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Imogen is by far Cymbeline’s most fully developed character. Whereas other figures in the play tend to be closer to stock figures, Imogen is a highly perceptive woman with a flexible intelligence that allows her to navigate the royal court, the Welsh country, and the fields of battle. Her vivid cleverness places her among Shakespeare’s other great heroines who end up in disguise, such as Rosalind from As You Like It and Viola from Twelfth Night. What’s especially notable about Imogen is that, despite being the very picture of virtuous nobility, she isn’t reduced to being a passive figure who assents to the domination of men. Instead, she responds actively to the challenges that present themselves, demonstrating an unusual degree of inventiveness and an openness to the world. Yet this openness never compromises others’ opinions of her. The only exceptions are, of course, the wicked Queen and her spiteful son, as well as Posthumus, who is perhaps too eager to believe her alleged infidelity. Aside from these problematic figures, everyone in the play agrees on Imogen’s exceptional nature—a fact further suggested by the name of her male alter ego, “Fidele,” meaning faithful.
If Imogen is associated with divine figures, it is because she is the perfect picture of chastity and fidelity. At no point in the play is she ever tempted away from her commitment to Posthumus. When Iachimo arrives in Britain with the goal of seducing her, it’s telling that he proceeds not through flirtation but through trickery. Perhaps he intuits that she will not be coerced out of her commitment through appeals to sensuality alone. But neither does trickery work with Imogen, whose perceptive intelligence enables her to catch Iachimo in his lie about Posthumus’s sexual activity and thwart his initial plan. Yet despite her ability to protect her own chastity and avoid temptation, it’s important to note that Imogen nurtures a certain sexual curiosity. Consider the images that decorate her private chamber. There’s the image of a bathing Diana, the goddess of chastity and fertility. Even more suggestive is the image of Cleopatra on the river Cydnus, which is the famous site where she first laid eyes on her future lover, Antony. Finally, there’s the perverse titillation suggested by her bedtime reading, which, as Iachimo notes, is the story of Philomela’s rape in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Chaste she may be, but Imogen is also sexually curious.
