Angela Stock – PM2.

3 – SuSe 2021

Genre & Jealousy in Shakespeare’s Plays

 Worksheet 


Your name: Late - The play’s name: The winter’s tale -Date: 30.09.3031

Make sure to cite from the play/refer to dramatic passages in all your answers. Remember
that plays are cited by giving act, scene and line number (e.g. 1.2.34-7). Don’t forget to add a
bibliographic entry of the edition you used at the bottom of your text!

1. Briefly outline the jealousy plot from the perspective of the (female) VICTIM of
the jealous man.

The first three acts of The Winters Tale are a study of jealousy and its
destructive effects. In the play, Leontes’s sudden and unfounded fear that his pregnant
wife is sleeping with his best friend eats away at him like a disease. Leontes’s wild jealousy
is often compared to that of Othello. Both men unfairly suspect their wives of infidelity and
their violent responses destroy their families and upset the political balance. The
differences, however, are significant. Unlike Othello, Leontes convinces himself of his wife's
“affair” all by himself -
there's no lago figure whispering in his ear and goading him along. (If anything, Leontes is
his own lago.) More importantly, Leontes’s abuse of his family is not entirely permanent,
unlike Othello’s. After repenting and suffering for sixteen long years, Leontes is reunited
with his wife and long-lost daughter, which puts a redemptive spin on The Winter's Tale,
whereas Othello is just plain tragic.

2. Who is the jealous man? What’s his position/identity in the social hierarchy that is
represented by the play? What reasons would he himself give for his jealousy (i.e.
Why is ‘she’ guilty? What is ‘she’ guilty of?)

Leontes is obviously the jealous man. Leontes was the kind of Sicilia. When Leontes
requested that his wife help him to convince their friend, the King of Bohemia, to stay with
them awhile. It seems, however, that Hermione used a bit of flirting in order to get him to stay, leading
her husband to become suspicious of their relationship.

3. Do any of the characters involved in the jealousy plot have any soliloquies 1? When
they bare their souls to the audience, what are their most heartfelt statements?
What insight does Shakespeare gives us into the jealous man’s mind? Into the
accused woman’s mind? Into the wicked manipulator’s mind?

Leontes

The King of Sicilia, and the childhood friend of the Bohemian King Polixenes. He is gripped
by
jealous fantasies, which convince him that Polixenes has been having an affair with his wife,
Hermione; his jealousy leads to the destruction of his family.
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Hermione

The virtuous and beautiful Queen of Sicilia. Falsely accused of infidelity by her husband,
Leontes,
she apparently dies of grief just after being vindicated by the Oracle of Delphi, but is
restored to life at the play's close.

Perdita

The daughter of Leontes and Hermione. Because her father believes her to be illegitimate,
she is abandoned as a baby on the coast of Bohemia, and brought up by a

Shepherd.
Unaware of her royal lineage, she falls in love with the Bohemian Prince Florizel.

Polixenes

The King of Bohemia, and Leontes's boyhood friend. He is falsely accused of having an affair
with Leontes's wife, and barely escapes Sicilia with his life. Much later in life, he sees his
only
son fall in love with a lowly Shepherd's daughter—who is, in fact, a Sicilian princess.

Florizel

Polixenes's only son and heir; he falls in love with Perdita, unaware of her royal ancestry,
and
defies his father by eloping with her.

Camillo

An honest Sicilian nobleman, he refuses to follow Leontes's order to poison Polixenes,

deciding instead to flee Sicily and enter the Bohemian King's service.

Paulina

A noblewoman of Sicily, she is fierce in her defense of Hermione's virtue, and unrelenting in
her condemnation of Leontes after Hermione's death. She is also the agent of the
(apparently)
dead Queens resurrection.

Autolycus
A roguish peddler, vagabond, and pickpocket; he steals the Clown's purse and does a great
deal
of pilfering at the Shepherd's sheepshearing, but ends by assisting in Perdita and Florizel's
escape.

Shepherd

An old and honorable sheep-tender, he finds Perdita as a baby and raises her as his own
daughter.
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Antigonus
Paulinas husband, and also a loyal defender of Hermione. He is given the unfortunate task
of abandoning the baby Perdita on the Bohemian coast.

Clown

The Shepherd's buffoonish son, and Perdita's adopted brother.

Mamillius
The young prince of Sicilia, Leontes and Hermione's son. He dies, perhaps of grief, after his
father wrongly imprisons his mother.

