The Winter's Tale - Passage Analysis

Question 1

Passage 1

What

Answer 1

In Passage 1, Shakespeare foreshadows the events of the play through Archidimus and Camillo’s conversation.

Question 2

Passage 1

Why

Answer 2

Writing in a time of heightened social and monarchical instability, Shakespeare exposes the vulnerabilities inherent in any human civilisation and so favours cautious and responsible leadership.

Question 3

Passage 2

What

Answer 3

In Passage 2, Shakespeare presents women as a corrupting influence on, and mediators within male homosocial relationships.

Question 4

Passage 2

Why

Answer 4

Therefore, Shakespeare laments patriarchal society’s excessive emphasis on male relationships as this is often used to further perpetuate derogatory female tropes and justify the repression of women’s true identities.

Question 5

Passage 3

What

Answer 5

In Passage 3, Shakespeare positions Leontes’ delusional jealousy as the instigator of the play’s undoing.

Question 6

Passage 3

Why

Answer 6

Therefore, through exhibiting the detriment it causes to all within society, Shakespeare lambasts degrading and absolutist literary and cultural female tropes.

Question 7

Passage 4

What

Answer 7

Transitioning the play from sterile and courtly Sicilia to rugged and open Bohemia, Shakespeare reveals the deleterious consequences of Leontes’ defiance of the oracle.

Question 8

Passage 4

Why

Answer 8

Therefore, Shakespeare implores audiences to respect the natural order and have faith in nature’s cycles.

Question 9

Passage 5

What

Answer 9

In Passage 5, Shakespeare stages a critical debate between art and nature to showcase the carnivalesque atmosphere of Bohemia, free from the rigidity of civilisation.

Question 10

Passage 5

Why

Answer 10

Therefore, Shakespeare champions the use of art to elevate nature yet maintains that ultimately humans must respect their limits.

Question 11

Passage 6

What

Answer 11

In Passage 6, Shakespeare considers the impact of art and time on Leontes’ moral redemption and impending reconciliation with Hermione.

Question 12

Passage 6

Why

Answer 12

Hence, through his depiction of a harmonious and reformed Sicilia, Shakespeare champions the power of time to mediate between art and nature and ultimately provide reconciliation.

Question 13

Passage 7

What

Answer 13

In Passage 7, Shakespeare explores the restorative qualities of time and feminity, embodied in the three central women of the play, Hermione, Perdita and Paulina, and their limitations.

Question 14

Passage 7

Why

Answer 14

Therefore, although Shakespeare exalts the capacity of time and feminine influence to mend fractured relationships, he firmly rejects the use of time to excuse past injustices as it cannot heal all wounds.

Question 15

Passage 1

Evidence

Answer 15

1. ‘shame’ + ‘insufficience’ - conn of masc inadequacy
2. ‘summer’ - pathetic fallacy/intro pattern of seasons - est SQ where Pol + L have warm rel
3. ‘rooted’ + ‘branched’ = nat imagery, conn of belonging - adumbrates restoration of nat order when P returns to S
4. ‘childhoods’ jux w ‘mature dignities’ - foreshadows Pol ignoring royal duties to cont fostering childhood rel w L
5. ‘If the King had no son’ - prophetic but subjunctive = uncertain - foreshadows L’s instigation of M’s death by defying oracle later = pos downfall of play as L’s choice

Question 16

Passage 2

Evidence

Answer 16

1. ‘twinn’d’, ‘lambs’, ‘frisk’, ‘sun’, ‘bleat’ = soft phonics reflect comfort memories of halcyon childhood w L/prelapsarian existence brings Pol
2. ‘doctrine of ill-doing’ - harsh d sound = jarring/unwelcome entry of heterosexual rels/romance = disruptive to childhood friendship
3. ‘sacred lady/Temptations’ = jux reps antithetical char of women - blames women for destroying idyllic childhood rel
4. ‘our praises are our wages’ - metaphor conflates praises + wages = womens pub perceptions = social currency in pat soc w X agency
5. ‘devils’, ‘offences’, ‘slipped ‘, ‘sinned’ = sibilant allit - allusion to og sin + H adopts Edenic view of women = pressure on women to conform for perceptions

