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Animal Idioms
Idioms related to animals appear frequently in the play, and particularly in the scenes that take place in the Bohemian countryside. On a surface level, the predominance of animal idioms simply reflects that we are now located closer to the wilderness. However, the idioms present also often have symbolic significance for individual characters and events. The first important reference to animals comes from the mouth of Antigonus, who engages in wishful thinking as he sets off to deliver Hermione’s newborn to the Bohemian wilderness: “Wolves and bears, they say, / Casting their savageness aside, have done / Like offices of pity” (2.3.225–30). Of course, once they arrive in Bohemia, Antigonus is famously devoured by a real bear, whose violence symbolizes the danger of the wilderness. Once Perdita is safe, however, the animal idioms generally take on a less menacing tone. As just one example among many, Florizell likens his love for Perdita to the steadfastness of turtledoves in the sheep-shearing scene. This turtledove metaphor returns in the play’s final scene, where Paulina expresses an ongoing commitment to mourning her late husband: “I, an old turtle, / Will wing me to some withered bough and there / My mate, that’s never to be found again, / Lament till I am lost” (5.3.166–69).
Dreams and Visions
Dreams and visions play a significant role in The Winter’s Tale. For instance, a dream accelerates the development of Leontes’s madness. He claims to know that his firstborn, Mamillius, belongs to another man due to a disturbing vision that came to him one night: “You had a bastard by Polixenes, / And I but dreamed it” (3.2.89–90). Another important dream vision arrives as Antigonus is on his way to abandon the child Perdita in the Bohemian wilderness. Just before executing his task, he recalls how Hermione came to him in a dream and, in a lengthy speech, told him the child’s name and prophesied his death in Bohemia. “Dreams are toys,” he says dismissively (3.3.43), though he’s also clearly spooked by the lifelike nature of the vision, which turns out to accurately predict his demise. The third important reference to dreams comes in the sheep-shearing scene, when Perdita remarks on how the revelation of Florizell’s identity has resulted in a broken dream: “This dream of mine— / Being now awake, I’ll queen it no inch farther, / But milk my ewes and weep” (4.4.527–29). Yet as we’ll see, her dream ultimately becomes a reality when she returns to Sicilia as a queen-to-be.
Language of Profit, Loss, and Debt
Rhetorical references to profit, loss, and debt appear frequently in The Winter’s Tale. By providing a metaphor that characters use to describe relationships as bonds of mutual indebtedness, this language is closely tied to concepts of loyalty and honor. That is, debt becomes a figurative tie that binds people together and aims to prevent betrayal. Polixenes introduces this language early in the play, when he announces he must take his leave and return to Bohemia. He says that he must “go hence in debt,” and that, “like a cipher, / . . . I multiply / With one ‘We thank you’ many thousands more” (1.2.6–8). Leontes acknowledges this language of indebtedness in his attempt to keep his friend near: “Stay your thanks awhile, / And pay them when you part” (1.2.10–11). Hermione also echoes this language following her own attempt to convince Polixenes to stay: “Our praises are our wages” (1.2.121). Yet as trust quickly breaks down in Leontes’s court, he uses a similar economic language to form new bonds. For instance, goads Camillo into poisoning Polixenes by saying that a true servant would “see alike mine honor as their profits” (1.2.377). Though particularly potent in the play’s opening scenes, the language of profit, loss, and debt appears throughout the play.
