Florizel arrives at Leontes’s court and presents Perdita as his wife but at the same time Polixenes arrives in Sicilia. The shepherd and his son tell him the truth about Perdita and give him the clothes she had with her and Antigonus’s papers as proof. Leontes recognizes her as his daughter.
Paulina shows Leontes a statue of the death Queen which is remarkably lifelike and made to look as if Hermione had lived and aged in the past sixteen years and which miraculously turns to life. Leontes is very thankful to Paulina and asks Camillo to marry her.
“The Winter’s Tale” is modelled by the Greek romances which were tales very popular in Shakespeare’s time. These tales were usually stories full of adventures which ended happily with the reunions of lovers or parents and children, who were believed to be dead.
Robert Greene wrote a novel in 1588 named Pandosto, and Shakespeare based his play on it. On his adaptation, Shakespeare gave Greek names to the characters in the novel and he added some more. He also changed the sad ending of the novel where the King commits suicide to the typical ending of his romantic comedies, where the main protagonist remains happy and reformed. He also resurrected the Queen, contrary to the novel, to make the play fit to his conventions where no main character, which is a model of virtue, dies.
The play is also notable for its rich group of supporting characters. Hermione is an exemplary figure, who defends herself against unjust. Her friend Paulina is the voice of sanity while Leontes is mad and she is also the voice of a reminder who regrets his crimes. The Shepherd and the lord Camillo are both sympathetic characters. Autolycus, the peddler who is a villain and lies, cheats or robs is, in fact, very harmless, that he makes the audience forgive him.
Camillo is one of the play’s most important characters. From his praise of his King and his prince, the audience is able to see that he is a faithful and patriotic courtier. He is an ideal advisor, happiest when he has a good ruler to serve.
Shakespeare gives in the second scene a psychological portrait of Leontes. His fears are unfounded. The less proof he has, the more crazed he becomes. Although the lords and ladies tell him how much Mamillius looks like him, he persists in the delusion that the child’s paternity is questionable. And when his most trusted advisor says that Hermione is innocent, his anger shows that he will not have his delusions questioned. He dwells on the idea of being a man whose wife is an adulterer, although Camillo’s responses indicate that no one at the court views the king that way.
By indulging in his groundless paranoia, Leontes transforms himself from good king to bad king and a great part of his change comes because of his failure to live up to his roles as father an husband. Another example for being a bad king is that Leontes ordered the assassination of Polixenes. Leontes orders an act that is barbaric and harmful to his state.
There is a conflict between duty and conscience in the whole play which is very important for “The Winter’s Tale”, and Camillo resolves to serve his sense of right and wrong before any king. Camillo’s decision ultimately makes the play’s happy ending possible. His choice is the first in a series of events that protect “The Winter’s Tale” from the tragedy set up by Leontes’s jealousy.
In Act two the scene starts with an idyllic setting as the prince is playing with his mother. This happiness makes a contrast to the jealousy of Leontes. Shakespeare is giving us a view of normality of the family, which invites greater sympathy for the Queen and her son, but it also gives a sense of what Leontes is destroying. These scenes show a king who is withdrawing further and further into his own paranoid fantasies. He interprets Camillo’s flight with Polixenes as a proof of his suspicions, ignoring the fact that if Camillo, Hermione, and Polixenes were innocent Camillo would do exactly the same thing.
Paulina is one of Shakespeare’s most fearless heroines, defiantly scolding the king and defending the Queen. She is able to get away with scolding him because he does not see her as an equal. This can be noticed when Leontes addresses Antigonus, Paulina’s husband rather than her. The fact that she is a woman can mean either that she is taken less seriously by the lords or that the men are disabled by her strength.
From the characters’ discussion of the oracle it is clear that we have to believe that the oracle will speak the truth. Throughout “The Winter’s Tale”, Shakespeare creates a fantastic atmosphere; he creates a world where the Greek mythology is accepted without rational scepticism or Christian prejudice.
Hermione’s suffering is almost completely passive; she trusts to the gods to provide testimony on her behalf, and chooses to nobly endure suffering rather than try to escape or to oppose the king. One of “The Winter’s Tale” most important themes is to preserve and restore the old order. At the end of the play Hermione is restored, she takes Leontes back without any question. Both, Leontes and Polixenes misused their power; Shakespeare goes easy with them, allowing them to have a happy ending.
Unlike other tragedies, where, as an example, a man falls from his high position because of excesses, here that momentum instead of monument is disarmed. A happy ending is possible because so many characters are ultimately loyal to Leontes and work hardly to restore to him what he himself has destroyed.
The king believes that he is being punished by Apollo because the awaited word of the oracle is brushed aside. The death of Mamillius, his son, convinces Leontes that he has been wrong. He comes around because he interprets the death of his son as a punishment from the gods.
In the third scene of the third act the comic death of Antigonus transforms the tragedy to a comedy and romance. From this time on the play will move towards repairing the mistakes that Leontes made.
