The Winter's Tale: The Tragedy Within A Romance
In 1623, the complete works of Shakespeare were published in the First
Folio. Within this Folio were the works of Shakespeare categorized by their genre. There were tragedies, histories, comedies, and the final four were romances. Prior to this time, romance was not a widespread genre in anyone's writings. We can see by means of the "genealogy" of writing, that the romance we know today was created through the combination of the Greek novels and
Shakespearean comedies. This alliance between the two genres is apparent in
Shakespeare's Winter's Tale. The most obvious indication to this suggestion is in the first three acts of the play. Within these acts a whole tragedy can be seen and all it's parts defined to show that this Romance was written by meshing to types of play together.
The first three acts of the Winter's Tale are where the tragedy takes place. These three acts can be broken down into five acts, as suggested by Bill, the great comparative literian. The first of these five acts is the exposition.
The story is set up and you are thrust into Leontes internal passion of jealousy.
The second act is where Leontes expresses his passion externally by accusing
Hermione of sleeping with Polixenes. He then has his wife taken off to jail.
The third act is where we see the first contest, or agon. This takes place when
Paulina brings the baby daughter from jail and presents it to Leontes. The two battle back and forth, attempting to prove themselves. The fourth act is the main agon, or the place at which we are at the peak of competition. Hermione stands before the king and the lords and she denies infidelity. However, no matter how convincing she is, Leontes' mind is set as to her actions in the past.
The fifth act is the resolution, and this is when the oracle is read. Leontes realizes his jealousy and his errors, and is punished by Apollo, who kills
The Ways Shakespeare Makes Act Three Scene Five Full of Tension and Exciting for the Audience
Scene 2 act 2 is one of the most important scenes in the play. This is
However, the act is never performed until the end of the play... quite some time
In Act I Scene I, the first glimmer of hope is revealed in the play at a
On the other hand, at the end of act 3 scene 1(the scene in which she
although it is only at the end of the first act that we see the extent
The play is structured so that the climax, or rather the main premise of the play, appears near the beginning; al...
which is found at the beginning of the play, in the prologue. It is a
In Act 3 Scene 3 (the scene following on from the one in question) the
According to Marvin Speavock and other critics on Shakespeare, the play presents a “two-peak action”, meaning that the play is divided in two different parts: the first three acts on one side, and the last two on the others. This division makes sense, specially when considering how the tragedy unfolds.
In the tremendous play of ‘Romeo & Juliet’, Shakespeare’s ways engages the audience straight away. The astounding methods he uses hooks the audience into the play and allows them to read on, wondering what will happen. The tragic love story of Romeo & Juliet, as mentioned in the prologue, sets a variety of themes throughout Act 1 Scene 5. Many of the recognisable themes are: youth and age, revenge, forbidden love, fate, action and hate. The main idea of the play is a feud that had been going on between two families, The ‘Montagues and Capulets’, the son of the Montagues and the daughter of the Capulets fall in love and the story tells us how tragic, death, happiness and revenge find them throughout the play.
The opening of the play prepares us for the drama in Act 3, scene 1 in
The main scene I have picked to discuss is Act five Scene one. At the
The Winter’s Tale and Othello, both by William Shakespeare, contain fantasies of female betrayal. In both play’s these fantasies are aggregated by something, be it Iago in Othello or Hermione’s pregnancy in The Winter’s Tale. Iago confronts Othello in act 3.3, eluding to his wife’s betrayal. Both Othello and Leontes have a seemingly sudden onset of jealousy. However, Othello’s jealousy forms later in the play than Leontes’. This is important when comparing the two because there are acts of the play showing Othello’s nature and character which do not point towards jealousy or concern for his wife’s conduct.
To begin with, in order for a play to be a tragedy, it must involve