The Winter's Tale

Act IV focuses on the effects of time on the themes of Jealousy’s Destructive Consequences and Rebirth and Resurrection, with a personification of “Time” literally appearing as a character in a scene of their own to start the act. Certain characters have changed their beliefs due to the passage of time, such as Camillo’s belief in Leontes’s repentance for his jealousy, yet others like Polixenes have stayed firm in theirs. There is a focus on times of the year in Act IV, Scene 4 as Perdita gives her guests flowers associated with the seasons. This act’s setting in summer is also a contrast to the previous acts’ setting in winter, symbolizing the growth that is to come after the desolation of the previous acts. Seasons signify the stages of death and regrowth in Rebirth and Resurrection. There is also a repeating of time and a cyclical nature to the events of the end of this act, with a return to Sicilia upon the horizon for the characters.

Class is addressed at length in Act IV, Scene 4, particularly in discussions between Perdita and Florizel. Though Perdita’s adoptive family came into wealth when they found her (as she was abandoned with gold), the shepherd’s family cannot compare to the royal family in terms of wealth and status, so Prince Florizel disguises himself as someone of lower class to blend in. When Perdita voices her concerns about this, he compares himself to the gods, saying “The gods themselves, / Humbling their deities to love, have taken / The shapes of beasts upon them” (4.4.1884-86). This comparison raises Florizel’s already high status, and he frequently calls Perdita a goddess, a queen, foreshadowing the reveal of her true identity as Sicilia’s princess. Despite his father’s disapproval, Florizel prizes his love for Perdita above his status, even in defiance of her warnings about being discovered. He tells the company “were I crown’d the most imperial monarch, / Thereof most worthy, were I the fairest youth / That ever made eye swerve, had force and knowledge / More than was ever man’s, I would not prize them / Without her love” (4.4.2775-9). In this way, Florizel’s class status as an heir to Polixenes’s throne is an obstacle in the way of true love and not a benefit.

Deceit and disguise are recurring motifs throughout The Winter’s Tale, but are especially apparent in Act IV, Scene 4. Autolycus is a rogue who changes outfits and personalities for profit. He uses disguise as a weapon, as he does when posing as a courtier to steal money from the Old Shepherd and the Clown. Polixenes and Camillo also don disguises to hide their nobility at Perdita’s sheep-shearing feast, and even Florizel fails to recognize his father when not presenting himself as a king. Florizel himself poses as a commoner named Doricles, but the Old Shepherd—though not recognizing him as the prince—is unconvinced by his disguise. Disguise is a common motif in Shakespeare’s plays, often as a means of portraying hidden characteristics or allowing characters to move in circles they normally could not. Unbeknownst to Perdita, she, too, is in disguise, ignorant of her true origins. Yet, the reveal of her identity is foreshadowed by Act IV’s use of disguises and mixing of classes that would otherwise never comingle through the use of disguise.