In act four the jealousy and tyrannical behaviour of Leontes is left behind. The play sets no longer in Sicilia and enters the countryside of Bohemia. There the love story of Perdita and Florizel starts in an idyllic landscape with shepherds and rogues.
When Florizel sees Perdita the first time, he believes that she is a goddess of nature.
IN the fourth act the theme of birth and rebirth is very important. Leontes has caused the death of his wife, his son and the apparent death of Perdita, his daughter. Perdita has miraculously survived, and her restoration to her father will seem, to the grieving of the court of Sicilia.
Also in Act four the danger of tyranny is presented, but not Leontes is the one who makes fault, it is the anger of Polixenes, which is very excessive. Polixenes threatens Perdita with physical violence. These act shows that he is a man who is protected by his throne and who misuses his power as Leontes did, too.
In the final Act the story plays again in Sicilia, Hermione and Perdita return to the king miraculously. Polixenes, who wants his son to marry, allows him to marry Perdita, because she is a princess and the daughter of his old childhood friend.
“The Winter’s Tale” has a fantastic ending with much magic. Pauline tells the king that he will never marry until his wife breath again. And as the gentleman discuss the revealing of Perdita’s parentage, one of them remarks “… most marble there changed the colour” [p. 152 l. 89]. This means that even the hard hearted were moved, but the gentleman is also unwittingly foreshadowing the restoration of the one who is “most marble,” the statue of Hermione because she changed her colour when the blush of life enters her again.
Every one of the characters in the play remains deeply loyal to both of the kings. Camillo obeys his conscience, but Leontes repents, Camillo tries to see his master again.
The oracle and his prophecy give the feeling of providence being at work. In the end the prophecy of Apollo has been fulfilled. The lost daughter returns to her parents and her home. “The Winter’s Tale” ends with restored order and happiness.
Remembering Babylon Essay
• Cultural Differences
• Connectedness
Remembering Babylon, by David Malouf is set in Australia in the 1850’s. Malouf deliberately chooses this setting to examine what it is that causes some humans to act with prejudice and suspicion. Malouf encourages the reader to contemplate why some humans mistrust and refuse to accept those who are different to them, when others can. The novel explores the way a person from a particular culture reacts when faced with physical and emotional obstacles. How a people understand each other, no matter the cultural boundaries, also plays a central role in the book. Malouf explores how intuition and understanding can bind people together, whatever their background, but also how these qualities can draw them apart and lead to isolation.
Gemmy lived among the Aboriginal people for sixteen years. Many of the white settlers such as Ned Corcoran and Hec Gosper, believe that Gemmy is indeed now black. There is a common belief among the settlers that the natives are sub-human, and are either there to be killed “we ought to go out…and get rid of ‘em once and for all” (D. Malouf, Remembering Babylon, 1993, Great Britain, pg 62) or there to be enslaved “…the natives too might be drawn in, as labourers or house-servants” (D. Malouf pg 62). Gemmy quickly recognizes the motives of settlers, despite having little grasp of English customs. He soon recognises the “swelling of the wormlike vein in a man’s temple…” (D. Malouf pg 64) and the
…deepening of the hollow above a man’s collarbone…some word he [the man] was holding back (D. Malouf pg 64).
Gemmy is not stupid, and can see their ulterior motives, and thus holds back. He does not trust them, and they do not trust him. There is no connection or understanding, and their relationship deteriorates over time.
There is a distinct lack of understanding between Gemmy and most white settlers. When Gemmy was first found by the aborigines, he “claimed a place for himself in the second or third ring from the fire…” (D. Malouf pg 25). Gemmy was grudgingly accepted by the aborigines because they had no perception or prejudice about his previous culture. The white settlers feel that they know of the “abominations…” (D. Malouf pg 39) that the aborigines get up to, and thus presume Gemmy has been doing the same. Even before they learn his name, many of the settlers have made up their minds about what he is: a “poor savage” (D. Malouf pg 13) or a “nigger” (D. Malouf pg 16). Most of the settlers know nothing (save for the rumours) of the “Absolute Dark” (D. Malouf pg 3) from whence Gemmy came. The fear of the unknown is so great that it stifles their judgement, and the rumours of the ‘impenetrable dark’ become, in their eyes, fact.
Gemmy is a product of his environment. He has a “native look” (D. Malouf pg 40), brought about (as presumed by Mr Frazer) by the Aboriginal language and the native food. He lost his “white man’s appearance…and became in their [the settlers] eyes black” (D. Malouf pg 41). Many settlers also believe that,
White men who stayed too long in China were inclined to develop, after a time, the slanty eyes and flat faces of your yellow man… (D. Malouf pg 41)
When such deep rooted fear is already implanted, it is difficult to change. Gemmy has little grasp of his European past, and cannot explain himself properly. Of course, the views of Ned Corcoran and the like are not unfounded. They are after all, at the “end of the line” (D. Malouf pg 5), in an unknown wilderness.
