In The Winter’s Tale Shakespeare uses pathetic fallacy to indicate the mood of the play, and thereby the madness of the protagonist. The first two acts are set amid gloomy winter, thus illuminating the destructive power of unwarranted jealousy just as winter destroys all natural life. The dour weather serves to illustrate the disapproval of the gods over Leontes’ actions, in contrast with the second half of the play which is set in bountiful spring, showing that the situation can improve and the gods mean it to. Indeed the second scene of the second act provides us with proleptic irony in Leontes and Hermione’s son Mamillius’ line
‘A sad tale’s best for winter: I have one of sprites and goblins’
-Act II, Scene I 25-26
This indicates the wretched turn which the subsequent events will take, with the ‘sprites and goblins’ intended to represent the jealousy which has bewitched Leontes.
Shakespeare emphasises Leontes’ madness through the long and often rambling speeches which he delivers. His grammar and syntax are awkward and his allegories contrived, showing his confusion and hence the illogical way in which his mind is operating if he can be so convinced that Hermione has been sleeping with Polixenes even though he has absolutely know evidence with which to support his convictions. He is paranoid, adamant that he knows exactly what is going on and twisting any counter-argument from Polixenes, Hermione, Camillo or any of the other courtiers, so that it suits his own warped perceptions of the situation. Many of Leontes’ outbursts contradict what he has already said:
‘My wife is nothing,
Nor nothing have these nothings,
If this be nothing’
-Act I, Scene II 292-296
This suggests that subconsciously even Leontes is able to see that his suspicions are utterly unfounded and ridiculous, but he cannot admit this to himself.
Frequently Shakespeare describes Leontes’ jealousy using animalistic imagery, for example:
‘I have drunk,
And seen the spider’
-Act II, Scene I 45
This has the effect of showing how, rather than being a rational emotion which is fully justified, Leontes’ jealousy is a primitive urge as experienced by animals which are controlled only by their most basic instincts. Shakespeare plays upon this to emphasise Leontes’ madness by impressing upon us the idea that Leontes is not thinking clearly but just reacting to a primitive urge. Shakespeare also implies that Leontes’ anger is a reaction to a deep-rooted psychological problem which is why he feels so violated by the idea of his wife and friend betraying him. Linked with this is the rapid shift in the line of argument which Leontes is using. Firstly he describes himself as fishing: ‘I am angling now, though you perceive me not how I give line’ (Act I, Scene II 180-181), to describe how he feels he has caught Hermione and Polixenes red-handed. But moments later he has reversed the metaphor to describe the act of infidelity itself: ‘And his pond fish’d by his next neighbour’. This rapid shift shows the intensity of Leontes’ emotions and his confusion at the situation.
In order to convince us of Leontes’ madness, Shakespeare chooses to emphasise the obvious innocence of Hermione and Polixenes. The very idea that they could be committing an act of infidelity seems ridiculous when one examines their manner when they are conversing together in Act I, Scene II. They are carefree and playful, whereas adulterers would be expected to act in a more cautious way, making very sure not to say anything which Leontes could overhear which might give away their relationship. Adulterers could hardly be expected to talk in such a casual way about innocence and sin, and indeed the very fact that they equate sin with sexual misconduct makes it unlikely that they would be having an illicit relationship:
‘We knew not the doctrine of ill-doing, nor dream’d that any did’
-Act I, Scene II 70-71
The way in which Polixenes addresses Hermione is not the way in which one would expect him to address a lover. ‘Madam’, ‘kind hostess’ and ‘most sacred lady’ show that Polixenes has nothing but respect and reverence for his friend’s wife and would never dream of dishonouring her. Besides, it is only Leontes who has any idea that something is going on between the two, hardly feasible in a court such as this where the courtiers would surely gossip and slander to each other.
Many critics of The Winter’s Tale have pointed out that Leontes’ outbursts are psychologically unconvincing as they are totally groundless and absurd to the extreme. The only basis Leontes has for his suspicions is a snatch of an overheard and misinterpreted conversation and the fact that Hermione is about to give birth and Polixenes has been staying with them for nine months. Although it was suggested by Coghill, a mid-twentieth century critic, that Shakespeare intended for his audience to wonder at Polixenes’ and Hermione’s possible guilt, hence the reference to his nine month stay in Sicilia, in other ways Shakespeare makes it very apparent that the two are innocent. Furness in 1898, and Nuttall in 1966 advocated the ‘Projective Guilt Theory’, that is they believed that Leontes is suspicious because he himself is guilty of being unfaithful. However if Shakespeare had intended this he probably would have made it more obvious.
In conclusion, psychologically convincing or not, it is obvious that Shakespeare intended to portray Leontes’ jealous outbursts as irrational and mad as opposed to justified, which he does through his language and his portrayal of the other characters.
