Transcript To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

The Winter’s Tale
by
William Shakespeare
Index Page
Slides 1 -2:
Slide 3:
Slide 4:
Slide 5:
Slide 6:
Slide 7:
Slide 8:
Slide 9:
Slide 10:
Slide 11:
Slide 12-14:
Slide 15:
Slide 16:
Summary
Family Tree
Analysis
Analysis
Characters
Characters
Theme of Jealousy
Theme of Jealousy (cont)
Theme of Regeneration
Theme of Reconciliation and
Forgiveness
Key questions and answers
Key Questions
Summary – Key Points
Slide 1: Summary – Part 1
• The play opens when King Leontes of Sicilia begs his childhood friend,
King Polixenes of Bohemia, to extend his visit to Sicilia.
• Polixenes says he can not as he has been away for nine months. However
after Leontes pregnant wife, Hermione pleads with him to stay he agrees.
• Leontes in the meantime is possessed by jealousy and is convince
Hermione and Polixenes are having an affair.
• Leontes in return orders Camillo, his servant to poison Polixenes.
However in order to save his life Camillo tells Polixenes of Leontes plan
and the two men flee.
• Furious Leontes now publicly accuses his wife of infidelity and declare her
unborn child as illegitimate he throws her in prison and send for the
Oracle of Delphi who he is sure will confirm his suspicions.
• Hermione gives birth to a baby girl and her friend Paulina takes the girl
to the king. Leontes grows angry and orders Paulina’s husband Lord
Antigonus to take the child and abandon it.
• While Antigonus is away the answer comes from Delphi who declares
Hermione and Polixenes are innocent,
• Leontes with will have no heir until his daughter is found. Leontes’s son
Mamillus is found dead after suffering a wasting sickness brought on by
the accusations against his mother.
• Hermione collapses at the news and Paulina reveals that Hermione is in
fact dead.
Slide 2: Summary- Part 2
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Antigonus abandons the baby he believes Hermione appeared to him in a dream
and tells him to name the baby Perdita. Shortly after leaving the baby
Antigonus is killed by a bear and Perdita is raised by a shepherd.
Sixteen years pass and Prince Florizel the son of Polixenes falls in love with
Perdita. His father and Camillo attend in disguise and watch Florizel and Perdita
marry.
Revealing his disguise Polixenes demands that his son never see Perdita again.
With Camillo’s help Florizel and Perdita travel tp Sicilla after using the clothes
of a local rogue, Autolycus. They are joined by the shepherd, his son, a clown.
In Sicilia Leontes is mourning his loss, and greets the son of his old friend
effusively.
Florizel pretends to be on a diplomatic mission for his father but his cover is
blown when Polixenes and Camillo both arrive in Sicilia.
The next part of the play is told to the audience by a gentlemen of the Sicilian
court.
The shepherd tells everyone his story of how Perdita was found and Leontes
realises that she is his daughter leading to general rejoicing.
The company then travel to Paulina's home in the country, where a statue of
Hermione has just been completed.
The sight of his wife makes Leontes feel distraught, to everyone’s amazement
the statue comes to life – it is Hermione.
As the play draws to an end Paulina and Camillo are engaged and the company
celebrates the miracles.
Slide 3: Characters – The Family Tree
Leontes
King of Sicilia
Hermione
Queen of Sicila
Paulina
Hermione’s friend
Perdita
Mamillius
Daughter of Leontes
and Hermione
Son of Leontes and
Hermione
Polixenes
Best Friend of
Leontes King of
Bohemia
Camillo
Servant to
Polixenes and
Leontes
Florizel
Son of
Polixenes
Shepherd
Finds and
raises Perdita
Antigonus
Defends
Hermione and
Paulina’s wife
Key
Autoclycus
Clown helps
Florizel and
Perdita
Lovers =
Family =
Friends =
Slide 4: Analysis
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The Winter’s Tale is a perfect tragicomedy; It is set in an imaginary world were
Bohemia is on the coast and Greeks oracles coexist with renaissance sculptures.
It is split into three acts of tragedy followed by two acts of restorative comedy
and resolution. Between these acts sixteen years have passed, this has been
considered a flaw by many critics as the lapse in time seems hasty and
unnecessary.
