Winters Tale Act V

In my opinion, Act V seemed to be some sort of deviation from Shakespeare’s past plays and writings for several reasons. The first was scene two, in which Autolycus, three gentlemen, the Clown and the shepherd were interacting.  What stroked me about his scene was that a group of characters were all relaying an occurrence during the play. In past plays we have seen characters reflect on things such as Salerio and Solanio in Merchant of Venice, but they usually did so to impart their opinion and wisdom to the audience concerning the situation. These characters seemed to be relaying the entire order of events after scene 1, which is strange. Usually we see these sorts of scenes acted out, in fact that is the purpose of a play. This scene in a way was disruptive and it makes me question Shakespeare’s purpose for including it instead of the characters acting it out. The second deviation was undoubtedly the Hermione scene. Out of all the plays we have read this semester, no matter how ridiculous or ironic the plot seemed, it never incorporated a sense of the supernatural. I know that Shakespeare has touched on this before on plays like Macbeth, but witchcraft was a major theme in that play, unlike this one. It was surprising to say the least that she springs to life from the statue and their reactions do not seem to be appropriate. If I saw someone come to life, I feel that I would have been shocked more than anything but Leontes seemed to welcome it, saying “If this be magic, let it be an art lawful as eating” in 5.3.110-11. At the end of the play, I find myself struggling to classify its genre. Its listed as a romance, although I find there to be more tragic elements than anything. Im assuming that because it does have a “happy ending”, it cannot be considered a tragedy. I would like to think that Leontes and Hermione possess a love that is unwavering but that is simply untrue. The fact of the matter is that Leontes was willing to kill his own child and banish his wife because of his insecurity and jealously. In my opinion, that is not real love and it is certainly not romantic.