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Summary
In Sicilia, Leontes is still in mourning for Hermione and Mamillius, although some of his lords urge him to forget the past, forgive himself, and marry again. Paulina, however, encourages his continued contrition, and she extracts from him a promise that he will never take another wife until she gives him leave to do so. Word comes of the arrival of Prince Florizell and his new wife, Perdita, from Bohemia. The couple is ushered into Leontes’s presence and greeted eagerly, since the Sicilian king has had no word from Bohemia for years. Everyone remarks on Perdita’s beauty and grace, and Florizell pretends to be on a diplomatic mission from his father. As they talk, however, a lord brings news that Polixenes himself, along with Camillo, have come to the city in pursuit of Florizell. They also have in their custody the Shepherd and his son, who came to Sicilia on Florizell’s ship. Leontes, stunned, immediately resolves to go down and meet his former friend, and he brings the despairing Florizell and Perdita along with him.
What follows—the reunion between Leontes and Polixenes, the revelation of Perdita’s true identity—does not play out on stage. Rather, these events are recounted secondhand by several gentlemen in Leontes’s court, who convey the happy news to a newly arrived Autolycus. Briefly, once the Shepherd told everyone his story of finding Perdita on the Bohemian coast and revealed the tokens that were left on her, Leontes and Polixenes realized who she was. Both kings, and especially Leontes, are overcome with joy, and there is general rejoicing. The gentlemen also tell Autolycus that the happy group has not yet returned to court, since Perdita expressed a wish to see a recently completed statue of her mother, which resides in Paulina’s country house. Then the Shepherd and his son enter, having both been made gentlemen. Autolycus promises them that he will amend his life, and they invite him to become their servant.
The scene then shifts to Paulina’s home, where she unveils the statue. The craftsmanship impresses everyone with its realism and attention to detail—as well as the fact that the sculptor made Hermione look exactly sixteen years older than the queen was when she died. Leontes is overcome by the sight, and he tries to touch the statue’s hand. Paulina holds him back, declaring that the paint on the statue is not yet dry. She also says she didn’t expect the sight of the statue to move him to such grief, and she offers to draw the curtain. However, the king refuses to allow it. Perdita, meanwhile, expresses amazement at the sight of her mother’s likeness. Paulina then offers to make the statue come down from the pedestal. Music begins to play, and, to everyone’s amazement, the statue moves. As it steps down and embraces Leontes, it becomes clear that this is the real Hermione, alive again. She blesses her daughter, saying that she hoped to see her once more. Then Leontes, now overcome with happiness, betroths Paulina and Camillo before leading the company out, rejoicing in the apparent miracle.
Read a translation of Act 5: Scenes 1-3.
Analysis
We return, finally, to Sicilia, and although sixteen years have passed, Leontes is still in the same place where we left him: mourning his wife and repenting his crimes. Paulina, meanwhile, is still fanning the flames of guilt within him. This sense of time having been frozen until a curse is lifted is typical of fairytales, and in this sense Leontes’s Sicily resembles the enchanted castle of the Beast from Sleeping Beauty—that thorn-choked palace where everyone sleeps, waiting for the Prince to awaken them. In most fairytales, the transformative scene of awakening marks the climax of the story. It’s surprising, then, that instead of allowing the much-anticipated scene of reunion to play out before us, Shakespeare keeps the joyful event offstage. We don’t get to see the reunion between Leontes and Polixenes, nor do we witness the Sicilian king’s reaction when it turns out that Perdita is his long-lost daughter. Yet even as he refuses to show these joyful moments, the playwright highlights the thematic importance of storytelling. Thus, instead of witnessing the events firsthand, we get a secondhand recounting of the scene by three of Leontes’s courtiers. Furthermore, he subtly indicates that a yet greater climax is still to come.
Despite the rejoicing over Perdita, the true climax of The Winter’s Tale is reserved for the final scene, where Hermione miraculously reappears. This scene is somewhat ambiguous, in that it isn’t clear whether Hermione has truly been resurrected or if she never really died and was merely hidden away by Paulina. That said, there are numerous suggestions that the latter is the case. For one thing, it is at this moment that the audience will recall that Hermione died offstage, and Paulina was the only witness to her death. In hindsight, that scene now appears suspicious. For another thing, it seems rather conspicuous that Paulina should insist so relentlessly that the king vow never to remarry except on condition that a woman as deserving as Hermione should appear. Finally, several of the observations made of the statue in the final scene clearly indicate that this figure is a living, breathing entity. As such, it seems unlikely that we have truly witnessed the transformation of stone likeness into woman. But even if Hermione’s reappearance has no miraculous cause, its effects are miraculous enough. The characters seem to accept the event as a true miracle, and who are we to argue with them?
In either case, the wronged queen’s resurrection closes the circle, thematically. What began with death and winter now ends with spring and a true rebirth. Likewise, the play has undergone a genuine transformation from tragedy to comedy. Not only have lives, friendships, and family relationships been restored, but new livelihoods have also been created. The Shepherd and the Shepherd’s Son have both experienced a life-changing elevation in status and material conditions. And Autolycus, once an unrepentant rascal, now agrees to turn his life around and become a servant to these upstart noblemen. The only remaining memories of the bygone tragedy relate to the unchanged deaths of Antigonus and Mamillius. With Hermione now restored to her proper place, Paulina announces her plan to depart and mourn her late husband, “my mate, that’s never to be found again” (5.3.168). However, this last expression of sorrow is out of place, and as such, Leontes immediately finds her a new husband: the loyal Camillo. Amidst the renewal of old family relations and the establishment of new forms of kinship, it turns out that Mamillius, though still lamented, is no longer needed, for both Sicilia and Bohemia now share the same heir: Florizell.
