Elements Of Tragicomedy In The Winter's Tale

The Oxford English Dictionary defines tragicomedy as “a play or other literary or dramatic work which combines the qualities of a tragedy and a comedy, or contains both tragic and comic elements” (“Tragicomedy”). William Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale falls into this genre of writing. The first three acts of the play provide tragic elements such as error and death, while the final two acts provide comedic elements such as misunderstandings and romance. Leontes, the king of Sicilia, accuses his wife Hermione of being unfaithful to him; when he discovers that she is innocent, he must face the repercussions of his actions. Although Leontes first asserts that knowledge is deadly, he eventually embraces the value of knowledge by learning from …show more content…
When the person is unaware of the spider, he/she will drink and be unharmed, his/her knowledge “not infected.” Leontes contrasts this situation to one where the person is aware of the spider’s presence and dies from the spider’s poison, suggesting that the former situation is more desirable. This closed-mindedness allows Shakespeare to set Leontes up as a tragic figure as defined by Greek philosopher Aristotle, who states that two components of a tragic figure are that the figure is “the sort of person who is not outstanding in moral excellence or justice” and is someone “held in great self-esteem and who enjoys great good fortune” (Poetics, 21). In immediately assuming that Hermione is having an affair with Polixenes after witnessing them touch hands, Leontes shows cracks in his armor of “moral excellence” (Poetics, 21). Furthermore, his word choice in saying that he has “seen the spider” (2.1.56) implies that the good fortune that he once enjoyed will be replaced by the poison of the spider, or the assumption of knowledge, thus setting himself up for the spider’s metaphorical poison and for the real consequences of his newfound …show more content…
Even when he sees Hermione alive with his own eyes, Leontes is hesitant to believe what he sees, instead equating her reappearance to magic, saying, “If this be magic, let it be an art / Lawful as eating” (5.3.133-134). French literary critic René Girard states that “the statue scene is a unique reversal of a relationship between truth and illusion, being and non-being, that had always prevailed in Shakespeare” (Girard, 211). The first three scenes of the play emphasize how truth and illusion are completely separate concepts: Leontes believes that Hermione is unfaithful, which is opposite of the truth. In contrast, the statue scene represents the shifting of tones and the blending of truth and