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Is Cymbeline a comedy or tragedy?
Scholars have long struggled to classify Cymbeline because it doesn’t slot neatly into the usual categories used to describe Shakespeare’s plays. The play is perhaps most like a comedy, in that the principal characters generally survive their ordeals and reconcile joyfully at the end. However, there are several deaths in the play—including Cloten’s and the Queen’s, as well as the untold number of soldiers slain in the war between Britain and Rome. The death and bloodshed bring a hint of tragedy to the play. To add further confusion, the play concerns a king from ancient Britain, which introduces the possibility of classifying Cymbeline as a history play. However, the figures in the play are more legendary than historical, and so better belong to the genre of romance. In the end, perhaps it is best to say that the play is a hybrid genre: a tragicomic romance.
When does Cymbeline take place?
Cymbeline takes place in the ancient period when Britain remained a province of the expansive Roman Empire. King Cymbeline, whose name is also sometimes spelled “Kymbeline,” is a semi-legendary figure based on the historical King Cunobelinus, who ruled Britain from approximately 9 to 40 CE. Strangely, though, Shakespeare pairs this moment from Britain’s past with other historical periods. For example, when the play’s action shifts to Italy, we leave the ancient world behind and suddenly find ourselves in a version of Renaissance Italy. This mixing and matching of times and places is suggestive of romance, which is one of the key genres Shakespeare experiments with in this play. The romance elements may also be sensed in the sections that take place in Wales, a land that has long been associated with fairytales and magic.
Why does the Queen want Cymbeline to marry Imogen to Cloten?
The Queen in Shakespeare’s play is a conniving woman who longs for power. She is Cymbeline’s second wife, so Cloten, the son she had with her (presumably deceased) first husband, has no meaningful claim to the throne. That honor goes to Imogen, who is the only child by blood of the current king. She therefore wishes Cymbeline to marry Imogen and Cloten so that her son will be in line for the throne. Then, once their marriage is finalized, the Queen plans to poison Imogen, making Cloten the only legitimate heir. However, Imogen throws a wrench into this plan when she rejects Cloten and marries Posthumus on the sly—an event that sets the play’s enormously complex plot into motion.
Why does Posthumus instruct Pisanio to kill Imogen?
In act 3, scene 2, Pisanio receives a letter from Posthumus instructing him to lure Imogen away from court and kill her. Posthumus has issued this alarming command because he believes Imogen has betrayed him by having sex with Iachimo. Of course, the audience knows that Iachimo has not had sex with Imogen; he has merely gathered enough evidence to convince Posthumus that he has. But Imogen’s exiled husband isn’t aware of Iachimo’s trickery, and brokenhearted, he decides to order the death of his wife. Posthumus’s response is clearly an overreaction, but Shakespeare uses it to drive further complications in his story—namely, the counterplot that leads Imogen to disguise herself as a boy and venture into the Welsh countryside.
Why does Cymbeline resume the tribute to Rome after winning the war?
Cymbeline’s decision to resume the tribute to Rome has been puzzling to generations of audiences and scholars alike. After all, he’s just fought and won a war that he instigated by refusing to pay this tribute. However, there are two possible explanations for his action. First, his initial refusal to pay the tribute was strongly influenced by the Queen and Cloten, who advised him to establish Britain’s independence from Rome. Considering the malignant nature of their influence, the king’s decision to restore the tribute signals that he is no longer under their spell and that he wishes to reconcile with his enemy. The second explanation is more obscure and relates to the fact that the Cymbeline’s reign coincided with the life of Jesus Christ. In the biblical Gospel of Luke, the Pharisees ask Jesus, “Is it lawful for us to give tribute unto Caesar, or no?” (Luke 20:22). To which Jesus famously responds, “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar’s” (Luke 20:25). With this allusion in mind, Cymbeline symbolically echoes the words of the Son of God, resuming the tribute and thereby, in a distinctly Christlike way, reestablishing peaceful relations.