Cleomenes

A lord of Sicilia, sent to Delphi to ask the Oracleabout Hermiones guilt.

Dion
A Sicilian lord, he accompanies Cleomenes to Delphi.

Emilia
One of Hermione's ladies-in-waiting.

Archidamus
A lord of Bohemia.

Shakespeare's late Romances share many thematic features, including bizarre supernatural
elements; storms and shipwrecks; separations and reunions; plotlines that play out over
many years; and young lovers who ultimately triumph against all odds. But the overarching
theme is always familial love and loss, and the need that all of us have for forgiveness. The
Romances are sometimes described as “tragicomedies’ or “comedies of forgiveness,’
because like the earlier comedies, the Romances end happily. But it is a mature kind of
happiness: the peace that comes with gaining a greater understanding of human nature,
rather than the joy of youthful love and of the multiple weddings that conclude the earlier
plays. The ending of Winter's Tale may be the most bittersweet of any of the late
Romances, because in this strange and strangely moving play, some actions cannot be
undone, and not all losses can be restored. Nevertheless, any lingering heartache renders
the forgiveness a much greater of a gift, and the consequent redemption that much more
of a blessing.

4. Identify the crucial scenes a) where jealousy takes hold, b) where jealousy makes
the man act in the most violent way and c) where society’s reaction to his jealous
behaviour becomes most manifest.

Scene 2. A court of Justice.

Scene 3. Bohemia. A desert country near the

sea.

Act 4
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Scene 1. Enter Time, the Chorus

Scene 2. Bohemia. The palace of

POLIXENES.

Scene 3. A road near the Shepherd's cottage.

Scene 4. The Shepherd's cottage.
Act 9

Scene 1. Aroom in LEONTES palace.

If we think about Leontes's overall attitude toward women, we may find some clues
about where his jealousy comes from. After convincing himself that Hermione is
unfaithful, he says that “many a man there is” that has been cheated on by his wife, and
he implies that most women are promiscuous by nature. The quality of Leontes’s
speech is affected by his jealousy. His tone changes. There are lots of puns which are
incensed by his increasing anger. All the pauses (marked by commas) in the middle of
his lines give his speech a choppy, erratic affect that mirrors his distraught emotional
state. Leontes is so worked up about the imaginary affair between his wife and
childhood friends that his speech breaks up and lacks the kind of fluidity expected from
the formerly eloquent king.

5. Jealousy creates havoc within the individual, but it also upsets and endangers
communal peace. How does the community react to the jealous man’s behaviour?
What measures of mediation or social discipline – to re-establish social harmony –
are shown in the play? Are they successful? Why/ Why not?

The play makes it quite clear that it is the irrational jealousy of Leontes that is responsible
for the problems that he faces later on in the play after he has acted on that irrational
jealousy. To lose his wife, his best friend, his daughter, and his henchman; clearly shows
us how jealousy can destroy a family and keep you away from society. Isn't society just a
large family after all ?! Obviously, after Leontes eventually realizes his faults and regains
his happiness and He reunites with his wife, daughter, best friend, and his henchman ; we
can assume it as a happy ending with a good sign: he found out the truth. Yes, he is still
the guy we know and we are all aware of his actions; but what is life without mercy?

6. Comedy and tragedy differ not in the themes they explore but in the way they are
played out. Each could tip into the other, if the action took a slightly different turn.
At which point could this comedy have turned tragic / this tragedy have turned
towards a happy ending / this tragi-comedy have spared the protagonists their
cruellest suffering? What is the moment, the thought, the action, the re-action
that seems to determine the overall genre of this play?

The ending sure sounds like everybody gets the “happily ever after”.
Shakespeare delivers the cheery finale that we've seen in his “comedies” (like Twelfth
Night or A Midsummer Night's Dream), but he also reminds us that not everything can be
restored. Perdita, as we know, returns to her family's home in Bohemia, but Hermione's
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and Leontes's another child, Mamillius, is still dead and he's definitely not coming back.
Antigonus (the guy who's mauled by a bear) is also gone forever, which is why Leontes
feels compelled to hook up Paulina with a new man in the first place. So, while there's
plenty to celebrate in the play's final moments, the ending is far from perfect. Ao we can
Say that the ending is a mix of tragic and comedy, itself. To make it more tragic, what if
Leontes would never been forgiven with a second chance? Or if we wanted a complete
happy ending, maybe Shakespeare could save the loved ones! "Regret" is the point.
When the hero of story is no longer a hero, we can see the changes clearly.

