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Art and Nature in the Winter's Tale

Updated on December 17, 2012

Adam Kullman
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The Winter's Tale

Original First Page from The Folio | Source

"A Sad Tale's Best for Winter"

In The Winter’s Tale, Shakespeare advances the unique idea that art, not nature, has powerful
redemptive qualities. The play’s pastoral elements endorse natural values and condemn the
artifice of the court but the play also undermines the pastoral, complicating the one-sided view of
a perfect countryside and a corrupt court. The play presents the country’s artlessness as
problematic and highlights the unforgiving aspects of nature. The court offers a counterpoint,
reminding the audience of the redemptive properties of art. Art in the play is not natural; it is
supernatural and redemptive. Ultimately, the play argues for its own legitimacy as a piece of art,
not nature.

The country’s hostility towards artifice is framed as potentially problematic. Shakespeare calls
attention to the problem with favoring nature over artifice by drawing comparisons between
abstract discussion and events in the play. Polixenes rebukes Perdita for saying that “carnations
and streaked gillyvors” are “nature’s bastards” because they have been hybridized (IV.4.96-7).
The image of rejecting hybrid flowers as “bastards” recalls the rejection of Perdita earlier in the
play and strikes a powerful emotional chord. The play depicts the rejection of art as an injustice,
associated with the attempted exposure of Perdita. Just as art takes the blame for the ill uses an
artist may put it to, so Perdita takes the blame for the supposed sins of her mother.

The death of Antigonus and the sailors serves as an ominous opening to the introduction of the
pastoral to The Winter’s Tale. While the scene certainly invokes humor, the mental picture the
Shepherd’s son conjures of Antigonus “half dined on” by a bear negates the idea of the country
as an inherently peaceful place (3.3.111). Nature is a dangerous place where people’s mistakes
are not easily forgiven. At court on the other hand, Leontes is redeemed and is eventually granted
a happy ending. Nature is not so forgiving. Rather, it harshly punishes the exposure of Perdita by
destroying Antigonus and the sailors who manned his ship. This contrast between country and
court sets up nature as destructive and art as redemptive.

Art in the play is a force of good rather than corruption. While the pastoral tradition saw art as
inherently deceptive, the play suggests that deception can actually bring about positive change,
such as the redemption of Leontes. Art, deceiving though it may be, can sometimes do what
nature cannot. Only through art can such a positive change be made.

Because The Winter’s Tale itself is art, it is able to provide redemption for Leontes and give a
happy ending to the characters. At court, it is art that brings the play to its positive conclusion. If
the laws of nature were strictly observed in the play, it is unlikely Peridita or Hermione would
have survived and Leontes might never have learned the error of his ways. However, as art and
through art, the play brings the play to a positive conclusion.

The Winter’s Tale calls attention to itself as art with the potential for effecting positive change.
Mamillius’ assertion that a “sad tale’s best for winter” reminds the audience that they are
watching a “sad tale” (II.1.33). This tale, like the art within it, has the power to improve the lives
of those in the audience, and Shakespeare emphasizes this by calling attention to the play as art.
Leontes envisions Hermione’s ghost appearing on “this stage” he stands on similarly breaks the
audience’s suspension of disbelief (V.1.69).

By reminding the audience of their place as spectators, Shakespeare calls them to think about the
application of the play in their lives. By witnessing the tragic consequences of Leontes’ paranoia,
jealous husbands in the audience might learn to avoid indulging in the “diseased opinion” that
destroy’s Leontes’ family (I.2.361). Just as the statue of Hermione is capable of arousing guilt
and repentance in Leontes’ mind, the play is capable of raising the same kinds of feelings in its
audience members, shaping their perspectives through art just as effectively as Paulina works on
Leontes’ misogyny and insane jealousy. The changing of perspectives is indeed a “magical”
result of the beauty of art.

Art that invokes the supernatural imparts the moral lessons needed for human redemption in this
play. Mamillius’ tale “of sprites and goblins” is a “sad tale,” a cautionary tale warning us how
not to behave (2.1.33-4). In the same way, The Winter’s Tale as a whole is a cautionary tale. The
power of such a tale becomes evident in the vivid imaginations of Leontes.

