The Winter's Tale - Psychoanalytic lens Flashcards
A1S2
Pol’s opening line justifying his reasoning for soon returning home to B
“Nine changes of the watr’y star”
In contrast to a feminist interpretation, psychoanalysts view Polixenes’ opening line as a deliberate choice by Shakespeare which serves to draw the audience’s attention to Hermione’s pregnant body, establishing her as a maternal figure in Leontes’ eyes. In this way, Polixenes presents women as a disruptive influence on male homosocial bonds - a worrying encroachment on Leontes’ hyper-masculine self-identity.
A2S1
Pol reminisces on halcyon childhood w L
“twinned lambs that did frisk i’th’sun”
Polixenes reminisces on his halcyon childhood with Leontes as “twinned lambs that did frisk i’th’sun”, the pastoral pattern of diction and soothing soft phonics evoking a prelapsarian Eden prior to the intrusion of women. Therefore, the psychoanalytic Janet Aldeman posits Leontes’ attachment to Polixenes’ version of a “static and nostalgic male pastoral” forms the origin of his delusion as he attempts to naively enforce absolute masculinity.
A1S2
Lost respect of Pol → L turn to M (Reid: L’s “masc self”) to confirm rel
“almost as like as eggs”
Having lost the respect of his childhood friend, Leontes attempts to confirm his relation to his son, Mamillius, who Reid names his “masculine self”, by claiming they are “almost as like as eggs”. Strongly associated with pregnancy, Leontes’ curious choice of the word “eggs” reveals his latent womb fantasy in which he desires to return to his perfect boyhood with Polixenes.
Act 4 elaboration
According to Reid, following the purgative storm that killed the Mariner - a vehicle for Leontes’ arrogant rejection of his “feminine self”, Perdita -, the sheep-shearing festival in bucolic Bohemia forms the prime location for a dream sequence within Leontes’ psyche to resolove his Oedipal fears.
A4S4
F lauds beloved P (queen of fest)
“no shepherdess, but Flora/Peering in April’s front”
Here, Florizel lauds Perdita, queen of the festival, as “no shepherdess, but Flora/Peering in April’s front”. Carrying connotations of femininity and rebirth, Florizel’s compliment firmly establishes the new setting in what Aldeman calls a “decidedly female pastoral” and thus parallels the reform occurring at this point in the play in Sicilia, out of view, during Leontes’ sixteen-year penance.
A4S4
P (queen of fest) align w nat allows her to appreciate good + evil of nat → express fear to F that hidden romance will be disc
“your father by some accident/Should pass this way as I did”
Likewise, as queen of the festival, Perdita’s alignment with nature allows her to appreciate the good and evil in nature, fearing Florizel’s “father by some accident/Should pass this way as I did” and discover their hidden romance. Through her recognition that nature can be both beautiful and terrifying, Perdita’s relationship with Florizel acts as a foil to Leontes and Polixenes’, as the former appears prepared for inevitable intrusions into their idyllic pastoral whilst the latter denied its possibility, resulting in tragedy.
A4S4
P calling on gods
“O Proserpina… lets fall [flowers]/From Dis’s wagon”
Additionally, Perdita, the “feminine self”, shifts the play’s focus from the past to the present, as exemplified when she pleads “O Proserpina… letst fall [flowers]/From Dis’s wagon”. This allusion to the myth of Prosperina serves as an acknowledgement that Perdita’s stay in Bohemia, like a dream, is only temporary and hence she does not promise Florizel a naïve, static relationship that Leontes so delusionally craves.
Mamillius/Hermione death analysis
Resultantly, despite the maternal overtones of Mamillius’ name,
Leontes forcibly separates mother and child, metaphorically attempting to negate all femininity from his pure “masculine self”, which ironically culminates in tragedy with the pair’s subsequent deaths.
OR
demonstrates his catastrophic dissonance with the world around him by escalating his attempts to negate Hermione’s maternal role, culminating in the forced separation of mother and child and their subsequent deaths.
BP1
WHAT
For psychoanalytic critics, the first half of The Winter’s Tale stages a conflict between Leontes’ delusion that masculinity can exist in isolation, a product of unresolved Oedipal anxieties, and the irrevocable femininity inherent in the world around him
BP1
WHY
Therefore, a psychoanalytic reading of the text elucidates the danger of renouncing one’s feminine self, not only because of its ineffectuality, but also its deleterious impact on society’s most vulnerable.
KEY CONTENTION
Leontes rejects the reality of sexual development/maturity bc views feminine influ = unwelcome intrusion into prized Edenic childhood = based on O fear of maternal engulfment by H
warped/delusion vision of the world –> tragedy –> B dream sequence heals L’s O fears by demo embracement of nat cycles create healthy rels
BP2 WHAT
However, the play’s second half highlights the necessity of this struggle in order for Leontes to confront his subliminal fears and achieve harmony between the self and world.
BP2
WHY
Thus, through the play’s spatial shift to Bohemia, psychoanalytic critics reveal the duality between feminine and masculine influences within both the self and world and its role in maintaining societal unity with the natural realm.