This lapse of time highlights the disparity of theme setting and action between
the two halves. One half is set in the winter and illuminates the destruction of
jealously and mistrust. This jealously controls and destroys the main family in
the play.
The second half is set in spring and the spring intervenes and all the damage the
king has created is undone, through coincidence, goodwill and miracle, as the
statue of Hermione regains life and embraces her husband.
The force behind the tragedy stems from Leonte’s disbelief. As a result
Leontes has attracted more critical interest than any other. Leontes acts as an
Othello who is his own Iago, he is a perfect paranoiac. Leontes is convinced he
has all the facts and is ready to twist them at any length.
Leontes madness is a terrifying thing: when he is told there is nothing between
his wife and he responds friend
"Is this nothing? / Why, then the world and all that's in't is nothing, / The
covering sky's nothing, Bohemia nothing, / My wife is nothing, nor nothing have
these nothings, / If this be nothing"(I.ii.292-296).
The roots of his jealousy seem to run deep and there are hints of insecurity and
an inability to be truly separate from Polixenes. The only answer for Leontes is
his own – in one of Shakespeare’s finer images “I have drunk, and seen the
spider"(II.i.45).
Slide 5: Analysis
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In order to contrast with Leonte’s morbid and brooding nihilism and
jealously Shakespeare creates Perdita , an epitome of spring, rebirth and
revitalisation. Her lover Florizel is as constant and generous as Leontes is
suspicious and cruel.
When Perdita appears covered in flowers and hands them out she
symbolises Proserpina, the Roman goddess of spring. As Leontes is a tragic
hero Prediata is a classic fairy tale heroine.
Perdita is a princess reared amongst civilians – who falls for a prince – and
lives happily ever after.
Leontes casts Perdita out as an infant in Act III whilst truly consumed by
his darkness. In Act V she returns and restores him.
The miracle of Hermione is closely linked to Perdita ’s energy as a saviour
who brings life. Perdita allows the main characters in the play to be
reborn.
This play is notable for its fantastic and rich group of supporting actors.
Hermione is exemplary character despite the fact she spends most her
time defending herself. Whilst her friends Paulina acts as the voice of
reason.
Leontes acts initially as the voice of madness and then the voice of penance
once he realises his regret.
The shepherd and Camillo are both sympathetic characters.
Autolycus the peddler thief and minstrel who is a harmless and humorous
villain. He is so harmless that he warms the hearts of the audience as they
applaud him as he sings, dances and robs his way through the play.
Slide 6: Characters
Leontes
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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.
Hermione
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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.
She is restored to life at the play's close.
Perdita
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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
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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.
Slide 7: Characters
Florizel
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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
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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
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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 Queen's resurrection.
Autolycus
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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
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An old and honorable sheep-tender, he finds Perdita as a baby and raises her as his
own daughter.
Antigonus
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Paulina's husband, and also a loyal defender of Hermione. He is given the unfortunate
task of abandoning the baby Perdita on the Bohemian coast.
Mamillius
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The young prince of Sicilia, Leontes and Hermione's son. He dies, perhaps of grief,
after his father wrongly imprisons his mother.
Slide 8: Themes
THE THEME OF JEALOUSY
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The first part of the play introduces Leontes' jealousy immediately, it
contrasts with noble feelings of purity and loyalty in the play.
His jealously is fast and furious it appears to be inexplicable and
somewhat of an ‘infection’, something he cannot control.
It makes him appear as mad as everyone else in the play knows and
protests Hermione’s innocence.
Paulina says Leontes has betrayed "the sacred honour of himself".
Antigonus tells him: "You are abused, and by some putter-on that will
be damned fort. Would I knew the villain".
The villain becomes Leontes jealousy. To prove his jealousy is purely
subjective the gods themselves speak against his belief in the form of
the Oracle.
Divine Intervention takes the form of the message from the Delphi
oracle.
Apollo's oracle is read aloud in the court of justice:
"Hermione is chaste; Polixenes blameless; Camillo a true subject;
Leontes a jealous tyrant; his innocent babe truly begotten...".
