Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale

The Characters of Hermione, Perdita, and Paulina in The Winters Tale

Although Hermione is one of the main characters, we see very little of her in the play. She is horribly betrayed by her husband, but we never really see her feelings on the subject. In many other plays, Shakespeare uses asides and soliloquies to give insight into the characters mind. Hermione must be having complex and very troubling thoughts, but we never see them. Hermione is in Act I Scene ii where she plays the perfect royal hostess. In Act I Scene iii, she is accused of adultery with Polixenes by Leontes and taken to prison. She is not seen agian until Act III Scene ii, where she stands trial for her treason. Immediately after this scene, she dies, or appears to die, offstage. The audience is given no indication that she is still alive until Act V Scene iii, where the statue becomes flesh.

Hermione is portrayed as an innocent victim throughout the play. When her husband fist becomes jealous, she is puzzled by his behavior and wonders if affairs of state are bothering him. Her lack of knowledge about his jealousy gives credit to her plea of innocence. She had obviously never been an unfaithful wife, therefore she had no reason to worry that her husband would suspect her. Polixenes flees in fear of death, but he leaves Hermione behind. If she had known that she was guilty and was facing punishment, she could have left with Polixenes. When she comes back to life as a statue, she says that she has preserved herself in the chance occurance that Perdita was alive. The audience is never given any further explaination, so we cannot conclude that she even saved herself in an illegal or false fashion.

The character of Perdita is a wonderful study in the sociological theories of nature versus nurture. She leaves the royal court when she is only days old and is raised by and old shepherd and his son, the Clown. Although the family found a great deal of money when they found the baby, the upbringing she recieved could not have been equal to a traditional royal upbringing. Nevertheless, Perdita seems to be endowed from birth with a royal manner. She has been crowned Queen of the sheep-shearing feast when we first see her again, and she has won the deep love of a prince.