The Winter's Tale

• Leontes, King of Sicilia, becomes suddenly, irrationally convinced that his wife Hermione is having an affair with his best friend Polixenes • The jealousy has no basis — it erupts from nowhere, total and consuming. Shakespeare gives it no motivation because jealousy needs none • Leontes puts Hermione on trial. She's pregnant. He declares the baby isn't his • Oracle of Delphi: "Hermione is chaste; Polixenes blameless." Leontes rejects the oracle. His son Mamillius dies. Hermione collapses — reported dead • The baby (Perdita) is abandoned on the coast of Bohemia. "Exit, pursued by a bear" — the most famous stage direction in Shakespeare • TIME itself appears as a Chorus: 16 years pass. Perdita has grown up as a shepherd's daughter • Bohemia (Act 4): pastoral comedy. Florizel (Polixenes' son) falls for Perdita. A sheep-shearing festival. Autolycus, a singing, thieving con man, steals everything not nailed down • Polixenes forbids the match. The lovers flee to Sicilia. Perdita's true identity is revealed (offstage, maddeningly) • The statue scene: Leontes visits a "statue" of Hermione. It's incredibly lifelike. Music plays. The statue moves. Hermione is alive • She has been hidden for 16 years — or miraculously resurrected. Shakespeare refuses to explain which • The reunion: Hermione embraces Perdita (the daughter she's never held). Leontes is forgiven. Loss is redeemed — but not undone • The play's structure is unprecedented: tragedy (Acts 1-3), pastoral comedy (Act 4), miracle (Act 5)