The Winter's Tale

These questions, like all the study questions we offer, are meant to point up some patterns that are central to the text. They are by no means exhaustive, and they are not meant to be prescriptive. Although we won't be able to touch upon all of them in our discussions, they may serve to get you started on critical readings of our texts. Our discussions will be guided by the interests of the group rather than structured strictly in response to these questions.

See study questions for:
The Winter's Tale Part 1 (Acts 1-3)
The Winter's Tale Part 2 (Act 4)
The Winter's Tale Part 3 (Act 5)

THE WINTER'S TALE (Part 1: Acts 1-3)
1. The early parts of The Winter's Tale rely on an awareness of a classical ideal of friendship (amicitia) and of the destructive effect of eros upon it. Think about the history of Leontes' and Polixenes' friendship and the place of Hermione in relation to it.

2. Like others of Shakespeare's males, Leontes is anxious about his paternity of Mamillius. Why do you think this concern is so strong in The Winter's Tale?

3. How are speaking, hearing, not speaking, and not hearing central to The Winter's Tale? Why do you suppose these emphases occur in the play?

4. What happens to the patterns of Leontes' speech as his jealousy increases? How is the change related to the changes in his sense of reality?

5. Trace references to artifice and to nature in the first three acts of The Winter's Tale. Are these categories associated with gender classifications?

6. By its title, and by at least one reference in the text (2.1.21-33), The Winter's Tale calls attention to the status and nature of fictions. Similarly, The Aeneid and The Metamorphoses rely on an awareness of the place and importance of fictions in life. Why do you think Shakespeare chooses this emphasis for The Winter's Tale?

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THE WINTER'S TALE (Part 2: Act 4)
1. How do the tone, action, and setting shift from Act 3 to Act 4? What are the effects of these shifts?

2. Why is a festival featured in Act 4? What is its nature? What possible meanings does it hold for the play as a whole?

3. Continuing an emphasis from earlier in the play, Polixenes and Perdita have an extended exchange about nature and art (4.4.79-103). What are the main points of this discussion, and how does it fit into the larger framework of the scene?

4. The character of Autolycus ranges through Act 4. What in particular does he bring to the play?

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THE WINTER'S TALE (Part 3: Act 5)
1. Act 5, scene 2 presents, indirectly, the reunion between Perdita and Leontes. Why do you think Shakespeare chooses this method of presentation as opposed to dramatizing the scene?

2. When Hermione is revealed as a statue, what is your reaction? What is your reaction when she is revealed to be alive? Have you witnessed a resurrection—or a trick?

3. The scene with Hermione has strong connections with Ovid's story of Pygmalion. How does reflecting on Pygmalion's story enrich the conclusion of The Winter's Tale?

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