How does Shakespeare present the role of women in the play "The Winter's Tale"

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How does Shakespeare present the role of women in the play "The Winter's Tale"?

Shakespeare presents women in the play in a number of guises, most of these promote

women as the superior sex. For example he presents Hermione as essentially the

heroine of the play. In the court she stands up to the mad tyrant that is Leontes in the

face of almost certain death. She doesn't lose dignity in her defence and is willing to die

to make sure her love can show him the error of his ways. Leontes is a man teetering on

the edge, she says to him, "Sir, spare your threats," she shows herself a hero as she faces

the king in a court that would certainly be biased and she doesn't lose her dignity at all.

She is the only person to stand up the king, none of the lords make a stand as he is

clearly mad and Camillo cowardly runs away. She is willing to become a martyr to her

cause, she may have lost her son and daughter because of Leontes but she chooses to

face him which shows her to be the bravest of the play.

He also portrays women as persuasive and somewhat manipulative in the person of

Paulina, who exerts huge control over Leontes as she gets him to swear, "never to

marry until my free leave," she controls him enough that he allows her to choose a

women for his wife. What's more impressive is that Paulina was just Hermione's lady

in waiting and she now controls the king of Sicily. Hermione at the start of the play

manages to persuade Polixines to stay, the ill fated event that led to Leontes jealous

spiral. All she says is, "You shall not go," and Polixines is swayed.

Not only does Shakespeare present women as heroic and manipulative, he portrays
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them as clever, the best example is of Paulina again, who comes up with a bold and

daring plan to use Hermione's newborn baby to sway Leontes, this is quite clever of

Paulina, but it does fail, she also comes up with the plan of faking Hermione death.

Paulina is the puppet master of the play, many of the situations of the play are her

influence and interference.

Women are presented as figureheads, Hermione is the figurehead of Sicily with many

parallels to Elizabeth I, Hermione ...

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