Question 17

Passage 3

Evidence

Answer 17

1. ‘show in our brother’s welcome’ - conn of affection/tenderness = expose depth of L’s deceit bc false front
2. ‘I am angling now’ - metaphor for L as fisherman - portrays him as cunning/predatory
3. ‘inch-thick, knee-deep, o’er head’ = explicit/salacious sexual imagery = ironic bc L corrupting lang of play
4. ‘go play, boy, play: thy mother plays and I play too’ - repetition of play dinstinguishes 3 types of play: child/sexual/playing a part - conflation demo L’s delusion/mental instability
5. ‘pond fished by his next neighbor’ - cont extended metaphor - ironic bc L prev pos himself as fisherman

Question 18

Passage 4

Evidence

Answer 18

1. ‘by sea and by land’ - jux exhibits all-encompassing/omnipotent power of nature
2. ‘cannot thrust a bodkin’s point’ - dagger = symbol for civ + means of material violence to enforce order - inaptitude → underscores inferiority of hum vs div
3. ‘boring the moon with her main mainmast’ - allit emph moon = fem symbol → associated w myth/divine → image of ship (reps L arrogant def of oracle) trying to bore moon = metaphor for futility of civ trying to tame nature e.g. L abandoning P
4. ‘tore out his shoulder bone’ = metaphor for L’s rule lit tearing out hum of those he employs
5. ‘dying’ jux w ‘newborn’ → adumbrates L + Pol reconciation thru marriage of children

Question 19

Passage 5 Evidence

Answer 19

1. ‘bark of baser kind by bud of nobler race’ - allit emph combo of 2 opp elements of nature = rep for P + F’s unconventional rel
2. ‘make your garden rich in gillyvors’ - conn of ‘rich’ = Pol approves of art to enhance nature but ‘rich’ also insinuates class divide - Pol suggests P has alt motives
3. ‘men of middle age’ vs ‘spring that might become your time of day’ - temporal imagery demarcates cycles of nature + time = demo P’s respect for natural ageing process
4. ‘bank for love to lie and play on’ - ‘play’ sexual connotations = openly expressed vs L using ‘play’ in contemptuous/salacious manner
5. ‘what like a corpse’ = light-hearted + humorous tone → soc that respects nat order = free + harmonious

Question 20

Passage 6

Evidence

Answer 20

1. ‘good’ ‘grave’ ‘great’ = allit triplet → emph Pla’s virtue = demo L’s newfound respect for Pla vs ‘mankind witch’
2. ‘good Paulina’ echos ‘good Queen’ = demo L is reformed bc adopt Pla’s lang + recog H + Pla’s innocence
3. ‘our Queen’ collective possessive det = relate sense of unity/comraderie = progress from polarising rel before
4. ‘life as lively mocked as death/Still sleep mocked death’ → jux bw ‘life’ + ‘death’ = power of art to transcend time = triumph over nat when serves purpose of fulfilling wishes of orchestrators = gods = oracle
5. ‘lets go some sixteen years’ evokes lang of Time → Pla = earthly embodiment of time → orchestrates resurrection of H/reconcilation w L

Question 21

Passage 7

Evidence

Answer 21

1. ‘tis time’ = Pla temporal power → acknowledgement of past/16 yr penance → Pla = time → reconn w P + H = time for reconcilation
2. ‘redeems’ + ‘holy’ = rel conn → biblical allusion to Chr resurrection = H → divine power
3. ‘our Perdita is found’ = collective poss det → female solidarity v pos as orchestrators of nat restoration thru fulfilling oracle
4. ‘precious winners’ + ‘exultation’ = celebratory mood → fulfillment of romantic convention
5. ‘lament till I am lost’ = echo lang of oracle + death of Ant (‘he too is lost’) = Pla’s prophetic power/terminality + finality of death/LT impact of L’s tyranny