In these first four acts of the play, I think that my favorite
character has been Paulina. I know we talked about it a lot in class, but even
before that I just loved how she stood up to the king and how she just says her
mind! She refutes any argument of Shakespeare not having strong female characters.
Though it was potentially lethal to critique the king, she does it anyway. She
is the queen's most loyal defender. And in the rest of the play, she has such
in an important role, too! One article I found said this of her: "Paulina
is Hermione’s friend and the wife of Antigonus. She is intelligent, spirited,
and a loyal friend. She defies the rules of Sicilian society by appearing in
court and bringing Leontes his newborn daughter, risking harsh punishment to
defend what she believes is right. She is a noblewoman, elegant, and strongly
commands a room of men. Her silhouette is more subdued than Hermione’s, with
her long, lean silhouette and high collar elongating her body allowing her to
look feminine, yet powerful...Her gown is tastefully yet sparsely
decorated; her elegance comes from her posture and the strength with which she
carries herself." Written for a play, as directions for casting, I thought
that the way they planned to portray her fit with my own opinions of her and
her bearing and appearance. I am excited to try watch a performance of this and
to see how she is portrayed on stage. She really is one of the best characters
in the play.
One devil’s advocate
type question, though: How do you think the play might have turned out if
Paulina hadn’t faked Hermione’s
death…? (I just assumed that’s what happened…. Anything else would just… blow
my mind. So yeah. I'm just gonna stick with that as what happened for the sake of this blog.) I feel like this is the one thing she does that I am not quite in agreement with... I know that the shock of Hermione's 'death' is what kind of helps Leontes turn things around, but hadn't Mamillius's already started him down that path...? If so, Hermione and Leontes could have had those 16 years together... Which makes me wonder if Paulina's plan was all that great after all.
http://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1968&context=theses
I think it is interesting that you think Paulina faked Hermione's death. That's definitely not what I thought, but now that you talked a little bit more about Paulina's character, that does kinda seem like something she would do. But would Hermoine have allowed that to happen? She kinda seemed like, from her trial, that she was kind of set on either dying innocent or being proclaimed innocent. She was firm enough that it didn't seem like an option for her to continue living in the position that she was in. So why would she allow herself to basically be hid from her husband, hiding and in a sense not standing firm in what she knew actually happened?
ReplyDeleteI think the main problem with Hermione not dying is that it would completely change the end of the play. Hermione's statue coming to life is essential to wrapping up the themes of redemption and faith within the play (like Kimberly's post talked about). Granted, getting his daughter back is still big for Leontes, but Hermione's death seemed to be what he regretted the most. I also think it was essential for Leontes to really hit rock bottom before he could realize the seriousness of what he'd done.
ReplyDeleteI think the main problem with Hermione not dying is that it would completely change the end of the play. Hermione's statue coming to life is essential to wrapping up the themes of redemption and faith within the play (like Kimberly's post talked about). Granted, getting his daughter back is still big for Leontes, but Hermione's death seemed to be what he regretted the most. I also think it was essential for Leontes to really hit rock bottom before he could realize the seriousness of what he'd done.
ReplyDeleteIt's an interesting idea. If Paulina had faked the death, it makes sense that it would propel Leontes to rock bottom. Even then, sixteen years is a long time to not reveal her to him again. But, then again, maybe Paulina was just waiting to see that Leontes really had completely changed before trusting him with Hermione again. Even then, that places a lot of power in her hands and, given the way she basically left the baby to die at the hands of a madman, I don't know if I would entirely have trusted her if I was Hermione.
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