Interpreted statues: collapse of femininity and psychotic denial of incest in The Winter’s Tale

The Winter’s Tale (1610/1999), a late romance by William Shakespeare, on one level presents the delusional jealousy of Leontes regarding his wife Hermione, the visitations of death undoing the omnipotent defenses employed by Leontes, who is fatefully confronted by grief and the guilt of having wronged those close to him. The final two acts present us with the redemptive powers of nature and love, re-establishing the family unit through mutual forgiveness and a deus ex machina in the coming-to-life of Hermione’s statue. The comic formula Shakespeare utilizes after the first three acts attempts to undo the tragic plot unfolding thus far, inviting us to abandon the knowledge we acquired and adopt the solution of a safe Oedipal triangulation, materialized when the statue comes to life. On a darker note, Shakespeare undoes important dimensions of the source material, which provides a tragic ending to the Leontes character (Pandosto) after he lusts after his daughter. As Shakespeare alters the fates of the characters through largely disavowing the incestuous urges of Leontes, we are taunted with both knowing and not knowing that pairing off Leontes in the end with an adult female partner is an aesthetic resolution to much more troubling psychic realities.