover the true nature of women which is to be deceivers so to that extent women are judged by what they display in the eyes of the public and also the standards set such as them being submissive to men who are the higher beings over them.

The Winter's Tale Why the purpose?

What is the purpose of the first scene?

William Shakespeare's play the Winters' Tale opens the play with a conversation between a Sicilian Lord by the name of Camillio and a Bohemian Lord by the name of Archidamus. They speak to many aspects of the culture of entertainment and the likes of both countries in a comparison manner. Furthermore they also speak hint of events to come further down in the story.

The purpose of Act1 Scene 1 was to act as a foreshadow of the events that are to take place in the play. It also acts as a background to cover the reader's understanding of the main characters, the Kings of Bohemia and Sicilia and their relationships in pertinence childhood and their present state of being kings. Though the scene may seem in some instances to have no relevance to the rest of the play once one seeks between the lines and understands the different hidden meanings one will notice that the scene acts as a background and a fortuneteller of the events to come.