In hos fury Leontes dismisses this divine intervention and is punished
for his jealousy. As both his son Mamillius and Hermione die.
Leontes’ self induced jealousy is counteracted by the integrity of
Paulino and Camillo and Perdita .
Slide 9: Themes
THE THEME OF JEALOUSY (Cont)
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The noble attitudes of these older characters bridges the gap
between the evil of Leontes and the innocence of Perdita .
Away from Leontes mind and the bear there are no other examples
of essential evil in the play. The court and country are good and
honourable intentions rules. Every characters maintains that he or
she means well.
The lack of motive for Leontes’ jealousy is criticised as a weakness
in the play.
Leontes slow repent becomes as a growth form within, rather than
from an outside source.
It could be argued that Shakespeare does not wish to analyse
jealousy but use it as the onset to the evil cycle in his play, which is
quickly followed by repentance and reconciliation.
Shakespeare’s audience may have accepted this sudden emotion
more easily than by a modern audience who actually search for
psychological answers to problems.
The Renaissance audience might have seen it as an attack of a
melancholy humour; one of the four bodily fluids believed to shape
one's temperament.
Slide 10: Themes
THE THEME OF REGENERATION
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Another significant themes which pervades the play.
It is emphasised on the fertility in the figure of Perdita. In many ways
the whole play can be read as a fertility myth or allegory.
Both Perdita and Hermione are lost – Hermione dies and goes to the
underworld (Hades), also does Perdita as in the Proserpine myth.
When the ladies discuss Hermione’s pregnancy it is discussed as a
joyful experience and the renewal of life.
In act IV Perdita expresses the same joy in creation and fertility.
Perdita represents the powerful force of nature which is uncorrupted
by civilisation.
The marriage between Perdita and Florizel symbolizes the meeting of
civilsation and nature and symbolises the cycle of procreation,
regeneration and fertility.
The restoration of Hermione and Perdita moves the characters lives
from winter into a new spring.
Polixenes and Leontes and Hermione thus achieve immortality through
their own children.
All character experience a new sense of regeneration.
Slide 11: Theme
THE THEME OF FORGIVENESS AND RECONCILIATION
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The many themes found in The Winter’s Tale often seem to centre
around the basic idea of forgiveness and reconciliation.
At the onset the evil arrives suddenly through Leontes’ mind as he
causes the death of Mamillus and Hermione and loss of Perdita . It
is at this point that evil seems to have conquered all for Leontes.
In order for Shakespeare to provide reconciliation and forgiveness
for Leontes a long period of penance and mourning must be serve,
hence the sixteen year lapse serves its purpose.
This remorse is indicated in Act V when Leontes explains how he ahs
mourned and never remarried.
This repentance is followed by forgiveness and mercy as Hermione
is restored. Her death represents her retirement from the world
and a punishment for Leontes, once he is truly sorry and repents he
can be forgiven. Leontes is ultimately made to suffer for his sins.
The restoration of Hermione and Perdita is almost a miracle.
As a result the cycle is complete as repentance brings for
forgiveness and forgiveness brings reconciliation.
Slide 12: Key Questions
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Discuss and analyse Leontes's jealousy.
The innocence of Hermione is never in doubt--every character in the play testifies to
it, and the Oracle confirms it--so Leontes's suspicions of his wife and best
friend are clearly irrational. As the victim of misplaced jealousy, he resembles
one of the most famous Shakespearean heroes, Othello, who murders his wife
Desdemona because he believes her to be unfaithful. But Othello is led into
error by his villainous aide, Iago, whereas Leontes is his own Iago--the entire
dream of adultery is concocted within his own mind. The play offers us hints, in
the childhood friendship of the two kings, and the suggestion that Leontes may
have been too close to Polixenes; in the king's insecurity over the legitimacy of
Mamillius, and the threat that bastards posed to any kingdom; in Leontes's
misogyny and fear of women, which comes out when Paulina tries to reason with
him. But none of these is sufficient to solve the problem, and Shakespeare seems
to intend it thus. "Your actions are my dreams," (III.ii.81) Leontes tells
Hermione, and while he means it sarcastically, the play does not--he has allowed
his nightmares to infect his view of the waking world.
