The Winters Tale: The Tragedy Within A Romance :: essays research papers

The Winters tale The Tragedy Within A RomanceIn 1623, the complete full treatment of Shakespeare were published in the FirstFolio. Within this Folio were the works of Shakespeare categorized by theirgenre. There were tragedies, histories, comedies, and the final four wereromances. Prior to this time, romance was not a widespread genre in anyoneswritings. We can see by means of the "genealogy" of writing, that the romancewe know today was created through the combination of the Greek novels and Shakespearean comedies. This alliance between the two genres is apparent inShakespeares Winters Tale. The most obvious indication to this suggestion isin the first three acts of the play. Within these acts a self-coloured tragedy can beseen and all its parts defined to show that this Romance was written bymeshing to types of play together.The first three acts of the Winters Tale are where the tragedy takesplace. These three acts can be broken down into five acts, as suggested by Bill ,the great comparative literian. The first of these five acts is the exposition.The tosh is set up and you are thrust into Leontes internal passion of jealousy.The second act is where Leontes expresses his passion externally by accusingHermione of sleeping with Polixenes. He thence has his wife taken off to jail.The third act is where we see the first contest, or agon. This takes place whenPaulina brings the baby daughter from jail and presents it to Leontes. The twobattle sand and forth, attempting to prove themselves. The fourth act is themain agon, or the place at which we are at the peak of competition. Hermionestands before the king and the lords and she denies infidelity. However, nomatter how convincing she is, Leontes mind is set as to her actions in the past.The fifth act is the resolution, and this is when the oracle is read. Leontesrealizes his jealousy and his errors, and is punished by Apollo, who kills