IMAGERY AND SYMBOLISM IN THE PLAY

The image of the tempest is central to The Winter's Tale. Hermione suffers the tempest of
Leontes' jealousy. There is one important tempest, however, which occurs when Antigonus sails
to Bohemia. He leaves his ship taking Perdita who is to be exposed on the wild shore. In The
Winter's Tale, as in other later plays of Shakespeare, there is a sense of personal divine powers
controlling tempests. They are feats of 'poetic justice' and happen for a reason, often when one
is acting in a way that is morally equivocal. Tempests are associated with "creatures of prey" as is
the bear in The Winter's Tale who eats Antigonus after he has abandoned Perdita. When the day
'frowns' on him, a well-worn image becomes strangely alive before the eyes of the audience.
Here the bear actually appears, destroying Antigonus while the other tempest drowns the sailors
who have brought him to do his evil deed. The Winter's Tale's imagery is contrasted in the two
halves of the play. First, there is the wintry bitterness, tempest, shipwreck and loss connoting
destruction and retribution. In the second, there abounds summer festivity, youth and love,
reunion and music connoting redemption and joy.

Music often infuses Shakespeare's plays and this one is no different. Along with the wonderful
ditties which Autolycus sings at various intervals, music also pervades the dramatic aspects of
the play. Perdita is found and Hermione comes to life to the sound of music. Music also takes on
a bawdy style suggestive of sexuality and spring verdure during the dance of the satyrs at the
sheep shearing festival. A tamer form of sexual imagery is seen in the the love passages between
Florizel and the flower-maiden, Perdita when he describes her in terms of music, dance and the
sun-glittering sea.

Symbolism is the use of symbols to signify ideas and qualities, by giving them symbolic
meanings that are different from their literal sense.Symbolism can take different forms.
Generally, it is an object representing another, to give an entirely different meaning that is much
deeper and more significant. Sometimes, however, an action, an event or a word spoken by
someone may have a symbolic value. For instance, “smile” is a symbol of friendship. Similarly,
the action of someone smiling at you may stand as a symbol of the feeling of affection which
that person has for you.