EXAM: The Winter's Tale [psychoanalytic lens] Flashcards
CRITIC - Janet Aldeman
Example introduction (past must give way to the present)
For psychoanalytic readers of William Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, the past is defined as Leontes’ hyper-masculine childhood, which inevitably comes into conflict with adult obligation and sexual maturity in the present moment. As such, according to the critic Janet Aldeman, the crux of a psychoanalytic reading lies in its “gendering of faith and doubt: faith meaning willingness to submit to processes outside the self, processes registered as female”. Therefore, although Leontes learns to tolerate X, the extent to which [prompt] is ultimately limited by his continued fixation on and prioritisation of his pre-Oedipal, hyper-masculine self.
CRITIC - Reid
BP1 - WHAT
Examined from a psychoanalytic perspective, tragedy initially befalls Sicilia due to Leontes’ delusional belief that he can evade [prompt] by identifying entirely with what Stephen Reid calls the “masculine self” - an irrational desire that stems for unresolved Oedipal anxieties.
BP1
A1S2
Pol’s opening line justifying to L reasoning for soon returning home to B
“Nine changes of the wat’ry star”
The threat of the “feminine self” is evident from Polixenes’ opening line, explaining to Leontes that he must soon return to Bohemia because it had been “Nine changes of the wat’ry star” since he had left. “Nine changes”, evoking the period of human gestation, coupled with the feminine symbol of the moon, draw the audience’s attention to Hermione’s pregnant body and establish her as a maternal figure in Leontes’ eyes. As such, Polixenes presents women as a disruptive influence on male homosocial bonds – a worrying encroachment on Leontes’ hyper-masculine self-identity that awakens his Oedipal fears and iniates his persecution of his “feminine self”
BP1
A1S2
Pol in convo w/ H → reminiscing on halcyon days w/ L
“twinned lambs that did frisk i’th’sun”
Moreover, Polixenes reminisces on his halcyon childhood with Leontes as “twinned lambs that did frisk i’th’sun”, the pastoral pattern of diction and soothing soft phonics evoking a prelapsarian Eden prior to the intrusion of women. “Twinned” since childhood, Leontes and Polixenes’ relationship stands as a prime example of the psychoanalytic concept of ‘dual unity’ by identifying youth with absolute masculinity. Therefore, the psychoanalytic Janet Aldeman posits Leontes’ attachment to Polixenes’ version of a “static and nostalgic male pastoral” forms the origin of his delusion, as he attempts to impose a bygone [prompt].
BP1
A2
Leontes about Mamillius
“almost as like as eggs”
Furthermore, having lost the respect of his childhood friend, Leontes attempts to confirm his relation to his son, Mamillius, who Reid names his “masculine self”, by claiming they are “almost as like as eggs”. Strongly associated with pregnancy, Leontes’ curious choice of the word “eggs” reveals his latent womb fantasy in which he desires to regress to an infantile state, free from the corrupting influence of women.
BP1
A2
Leontes’ delusional soliloquy
“Inch-thick, knee-deep, o’er head”
Yet, it is ironically Leontes himself who corrupts the language of the play when he imagines Hermione “Inch-thick, knee-deep, o’er head” in adultery with Polixenes. The salacious connotations of this claim conjure an image of a highly sexualised and violent return to the womb, highlighting Leontes’ desire to remain trapped in a paradisal pre-Oedipal world.
BP1
Separation and deaths of H + M
Resultantly, despite the maternal overtones of Mamillius’ name, Leontes demonstrates his catastrophic dissonance with the world around him by escalating his attempts to negate Hermione’s threatening maternal role, culminating in the mother and child’s forced seperation and subsequent deaths.
BP1
WHY
Thus, a psycholanalytic reading of the play’s opening acts suggests [prompt] to avert tragedy.
CRITIC - Aldeman
BP2 - WHAT
Likewise, the play’s spatial shift to the arcadian realm of Bohemia rehearses what this relinquishment of [prompt] could look like by way of what Aldeman sees as the ostensible “recuperation of the maternal body”.
BP2
A3S3
Clown histrionically recounts sinking of the Sicilian ship
“boring the moon with her mainmast” + “chafes” + “rages”
Following the deaths of Antigonus and the Mariner, the Clown histrionically retells the final moments of the Sicilian ship, fruitlessly “boring the moon with her mainmast” while the ocean “chafes and rages” around it. Here, the image of the sinking ship - a vehicle for Leontes’ arrogant abandonment of his “feminine self”, Perdita - metaphorically striving in vain to “bore” the reclaimed female emblem of the “moon” stages a violent conflict between X and Y, as the personification of this purgative storm signals the unleashment of nature’s wrath.
BP2
A4
F lauds beloved P
“no shepherdess, but Flora/Peering in April’s front”
Sixteen years later at Bohemia’s sheep-shearing festival, Florizel lauds Perdita, queen of the festival, as “no shepherdess, but Flora/Peering in April’s front”. Carrying connotations of feminity, spring and rebirth, Florizel’s compliment firmly establishes the new setting within what Aldeman calls a “decidedly female pastoral”. Hence, to Reid, the feminine domain of Bohemia represents a dream-sequence within Leontes’ psyche that forces him to confront is repressed Oedipal fears.
BP2
A4
P expresses fear to F
“father, by some accident/Should pass this way as I did” guided by the omen of a “good falcon”
This idea is further divulged when Perdita expresses her fear that Florizel’s “father, by some accident/Should pass this way as I did” and discover their hidden romance, guided by the omen of a “good falcon”. This recognition that nature can be both good and evil positions Perdita and Florizel’s relationship as a foil to that of Polixenes and Leontes, as while the former appears prepared for inevitable intrusions into their idyllic pastoral, the latter denied the possibility of their fantasy world’s downfall, ironically resulting in even greater tragedy.
BP2
A4
P entreats the gods
“O Proserpina… letst [flowers]/Fall from Dis’s wagon”
Additionally, Proserpina’s role as Leontes’ “feminine self” further proves essential to his self-reconciliation process when she entreats “O Proserpina… latest fall [flowers]/From Dis’s wagon”. Through this mythical allusion, Perdita is positioned as a Proserpina figure, acknowledging that her stay in Bohemia is only temporary - like a dream -, and so she does not promise Florizel the static and naive relationship that Leontes’ psyche so delusionally craves.
BP2
WHY
Thus, psychoanalytic critics may offer Shakespeare’s construction of a mutible, feminine and [prompt] world in the form of Bohemia as a model for learning to [prompt]
CRITIC - Aldeman
BP3 - WHAT
Yet, the extent to which this lesson is translated into meaningful action upon the play’s return to Sicilia is limited by the fact that its resolution “takes place within a framework that is decidedly patriarchal”, according to Aldeman, and thus facilitates the emergence of the “benign maternal body”.