(Question and response taken from www.Sparknotes.com)
Slide 13: Key Questions
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Discuss the resurrection scene. Is the apparent miracle real?
There is evidence on both sides of this question. Paulina, who orchestrates the entire
scene--and who ostensibly commissioned the statue--seems remarkably
unsurprised by the "miracle," and she is, after all, our only witness to the fact
that Hermione actually died. Her behavior in the years since suggests a
foreknowledge of her queen's return, as she steadfastly kept the king fixated
on his own guilt, and on the impossibility of ever marrying again. On the other
hand, if the entire business is only a trick, it seems rather an over-the-top stunt
for two level-headed women like Hermione and Paulina to orchestrate. And no
one who witnesses the miracle raises even a scrap of doubt as to whether the
statue was ever an actual statue. Clearly, Shakespeare wants to have it both
ways--a genuine miracle to cap off his "Tale," and a hint of a naturalistic
explanation for the careful reader. And in either case, the miracle is an
appropriate conclusion to the play, since it provides for a truly happy ending that
Hermione's death seemed to place out of reach.
(Question and response taken from www.Sparknotes.com)
Slide 14: Key Questions
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Discuss the changes in mood, plot and imagery that occur between Act IIII and Act IV-V.
In Mamillius's words, "a sad tale's best for winter," (II.i.25) and the first three acts
are set in a Sicilian winter, and are determinedly sad. Indeed, these acts offer a
kind of miniature tragedy, as Leontes's errors, like Lear's or Othello's, bring
death and destruction down upon his family and kingdom. What makes The
Winter's Tale a romance, rather than a tragedy, is the abrupt shift in mood
after Time announces the passage of sixteen years, and the action shifts to
Bohemia. Winter comes to an end, and spring enters, bringing with it the promise
of rebirth--and as the seasons change, so the story shifts away from tragedy
and into the realm of fairy tale and romantic comedy. The imagery of Act IV is
dominated by the flowers that Perdita wears and dispenses as hostess of the
sheepshearing, and the mood of the act is found in the cheerful songs of
Autolycus. This spirit is eventually brought back to Sicilia, where Act V undoes
much of what seemed so tragic in Act III--Perdita is restored to her rightful
home, Hermione is restored to life, and even Paulina is given a new husband. The
Winter's Tale, then, ends the way all winters end--by giving its characters the
promise of forgiveness and a fresh start.
(Question and response taken from www.Sparknotes.com)
Slide 15: Key Questions
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Discuss the role of setting in the play.
Analyse the character of Autolycus, and discuss his role in the play.
Analyse the character of Perdita, and her relationship to nature.
Discuss the role of divine intervention in the play, especially the miracle
scene and the Delphic Oracle.
Discuss the role of women in the play, and their relationships with their
husbands/lovers.
Analyse the character of Camillo. What is his function in the play?
Would you categorize The Winter's Tale with Shakespeare's comedies,
or his tragedies? Some scholars have grouped it with The
Tempest,Pericles, and Cymbeline as a "romance." Would you agree with
this grouping? Why or why not? /QUESTION
(Questions taken from www.sparknotes.com)
Slide 16: Summary
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The play is one of Shakespeare's comedies and the resolution ends with
forgiveness and love.
The play is set in Sicilia.
The play moves between country and court.
Leontes is the king of Sicilia husband to Hermione and father to Perdita and
Mamillus.
Leontes jealousy is the cause of all problems in the play including the
separation of Perdita and death of Mamillus and Hermione.
The play focuses on the themes of jealousy, redemption, forgiveness and
reconciliation.
The play defies the laws of time and space as it moves between places and
there is a lapse of sixteen years.
The play is split into two halves Act I-III symbolises the winter of the play.
Between Act III and IV sixteen years pass and the arrival of Perdita in Act IV
symbolises the move from winter to spring.
Perdita and Florizel fall in love.
The young couples love helps to bring the play fall circle.
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The young couple also help to bring reconciliation and forgiveness to the play.
The play relies on miracles to reach its resolution.
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