Hermione the Muggle (Or maybe not?)

I've seen The Winter's Tale performed before, so the ending did not shock me the second time around. I was pretty surprised during the production to see that happen, though to be honest once they began speaking of a statue I began to suspect. It just seemed a little too perfect to have an artist suddenly finish this statue of the dead queen right when everything becomes restored and everybody is found, etc. Especially since Paulina begins to go on and on about the king only marrying again once he finds a woman like Hermione. Initially I did believe that Paulina had faked Hermione's death, and her actions seemed consistent with this. John's post, however, mentioned that there is proof that Hermione had to have been dead the entire time, else certain parts of the play didn't pan out. When I did see the play though it seemed obvious and purposeful that Paulina had been the mastermind behind the plot to teach Leontes a lesson. They played it with this intention, leading me to believe that there was no magic whatsoever, but really only a carefully crafted long con. After reading the play and the blog posts, and understanding the romantic genre better, I can see how this magical aspect fits.

It seems that there is a general consensus about Shakespeare's romances, that they are the most mature of all his writing. I may not have understood that before, and in regards to magical aspects I might have some arguments. But in the general sense of character and plot development, I think that I agree. Hermione and Leontes have a deeper, richer, more complicated love story than do many other couples in Shakespeare's works. When we read Midsummer we identified the fact that those characters are more like tropes, or stereotypes, due to the comedic genre. And even in the tragedies, there is only so much character development.