High utility quotes Winters Tale Flashcards
(12 cards)
Act 1 scene 2 (Passage 2)
Polixenes reminising on halcyon bliss
“We were as twinned lambs that did frisk i’th’sun” (p)
- Pastoral imagery and verse form
- Connotes a halcyon bliss (nostalgic) + uncorrupted childlike virtue within the friendship
- “frisk i’th’sun” envisions a golden age of carefree joy
- Profound male friendships- inseparable souls’ strong homosocial bonds
- Immediate shift from prose to verse dialogue- indicative of elevated emotional and thematic stakes + adopting iambic pentameter aids in sanctifying the fraternal connection through poetic form
Act 1 scene 2, passage 2
Leonties on courting Hermione
“Three crabbed months had soured themselves to death” (L)
- juxtiposition
- Retrospective negativity: Leontes labels the courtship period with Hermione as “three crabbed months,” overshadowing what should be a romantic or joyful phase with bitterness.
- Juxtaposition with male bond: This gloom starkly contrasts the idyllic language of “twinned lambs,” implying female‐centered experiences (like courting Hermione) devolve into sourness while male homosocial bonds remain ideal.
- Patriarchal trope: A feminist lens sees this negativity as perpetuating the narrative that women’s involvement—or domestic life tied to them—breeds tension, distancing them from the warm stability attributed to men’s friendships.
Act 1, Scene 2 (passage 3)
Leonties on how Hermione looks with Polixenes
“Arms her with the boldness of a wife.” (L)
“Too hot!” (her interactions w p)
Leontes’ use of epizeuxis in Passage I, decrying Polixenes and Hermione’s relationship as “too hot, too hot” connotes his consternation at perceiving to have been betrayed, and therefore emasculated, by Hermione’s supposed affair with Polixenes.
metaphor/ militaristic diction
Interactions look like husband and wife; perpetuating traditional gender roles women can only be faithful with one husband.
By suggesting Hermione is “armed” with wifely boldness, the text employs militaristic diction to imply a socially sanctioned role for her, yet it also hints at the fear of her stepping beyond marital boundaries
Act 5, Scene 1
Appositive for Paulina
Paulina, self proclaimed “Hermione’s advocate to the loud’st”
- legal metaphor (advocate)
Paulina is willing to fight for Hermione like in a court of justice = unwavering commitment
problematic for jac. b/c she’s so assertive + challenges hierarchy but good for fem. b/c sisterhood
Act 2, Scene 3 (passage 4)
How Paulina describles Hermione
“Good Queen, my lord, good Queen, I say, good Queen”
Epanalepsis (the beginning word or phrase of a sentence, clause, or phrase is repeated at the end of that same sentence, clause, or phrase)
Indicates unwavering loyalty.
Here Pauline’s epanaleptic repetition of the phrase “good Queen” emphasizes this quality of ‘goodness’ henceforth confirming Hermione’s piety to the audience while simultaneously trying to convince Laontes of it. In this sense, Hermione is characterised as a pure, deferential ‘wife’ character who, through her morality, functions as a mouthpiece for the truth and for justice. Indeed, Leontes, who seeks to assert himself higher in the Elizabethan Chain of Being than the gods, shown by his rejection of oracular truth for his own subjective ideals, is demonstrably envious of Hermione’s natural affinity for the Gods. This, combined with his lashing out at the women of the court, catalyses his need for an ascetic redemption, beginning the restoration of his character.
Act 3 scene 2 (passage 5)
How Leonties refers to Pedita/ accusation leveled at Hermione
“You had a bastard by Polixenes”
Act 4, Scene 4 (passage 7)
Sheep sheering festival Perdita refering to a Roman godess. (problematic)
“O Proserpina, / For the flowers now that, frighted, thou lett’st fall / From Dis’s wagon” (P)
– Mythological allusion to rape.
– Proserpina’s abduction by Pluto reinforces the link between femininity, victimhood, and loss of control.
– Nature becomes a space of coercion, not liberation.
- aligning herself with Persephonie = problematic because lowers her autonomy and agency
act 5, scene 1 (passage 8)
Leonties after redemption on re-marrying
“We shall not marry till thou bidd’st us”
Challenge L’s duty as Monarch
(could be endoresed) due to upholding the oracle + idea that in doing so L will no longer live without an air→ through the foreshadowing we know that it will lead to restoration because it upholds the oracle.
Thus, Leontes commits to marrying only by Pauline’s recommendation, despite this being “no remedy” for the tragedy he caused, representing his remorse. However, Paulina foreshadows Hermione’s apparent resurrection by positing that Leontes shall not find a new wife until the **“first queen’s again in breath,” **alluding to Hermione’s return and the restoration of Sicilia. Therefore, the play suggests redemption to be possible for even the most unscrupulous.
Act 5 scene 3 (passage 10)
Last line of the play
“Hastily led away”
Ultimately the brief setting of Paulina’s gallery is undermined because it’s imperminance is portrayed – porblematic for a feminist audience
How long did Polixones stay in sicilia?
“nine changes of the watery star”,
Leonties objectificiation of Hermione in his sallacious soliloquy
it is evident that prior to this passage, Leontes will not be convinced otherwise however, as in his salacious soliloquy he objectifies her, reducing her body to a source of control, a territory he must protect from
**“the enemy, letting in and out bag and baggage”, **
thus proving she exists not as a person to him but rather an asset he must claim over other men. By being positioned as Leontes’ property, the only social capital Hermione possesses is her perceived purity, allowing for Leontes’ miscarriage of justice against her to occur.
Trial scene of H dreams quote
Passage 2 reifies the potency of this perceived deception through Hermione’s assertion that her life** “stands in the level of your [Leontes’] dreams,” **juxtaposing the severity of death with the intangible nature of dreams to underscore the power of perceived betrayal, foreshadowing her iniquitous death.
