In "The Winter's Tale" it is apparent that there
are many different disguises going on.
Just in Act IV there is the disguise of Polixenes and Camillo as well as
the disguised Autolycus. And then there
is kind of a play on character with the characterization of a clown, who to us
usually means a person in disguise for fun, who actually doesn't seem like he
is in a disguise. I think this is an
interesting idea that Shakespeare brings up in not only this play, but several
other plays where the characters pretend to be someone or something that they
are not. With this in the plot though,
it usually allows the story to unfold itself, just like we see in Act IV of
"The Winter's Tale".
Another way that we can look at this though, is that all of
the characters are being acted out as people who are not actually those
people. This adds yet another layer of
the idea of disguise. Perhaps
Shakespeare is alluding to the idea that everyone is in fact pretending to be
someone, even if it is who they think should be considered themselves. All of us, every day, choose who we are going
to be and decide how we are going to act the part, so really this disguising is
making the play more of a reality; when normally we think that disguising
oneself as someone else would make it more of an unreal scenario.
You make a good point, and I feel like... almost everyone of Shakespeare's plays that I can think of off the top of my head have someone dressing up or pretending to be something they're not. It must have been a very important concept to Shakespeare to be included so often!
ReplyDeleteThis is why I bring up performance studies so much (too much? Haha). We are always in costume, or performing, for those around us. Even the lack of costume of performance could be considered just that because we are purposefully ignoring certain societal bounds to look and act a certain way.
ReplyDeleteI think that this idea of disguise adds depth to the first three acts, when Hermione is essentially punished for putting on the wrong disguise (in Leontes' messed up view, at least ). He saw her as playing the flirt instead of the friend, and he freaked out. Leontes' sudden shift from outraged jealous husband to guilt-ridden mourner could also be seen as simply a change in disguise. His motivations for the switch make sense, but it is so sudden that I wonder how much of it is genuine feeling and how much is driven by the expectations of the people around him.
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