The Winter's Tale Reading Questions
Below are questions for you to ponder as you read The Winter's Tale. I want you to bring these questions to class, having composed (typed) just about 2 sentences for each to show me how you might begin to respond to these. The purpose of these questions is to get us all thinking hard, and thinking together, about issues of language use, gender, and various forms of representation in this play.
1. THE WINTER'S TALE: Why do you think this play is called "The Winter's Tale"? What might the title be referring to (and here you can list as many possibilities as you can think of)?
2. LINGUISTIC REGISTERS: What is the difference between the speech of the king (Leontes) and the queen (Hermione) in the opening act? And how does this difference work to set up a highly dramatic situation?
3. IS WHISPERING NOTHING?: Consider the significance of the repetition of single words, phrases, or acts in The Winter's Tale. Taking Leontes' use of the word "nothing," for example; how does Shakespeare's use of repetition in this instance help us to understand this character's relationship to language, and how does that give us insight into his psychology? (There is no single answer here, so work closely with the language and see what you come up with).
4. THE COPY: The Winter's Tale calls attention to the significance of various kinds of "copies" (linguistic, bodily, or distinctly artistic, such as the statue of Hermione). What does it mean to have a copy of oneself in this play? What are the dramatic and psychological stakes? You might here compare the "copy" of Leontes (his son, Mamillius) with the "copy" of Hermione (Perdita, her daughter, but also, paradoxically, herself as "statue").
5. In a related question, consider what Leontes "sees" when he reunites with Perdita and Florizel: how might this vision of two "copies" function dramatically for him, and for the play?
6. REPRESENTING TIME: The Winter's Tale, like many of the Romances, examines the relationship between parents and children through time. Considering the attention to temporality throughout the play (the seasonal shift, the large "gap" of time, metaphors of temporal flow or stasis), examine the specific language of "Time" (4.1.1-32). What is one detail in his speech that strikes you as thematically relevant? (Do you see any relations, for example, between "father" time and other "fathers" in the play?)
7. ROGUES AND ROMANCE?: What do you make of the presence of Autolycus in the play? What issues does he bring view in the play that may otherwise be hard to discern?
EXTRA DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: Consider the following questions as food for thought (serious extra credit for those who choose to respond in writing).
8. LEAR AND THE WINTER'S TALE: How might you consider this play a "rewriting" of King Lear? What central elements seem to be reimagined in this context of "Romance"?
9. POLITICAL AUTHORITY AND DELEGATION: The Winter's Tale emphasizes the pivotal role of various kinds of "mediation" (not simply language, artistry, and theatrical representation, but also actual messengers). What might you see as the significance of Camillo in this play (as he functions as a particular model of political mediation and delegation)? Be sure to finish the play before responding to this question.
10. BALLADS: Consider Autolycus' following allusion to a "ballad":
"Here's another ballad of a fish that appeared upon the coast on
Wednesday the fourscore of April, forty thousand fathom above water, and
sung this ballad against the hard hearts of maids: it was thought she was
a woman, and was turned into a cold fish for she would not exchange flesh
with the one that loved her. The ballad is very pitiful, and
as true. " (4.4.276-82)
How might this speech encode important issues at stake in The Winter's Tale?