A Commentary on King Leontes in Shakespeares Winters Tale - Essay Example

?A Commentary on King Leontes in Shakespeare’s Winter’s Tale One of Shakespeare’s final plays is The Winter’s Tale, written in a novel type of genre that does not end in a tragedy. It portrays how a jealous king allowed the banishment of his infant daughter and imprisonment of his own wife due to false pretenses and assumptions, as well as his and his family’s eventual redemption and reunion. The strong motivation for the beginning of the chain of events in the story is the jealousy that King Leontes had when his childhood friend, King Polyxenes was successfully persuaded by her wife, Queen Hermione to stay for a bit longer in the kingdom. While it can be said that the circumstances that Leontes saw could prove his suspicions, it could also be said that due to his strong feelings for his wife as well as his caring attitude to his childhood friend, King Polyxenes of Bohemia, the feelings of jealousy is mainly just a reaction of his deep love for his wife, making it seem that jealousy is a disease of the mind that has very strong effects as far as love is concerned. The effect of jealousy has been one of Shakespeare’s strong motives in his plays. In the case of The Winter’s Tale, according to Partrick Stewart, the spontaneity of the action was the spark that ignited a change by which the lives of King Leontes, Queen Hermione, and their daughter Princess Perdita would be changed forever, even leading to the senseless passing of sixteen years in their lifetime (Tatspaugh 8). It can be seen as spontaneous because for the cautionary observer, nothing really seems to dictate that such a thing will happen, and the fact that it was Leontes himself which asked for his wife to persuade Polyxenes to stay a bit longer shows how things were normally occurring in the settings. But due to the human nature that the characters possess, like a string that breaks in an instant and without any notice, thoughts came flooding into Leontes’ head. It did not help that others would tell the king that things are fine, but as long as the king’s mind is clouded with doubt, he would only believe in what he sees, and act on it according to what he thinks is just. Not only does Leontes contemplate about what he thinks, but also what he thinks his wife thinks. This is something that pangs of jealousy could do to people. His assumptions are not based on any facts, but only what goes on in his own mind, for he believes that his wife has acted upon her own imaginary lust towards another, which in the progress of the play inevitably breaks his heart, trust, and pity for her (Lord Hall 6). Despite struggling to convince all of the people in his court that he has a sound mind and is able to make just decisions, the same people that he tries to convince were even more assured of their king’s irrational judgment (Pyle 20). His own emotional turmoil causes him to have instantaneous insanity, which makes him unable to connect reality with the world of fantasy. While it is true that it was the jealous rage that caused the king to gain temporary insanity for the progression of the story, many critics noticed that a logical flaw existed with regards to the progression of Leontes’ thoughts of committing crimes against his friend and wife into reality. In a way, his perception of his dream-like state being the same as what reality is was indeed strong enough to convince his self that what he thinks happens, because what he thinks is the truth (Lord Hall 7). This is further show by the king hinting at the first act that somehow, Polyxenes may very well be the father of his wife’s child, due to his stay of nine months, an allusion of some sort regarding to his doubts on his wife’s loyalty (Pyle 16). However, some say that because the king was unable to make an actual and logical follow-up on his thoughts, like not having any hard evidence, this puts him in a very illogical state, as well as being too-subjective on his stance. The illogical mindset of Leontes can be easily attributed to his clouded thoughts, but those are not the only things that were able to contribute to his way of thinking. In comparison with modern day’s outlook of not easily believing things unless there are strong evidences which support them, in reconciling the mindset of people during the time of Shakespeare, or the earlier Greek times, logical thinking but rather intuition is the fuel for the people’s choices of actions. Because it was normal to not connect events with consequences, how Leontes handled his situation was perfectly normal for people during his time, or during Shakespeare’s time for that matter. Thus, even if his advisors were being unambiguous in their communications, due to his illogical way of thinking as well as the abnormal mindset that caused it, Leontes has no choice but to try to understand the events and things based on how his clouded mind works, regardless of the soundness of the details that his advisors tell him (Pyle 10). Not only does the whole court become convinced of the irrational behavior of the king, but also the audiences that observe the communication between the king and his advisers, as well as to how he treats the Queen Hermione (Tatspaugh 89). Aside from the seemingly unsound train of thought that Leontes was portraying in the play, this is further corroborated by how his courtiers were trying to convince him the error of his ways. In a way, after the showing the audiences a comparison between Leontes before and after succumbing to jealousy, people would be able to relate as to why the noblemen were trying to convince the king that he was indeed being jealous and illogical (Pyle 13). His way of treating his childhood friend by having him poisoned, sending his wife to prison in the most undignified way, even trying to convince his self that he was acting right and just by sending emissaries to the Delphic Oracle shows how his doubts were strong enough to make him do such things. The lords and ladies in waiting still follow the orders of the king despite the lack of fact in the reasons for his actions, and yet despite being firm in their loyalty, they also let him hear their voices out so as to convince the king and the audiences that