7. Given that the woman/women is/are innocent of infidelity and ‘falseness’ (or are
they?), what is it that lies at the heart of male jealousy in this play? What is the
cause of male jealousy, since it isn’t female unfaithfulness? What seems to be the

1
A character speaking a soliloquy shares his or her honest thoughts with the audience. Even Iago doesn’t lie to
the audience. He may be deceiving himself, but not the audience.
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root of it, according to Shakespeare’s dramatic analysis and exploration of it in this

Play?

Study Guide
The Winter's Tale Jealousy

By William Shakespeare
Previous Next
Jealousy

The first three acts of The Winter's Tale area study of jealousy and its destructive effects. In
the play, Leontes’s sudden and unfounded fear that his pregnant wife is sleeping with his
best friend eats away at him like a disease. Leontes's wild jealousy is often compared to
that of Othello. Both men unfairly suspect their wives of infidelity and their violent
responses destroy their families and upset the political balance. The differences, however,
are significant. Unlike Othello, Leontes convinces himself of his wife's “affair” all by himself
— there's no lago figure whispering in his ear and goading him along. (If anything, Leontes
is his own lago.) More importantly, Leontes’s abuse of his family is not entirely permanent,
unlike Othello's. After repenting and suffering for sixteen long years, Leontes is reunited
with his wife and long-lost daughter, which puts a redemptive spin on The Winter's Tale,
whereas Othello is just plain tragic "Convincing yourself because of skepticism ° Can
definitely be the root of jealousy. Clearly, there was no lago in this story. Was there ?

8. How is jealousy punished in this play? Or to put it another way: What suffering,
what ordeal must the jealous party undergo before he is allowed back into the
social community? How must he atone for his actions born of jealousy before he is
deserving of love and loyalty again?

Leontes, was lucky enough to have a second chance to compensate. But it’s not always that
easy to sit in the table while having dinner and seeing the empty seats of loved ones, is
harsh to be called suffering. He has lost child. What could be worse?

9. Shakespeare was very interested in mercy, forgiveness, reconciliation. After all,

the last words in his last single-author play, The Tempest, seem to be addressed
from him to his audience: “As you from crimes would pardoned be, / Let your
indulgence set me free.” – Do you see this theme in the jealousy plot in this play?
How significant is it?

It seems a bit complicated when it comes to ‘Othello’. Shakespeare has always been so
interested in tragedy; but Othello, is something else. The mercy and suffer move in the
same direction in this play. As we mentioned before, while Leontes has the second
chance to make old problems up, he still has to face the music that his child is no longer
alive. Life can show you mercy, but what can prove you that this is mercy? Failures.
Indulgence might be in this story, but when we all open our eyes and stare at this family,
all we see is the battle of mercy, and suffer!

10. Quote a few lines from a speech or a dialogue that speak to you in some way or
that you think would have particular power on the stage. – Why these? How?
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The quality of mercy is not strained.

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven

Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:

It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.

‘Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes

The throned monarch better than his crown.

His scepter shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty

Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;

But mercy is above this sceptered sway.

It is enthroned in the hearts of kings;

It is an attribute to God Himself;

And earthly power doth then show likest God's

When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this:

That in the course of justice none of us

Should see salvation. We do pray for mercy,

And that same prayer doth teach us all to render

The deeds of mercy. | have spoke thus much

To mitigate the justice of thy plea,

Which, if thou follow, this strict court of Venice

Must needs give sentence gainst the merchant
there.

— Portia, in William Shakespeare, The Merchant

of Venice, Act 4, Scene 7.[1]

Why these?
Look how he is actually picturing mercy by the love of God.
How would life have been if us people could
show more mercy to each other ?
| mean if Othello could take his time to find the
truth and then show some mercy to himself ?
Wouldnt it turn the tragedy to a happy ending ?
This goes the same with our lives . | think mercy
and humanity has been taken away from my
generation . The world is the wolrd of war .
People fight for things they dont want to, kill for
things they dont believe in , judge for what they
can't underdtand and destroy for what they think
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does not matter ! It all comes from the lack of

love and the lack of love , brings the lack of
mercy . What will this turn us in to ?

Just turn on your TV and check the news !

I used this edition of the play: Folger Shakespeare (Library

https://shakespeare.folger.edu/)