The use of art proves an effective means of keeping Leontes true to Hermione’s memory through
its relation to the supernatural. Fear of the supernatural haunts the whole play but it is expressed
vividly in Leontes and Paulina’s discussion on his remarriage. Leontes’ fear that remarriage
would make Hermione’s “sainted spirit / again possess her corpse” and “incense him” to murder
his new wife (V.1.68-75). The supernatural is not nature, it is the stuff of tales and of sorcery,
both forms of artifice.

In the Renaissance, the supernatural had close ties to art. Art’s power on the imagination could
produce “magic.” Montaigne writes that “the principle credit of miracles, visions, enchantments,
and such extraordinary occurrences comes from the power of imagination” (Montaigne 70). The
imagination of Leontes proves susceptible to the influences of art.

The miraculous return of Hermione was brought about through Paulina’s “art”. Whether Paulina
used magic or deception, she would still be considered to use art. Hermione’s seemingly magical
return from the dead uses the “supernatural” properties of art to bring about Leontes’
redemption. The line between art and magic is blurred from the start when Paulina presents the
court with Hermione’s statue. Leontes notes that the statue has “magic” in its “majesty (V.3.45)
even though courtiers claim that whatever lifelike qualities the statue has owe only to the “rare
Italian master” who sculpted it (V.2.104). The ambiguity of the statue’s properties attests to the
power of great art on the human imagination, and conscience. No matter how the statue has been
made, the effect it has on Leontes is its most important attribute. The statue of Hermione affects
Leontes so strongly he sees his “evils conjured to [his] remembrance” (V.3.46). Again, the statue
has a seemingly magical power to affect Leontes, making him repent his sins once again. While
the natural state of Hermione in death would be an absence from Leontes, through art, she
remains with him, helping him to correct his faults.

Because of Paulina’s deception, Leontes changes for the better. He abandons his harsh
misogynistic attitude as evidenced by his reception for her advice. The woman whom Leontes
rejected as a “mankind witch” (II.3.84) becomes his trusted adviser and his “true Paulina”
(V.1.102). When Paulina’s defense of Hermione is “proven” true by Hermione’s death, Leontes
begins to realize he was wrong. Only by witnessing the full consequences of his insane jealousy
and hard-hearted misogyny does Leontes begin to see the wrong he did and start on his path to
redemption which is concluded with Hermione’s “resurrection.”

The return of Hermione links art, redemption, and the supernatural through religious ties. When
Leontes and the court visit Paulina’s home to see the statue of Hermione, they must enter the
chapel, moving from a secular space to a religious one. Art and artifice become part of the
spiritual realm through moral as well as supernatural ties.
Art and deception are not opposed to religion. Art is an important component in the religious
ideas in this play. Apollo was the god of music, among other things, in Greco-Roman
mythology. As the deity of the oracle, Apollo becomes the champion Hermione lacks among the
men at court. Art is the herald of truth. Leontes’ defiance of the oracle is a defiance of art as
truth’s representative. Only when he embraces art, quite literally, in his reunion with Hermione is
his redemption complete. By accepting the truth, Leontes accepts art, and through art his ways
are mended.

Art is central to spiritual redemption of Leontes. The importance of art is cemented by the
presence of the statue of Hermione in Paulina’s chapel. It is in this space that all the elements of
the play come together, with art, magic, and religion working together to complete Leontes’
redemption. Paulina’s command that music “strike” to “awake” Hermione makes art the catalyst
as well as the agent in this scene (V.3.124). Art signals the beginning of the animation of another
work of art. The theme of redemption is also strong in the scene. Leontes is redeemed from sin,
just as “dear life redeems” Hermione from death (V.3.129). Both “redemptions” are necessary
for a happy end and neither could take place without art.

By blurring the boundaries between art, artifice, magic, and the supernatural, The Winter’s Tale
crafts a powerful argument for the redemptive nature of art. The redemption of Leontes is
achieved through art but the story of the play is itself art with its own redemptive powers.