Posted by John Marwick on February 07, 19101 at 05:14:41:
In Reply to: Re: The Winters tale posted by Liza Crawford on February 06, 19101 at 16:00:21:
: can anyone offer me some help on my a-level coursework title?
: "How does Shakespeare present the relationships between men and women in 'The Winters Tale', and how might a modern audience respond to these relationships?"
: I would be gratefully for any suggestions.
: Many thanks,
: Liza.
There is a lot to say. Surely he presents several diferent views of man/woman relationship -
a) the obvious one of Hermione the honourable woman and her insanely jealous husband - I think its I a most powerful and frightening portrayal of jealousy which certainly would ring bells with a modern audience - the difficult bit may be the sudden change back and the King's long penitence.
b) Paulina - a modern character in many ways. Her husband has trouble 'controlling her' (does he actually want to?). She speaks her mind. She acts bravely when needed - more than anyone else left in the court is prepared to do. Her relatioship to the King is agian quite a modern one - tells it like it is. Takes control and keeps it for 16 years! Only thing most audiences will find hard is that she marries camillo in the end - but this is a 'tale' and has a nice complete ending.
c) Perdita/Florizel is a beautiful young romantic love - but again the woman hasa the best part and is the most honest and down to earth (eg her lines in IV:4 when Polixenes has exited - 'I was not much afeard etc' I think young love can still ring true today - just a bit difficult to manage the pastoral ideals
d) Clown/Mopsa and Dorcas - great bckering and jealousy between the two shepherdesses who vie for the same man - can ring very true (and funny) now as then - even though there's not much to go on.
Have a look at the way we did it in our production and browse through some of the links on my page