Shakespeare allows Leontes’s hateful ideas about women take over the first three acts of The Winter’s Tale. After Leontes persuades himself that his pregnant wife, Hermione, is cheating on him with his best friend, King Polixenes, the readers are able to see a very anti-feminist attitude in Leontes that seems to have been underneath the surface all along. Leontes soon starts to think that all women could easily be woed into bed and he starts to view all women as dishonest. Leontes expresses his belief that women who are not obedient and stay quiet unless spoken to are trying to ignore their positions in society and instead reverse the quiet role onto their husbands.
When Paulina first comes in front of King Leontes in scene 3 of act 2 and …show more content…
When Paulina is speaking to him in act 2 scene 3, Leontes threatens to have her burnt if she does not leave him alone. She tells his that she does not care, and she will not call him a tyrant, “But this most cruel usage of your queen,/ Not able to produce more accusation/ Than your own weak-hinged fancy, something savors/ Of tyranny” (II.iii.1074-1078). After just having been threatened by him, Paulina directly tells Leontes that although she does not want to call him a tyrant, his actions against his wife are the actions of a tyrant. Despite being the one person with the least amount of power, due to her sex, Paulina is the only person brave enough and loyal enough to Hermione to speak up against the king. While all the men near the king take the quiet role that women had, Paulina fights against the gender hierarchy and speaks for what she believes. Additionally, Paulina is the only one who tries to reason with Leontes, telling him that “although the print be little, the whole matter/ And copy of the father” (II.iii.1051-1052). She is the only one willing to try to make him see the situation rationally. On the other hand, when Leontes tells Paulina’s husband to take the child and leave her in a deserted place alone, Leontes does as he is told and does not
When Paulina first comes in front of King Leontes in scene 3 of act 2 and …show more content…
When Paulina is speaking to him in act 2 scene 3, Leontes threatens to have her burnt if she does not leave him alone. She tells his that she does not care, and she will not call him a tyrant, “But this most cruel usage of your queen,/ Not able to produce more accusation/ Than your own weak-hinged fancy, something savors/ Of tyranny” (II.iii.1074-1078). After just having been threatened by him, Paulina directly tells Leontes that although she does not want to call him a tyrant, his actions against his wife are the actions of a tyrant. Despite being the one person with the least amount of power, due to her sex, Paulina is the only person brave enough and loyal enough to Hermione to speak up against the king. While all the men near the king take the quiet role that women had, Paulina fights against the gender hierarchy and speaks for what she believes. Additionally, Paulina is the only one who tries to reason with Leontes, telling him that “although the print be little, the whole matter/ And copy of the father” (II.iii.1051-1052). She is the only one willing to try to make him see the situation rationally. On the other hand, when Leontes tells Paulina’s husband to take the child and leave her in a deserted place alone, Leontes does as he is told and does not