they indeed see the king as being unreasonable and must stop committing ungodly actions. Due to the illogical nature of the king and dismissing the ideas of his noblemen, it can be seen that as a result of the unfounded jealousy King Leontes becomes a tyrant in the eyes of everyone who sees him (Lord Hall 13). Every part of the court becomes fully aware of the disturbing thoughts that plagued their king’s mind, which causes them to display their deep concern in any way (Tatspaugh 75). This is a kind of action that can only be seen from the perspective of people without any biased eyes, and would be impossible for people with doubts and clouded thoughts would not be able to see. Audiences and readers can relate to both the reasons for insanity shown by Leontes, as well as the logical thinking of the king’s court members. The king’s realization of the unreasonable results of his ways would come to term upon the arrival of his emissaries from Delphi. After losing his son, attributed to sadness in seeing his mother getting imprisoned, the queen in turn died after hearing that her son died. Adding to the misfortune that had befallen the king was when the emissaries told him that he shall not have any more successors due to the death of his son and wife (Lord Hall 13). It took the king long enough to get out of his trance and see that aside from losing his friend Polyxenes, he also lost his entire family. In his comprehension, he woke up to the reality that he must find his lost daughter and make amends, thus the king getting in touch with real world becomes the final motivator in his act of redemption in the story. Most of Shakespeare’s plays have powerful motives to justify the play’s plot and storyline. Some of his plays dwell on the idea of revenge, returning the dignity of the family, becoming temporarily insane, as well as jealousy. These are all based on the strength of human emotions in influencing actions, as well as giving people great motivations for doing things. This kind of portrayal allowed the effectiveness and popularity of Shakespearean plays, as they are all able to show the audiences the feelings and emotions that people can relate to, and empathize with. Such portrayals also show the weakness of the human character, which helps people to become inspired in many ways, such believing to do the right thing, not bringing harm to one another, among others. In the case of the tragedies, people become aware of the possible consequences of doing wicked things, which could result to death, and as for comedies, by becoming repentant for sins, people find salvation and peace. Shakespeare’s use of strong human emotions in most of his plays might make the audiences and readers think that these emotions are diseases or inflictions in the mind. In a way, they can be, as they disable a person’s mind, similarly as how physical sicknesses prevent a person from functioning normally. However, unlike true diseases that have fairly understandable sources and outcomes, it is hard to predict how long before a life-changing event would cause the person affected by it to display emotionally-triggered decisions and thoughts. This shows that while people are able to think logically, the primal nature of people in relying on their intuitions and gut feels are much stronger in influencing them, which makes these human emotions act like disorders that are capable of bringing a person down and stripping the mind off of its abilities and sound judgment. As shown in The Winter’s Tale, the strong motive in setting things in motion was King Leontes’ jealousy towards how his wife, Queen Hermione and his childhood friend, Queen Polyxenes of Bohemia. The settings are highly comparable to another Shakespearean play, Othello, wherein the cause of the demise of the kingdom was due to the jealous pangs of the king towards his wife (Pyle 51; Lord Hall 43). The eventual consequences of allowing oneself to swim in bitterness and anger caused by jealousy were shown to have fatal results. However, the similarities end there, as Othello’s jealousy was mediated by another, a vengeful person who was also under the strong and deluded effects of jealousy himself, while Leontes’ was somewhat tricked by his mind into thinking jealous thoughts (Pyle 39). Also, in the case of redemption, Othello chose to kill himself after finding out the truth, while in the case of Leontes, he chose to live and bring his daughter home to make amends (Lord Hall 43). These two kinds of endings differentiates the tragedies from the comedies, and that by ending one’s life the mistakes were kept as they are, while by continuing to live, one is able to correct the wrong things that were made in a person’s lifetime. In summary, the play The Winter’s Tale by Shakespeare is an example of a story that shows how human emotions could strongly affect decision-making as well as it being able to create negative consequences that were borne out of the lack of judgment by the afflicted person. The source of King Leontes’ jealousy was something that his mind made up out of his deep feelings for his wife and childhood friend, which in turn clouds his usual thinking and causes him to become a tyrant. His delusions were comparable to a person that was suffering from an injury or disease and is unable to function normally. Also, no matter how much the people around him were trying to convince him that what he did to his friend, his wife and daughter were unjust and unfair, the king’s clouded thoughts would be a road block in seeing things their way. However, even if things were seen to be at their worst, it was shown in the end that upon realization of his wrongdoings, the king was willing to keep on living as well as making amends. Such portrayals show the complexities of human emotions, which Shakespeare uses as tools in captivating the audiences, as well as drawing out their sympathies to the characters. Works Cited Lord Hall, Joan. The Winter's Tale: A Guide to the Play. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2005. Print. Pyle, Fitzroy. The Winter's Tale: A Commentary on the Structure. Oxon: Routledge, 1969. Print. Tatspaugh, Patricia. The Winter's Tale: Shakespeare at Stratford Series. London: Thompson Learning, 2002. Print. Read More