Shakespeare creates many topics for discussion throughout his play, The Winter’s Tale. For many of these themes, multiple viewpoints can be derived from the thoughts, words, and actions of the characters in the play. The reasoning for Shakespeare’s title is indeed one of the aforementioned topics. Firstly, the title helps to set the stage for which the play takes place. Numerous references hint to the fact that the play is staged mostly during the winter season or close to it.
In act II, scene I, Mamillius tells Hermione that he will tell her a sad tale because, “A sad tale’s best for winter. ” As the words of Mamillius, these are innocent enough and give the audience the impression that the season is winter. The seasonal setting of winter is reaffirmed later in the play during the discussion that takes place between Perdita and Polixenes in act IV, scene IV. Polixenes declares, “Shepherdess- a fair one are you- well you fit our ages with flowers of winter. ” Further discussion between them suggests that it may not be winter yet, but is getting very close to it.
Although these passages and others show that the title is cleverly used to introduce to us the physical setting of the play, I believe that the purpose of the title does not stop there. In fact, I believe that it goes well beyond this simple understanding of the physical stage into a more complex reference to the mental setting of the play. As I said before, the title is a topic that contains more than one meaning. Shakespeare was clever with his usage of this title. We must closely examine the words of each of his characters to find the underlying meaning that Shakespeare hid within his play.
In act I, scene I, Mamillius states, “A sad tale’s best for winter. ” At that particular point in the play, Mamillius was merely commenting about the surrounding time and atmosphere. However, in my opinion, Shakespeare had a greater meaning to these words than just determining what season it was. Through the short phrase that Mamillius speaks at that time, Shakespeare reveals the mood of nearly the entire play as one of sadness. This mood of sadness and of sorrow can be seen through many of the main characters throughout most of the play.
The play opens with a peaceful conversation between two long-time friends, King Leontes and King Polixenes. However, the story changes to one of jealousy and sorrow very early on. Leontes’ jealously drives him to such extremes that he removes from his presence almost all of the characters that are close to him. He scares his childhood friend Polixenes away by the threat of death. He loses his entire family in a very short period of time. His son and wife are lost to death and his newborn daughter to banishment. To add to his torment, Leontes loses his loyal servant Camillo who was a dear friend to him as well.
Though the sadness is felt most harshly by King Leontes, it is not solely limited to him. Most of the main characters in the play encounter some sort of sorrow during the play. Paulina, lady to Queen Hermione, faces loss early on in the play. Her Queen, whom she feels very close to, dies soon after Leontes publicly accuses her of adultery with King Polixenes. The child who Hermione bore while in jail was also soon taken from her to be banished from the kingdom. Antigonus, her husband, is met with death while carrying out the orders of King Leontes.
All of these events cause Paulina great sadness. Camillo, servant to King Leontes, is forced to flee all which he holds dear so that he may escape the King’s rage. Later in the play, the audience is shown that Camillo longs to return to his homeland Sicilia, which he left many years ago. It is this longing that causes him to help two young lovers on their quest to get married. King Polixenes is not left without sorrow in this play either. Though he is threatened by death by one of his good friends, he finds greater sadness in the actions that Prince Florizel, his son, takes.
He finds that Florizel loves a common girl and plans to marry her behind his back. It is the sadness, which this causes that, inspires a rage within him that ultimately causes his son and his lover to escape to Sicilia. The sadness is seen in the two lovers as well. For, though they love each other dearly, a marriage is impossible because of the titles they possess. It seems as though the only way that the two can be married is by Prince Florizel abandoning his princely title. Although he is prepared to make this sacrifice, Perdita will not allow him to do so.
It is only by accident that they are forced into abandoning Bohemia for Sicilia. For the intentions of Florizel are revealed to a stranger who indeed is the King himself. They are left with the decision to be tried for crimes against the crown or to run. They choose the latter. As the story progresses, the plot unveils more and more sadness to its characters. For this reason, it justly deserves its title. The ending closes the play very effectively because it brings an end to many of the sorrows of the characters, and thereby ends this tale of sadness. For when there is no more sadness, then the winter’s tale has ended.
I think that Shakespeare intended on leaving some topics such as the reasoning for this title open to the interpretation of the audience. He may have done this so that it became not only a play to read or to watch, but one to think about and to come to certain conclusions on your own without the help of the players. If that was indeed his intention, he did well to make me closely examine The Winter’s Tale and to see the different possibilities for the purpose of its title. I believe that his title was an allusion to both of my previous arguments, and was effective at capturing the whole atmosphere of the play.