Even within the small community of white settlers, there is a division. White culture is extraordinarily complex (Gemmy was never re-educated as a ‘proper’ white man) and (like most cultures) tends to alienate certain individuals. Two characters, Andy McKillop and George Abbot, are all estranged from the mainstream community, for various reasons. George Abbot separates himself from other settlers; he feels he deserves more than this, and loathes the role that he plays, the “pantomime” (D. Malouf pg 18) and the “…falseness of his position” (D. Malouf pg. 45). His pretentious attitude continues into his relationships: he hates Mr Frazer, who he believes to be a “fool” (D. Malouf pg 18), and is initially “repelled” (D. Malouf pg 179) by Gemmy. He is also repelled by himself: the “humiliations and mean insufficiencies of his schoolmaster’s existence” (D. Malouf pg 81). As a result of his self imposed isolation, he cannot understand the simple happiness that many characters obtain, particularly the banter at Mrs Hutchence’s house.
George Abbot never entertained the idea that he was like Gemmy, when in fact he was, and this was the cause of the loathing. He could see his own inadequacies in this ‘savage’. This is similar to Andy McKillop’s view, who, despite being a drunken failure who has shared alcohol with aborigines, accuses Gemmy of being in league with the blacks. Malouf seeks to show that when a man feels inadequate or challenged he tries to blame everyone and everything (Abbot also loathes the land) but himself.
Gemmy is targeted because he is in the eyes of many a “parody of a white man” (D. Malouf pg 39). He does not behave in a ‘proper’ manner, despite having originally come from England, and therefore has no part in the white settler’s society.
Gemmy is an instigator of cultural clash and in Remembering Babylon Malouf speculates as to what happens when cultures collide. However, in all the calamity, mistrust and suspicion that ensue, there is, amongst some characters, an understanding and connection. Most of the ‘good’ characters in the novel have some sort of intuition, whether it is with themselves or with each other. Janet and Lachlan have a positive understanding of Gemmy and, in the case of Janet, of the natural world as well.
Janet is the most perceptive character in the novel. She intuitively understands both humans and nature. She has the ability to interact with Gemmy naturally, irrespective of the difference between their cultures. When he is first taken in by the McIvors, Janet takes great interest in him, laughing “at the way his hair stuck out in quills and would not be disciplined…” (D. Malouf pg 35). Gemmy is in awe at the power she holds, one that is entirely her own, and one that she needs “no witness” (D. Malouf pg 37). Later on, she truly understands Gemmy’s plight of being thrown into the water, despite her age. A “kind of knowledge had been passed to her” (D. Malouf pg 127). The calmness that she displays at the abuse of Gemmy also comes out when she is covered in bees. She feels at one with the swarm, these “armed angels” (D. Malouf pg 143), and recognises their “single mind” (D. Malouf pg 142). She surrenders to them as their “bride” (D. Malouf pg 142). This moment changes her totally: she emerged with a “new body” (D. Malouf pg 144), one that the world “could not destroy” (D. Malouf pg 144). The spiritual awakening also causes her to retreat into herself, and later into isolation, when she becomes a nun, and a bee keeper.
Lachlan also feels a connection with Gemmy, though the way initially encounters Gemmy affects their relationship greatly. Gemmy recognises the power Lachlan holds over him for a short time, and is thus submissive. Lachlan likes to exert authority, and only when they were alone together did he reveal his “natural affection” (D. Malouf pg 35). Lachlan understands Gemmy through fear for himself. When Lachlan first arrives in Australia from Scotland he tries to refuse entry into this new world, for “fear of losing, more than he had done already, the one he had left and was heartsick for” (D. Malouf pg 55). Gemmy too was heartsick. This is what made him run to the children after isolation for sixteen years.
Lachlan uses Gemmy to display power. Unlike Janet, Lachlan relies on people seeing him. Lachlan leads him with an “invisible leash” (D. Malouf pg 35), further degrading Gemmy as a man. Afterwards, when Gemmy goes to live with Mrs Hutchence, Lachlan realises his mistakes, and feels remorse and regret. His honour and connection forced him to “stand up for Gemmy whatever the cost” (D. Malouf pg 157). Torn between his responsibility for Gemmy and his friends, Lachlan drifts apart from both. He begins to discover other worlds where he is not the centre of attention: he notes a change in Janet, where she is “in a world of her own that he has no part in” (D. Malouf pg 164). His powers of intuition and social standing have limitations, and so he loses his ability to communicate properly with Gemmy in the care free way that Janet does. Despite this,
For years afterwards, he would have dreams…and went right up to where he was standing, and looked into his [Gemmy’s] face. But it remained blurred…and he woke with his cheeks wet, even after so long, though he was no longer a child (D. Malouf pg 165). There was a bond between the two, however it was brought on initially by a physical display of power, and so did not produce the same connection as there was with Janet.
The cultural rift between Janet, Lachlan and Gemmy did not stop friendship from taking place. Most of those who choose to make an issue over Gemmy’s race are in fact those alienated from society, and so see Gemmy as a scapegoat. When people fail to form a connection with Gemmy, it is because they allow prejudice to seep into their emotions, thus limiting their intuition and understanding
