Metamorphoses of Women in the Winter's Tale
The theme of transformation in Shakespeare’s plays is well-documented. Many of these transformations have root in Metamorphoses by Ovid. This sprawling work of fifteen books creates an intricate world of mythology that Shakespeare used as inspiration time and time again. The Winter’s Tale is no exception: references both explicit and implied come from Ovid’s epic. The women of The Winter’s Tale are especially influenced by the stories of Ovid; the characters of Perdita and Hermione seem to pull from many sources, which allow them to become two of the most complex female characters that Shakespeare ever put to page.
Perdita has an obvious correlation with Proserpina, from the stories of The rape of Proserpine and Ceres searches for her daughter in The Fifth Book. Perdita herself proclaims, “O Proserpina, / For the flow’rs now, that, frighted, thou let’st fall / From Dis’s wagon!” (4.4.116-18) She is referencing the fact that she surrounded by flowers, just as Proserpina was when Dis, god of the underworld, abducted her to become his wife. There is further connection with Perdita and Proserpina. Perdita’s invocation of Proserpina comes towards the beginning of Perdita’s first appearance as a grown woman in The Winter’s Tale, which is important for multiple reasons. Proserpina’s descent into the underworld caused Ceres, her mother and goddess of the harvest, to turn the earth into a cold, unwelcome, and desolate land. It is only when Proserpina is allowed to leave the underworld that Ceres allows the earth to become full of nature’s beauty. The beginning of The Winter’s Tale is a place that represents the absence of Proserpina; it is a tragic and untrustworthy world. It is not until the end of Act 3, with the appearance of Perdita (as a child), when the audience begins to notice a shift in tone and mood. Indeed, Act 4 furthers this feeling, which seems to bloom even more when Perdita is shown as a young woman.
Furthermore, the place where Proserpina was
Perdita has an obvious correlation with Proserpina, from the stories of The rape of Proserpine and Ceres searches for her daughter in The Fifth Book. Perdita herself proclaims, “O Proserpina, / For the flow’rs now, that, frighted, thou let’st fall / From Dis’s wagon!” (4.4.116-18) She is referencing the fact that she surrounded by flowers, just as Proserpina was when Dis, god of the underworld, abducted her to become his wife. There is further connection with Perdita and Proserpina. Perdita’s invocation of Proserpina comes towards the beginning of Perdita’s first appearance as a grown woman in The Winter’s Tale, which is important for multiple reasons. Proserpina’s descent into the underworld caused Ceres, her mother and goddess of the harvest, to turn the earth into a cold, unwelcome, and desolate land. It is only when Proserpina is allowed to leave the underworld that Ceres allows the earth to become full of nature’s beauty. The beginning of The Winter’s Tale is a place that represents the absence of Proserpina; it is a tragic and untrustworthy world. It is not until the end of Act 3, with the appearance of Perdita (as a child), when the audience begins to notice a shift in tone and mood. Indeed, Act 4 furthers this feeling, which seems to bloom even more when Perdita is shown as a young woman.
Furthermore, the place where Proserpina was
Cited: Carroll, William C. The Changes of Romance. The Metamorphoses of Shakespearean Comedy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1985. pgs. 205-244. Enterline, Lynn. You speak a language that I understand not’: the rhetoric of animation in The Winter’s Tale. The Rhetoric of the Body from Ovid to Shakespeare. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2000. pgs. 198-226. Nuttall, A.D. The Winter’s Tale: Ovid transformed. Shakespeare’s Ovid: The Metamorphoses in the Plays and Poems. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2000. pgs. 136-141. Ovid. Metamorphoses. Arthur Golding, trans. Madeline Forey, ed. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. pgs. 77-427. Shakespeare, William. The Riverside Shakespeare. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997. pgs. 1612-1651. Shakespeare, William. The Winter’s Tale. Stephen Orgel, ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1996. pg. 44.