The Winter's Tale

In 1.2, how do specific metaphors (for the female body and the cuckolded man) clarify Leontes' concerns?
In 1.2, how does Leontes' banter with Mamillius, rather than reassuring Leontes that Mamillius is really his son, instead frustrate the King and fuel his confusion?
In 1.2, Leontes and Polixenes identify their childhood together as a time when they thought they would be "boy[s] eternal," a time when they merely traded "innocence for innocence." How do they explain such a change? Does the explaination offered by Leontes and Polixenes seem accurate?
In 1.2, lines 352-364, Camillo laments his new role of "cupbearer." How does he understand his new position and why might he make the decision to tell Polixenes about Leontes' jealousy. How does his advice to Polixenes echo his own understanding of kingly power? (lines 432-35).
According to the Norton headnotes, romances like The Winter's Tale are only resolved by "miraculous reversals." How does this "romance" blur the lines between tragedy and comedy, and what is the tragic cost to the social order and characters of the play?
In the beginning of 2.1, Mamillius exchanges ideas about women with his mother and her ladies-in-waiting. How might this conversation evoke larger social arguments about men and women in Shakespearean culture?
Upon discovering the departure of Camillo and Polixenes, Leontes remarks, "How blest am I in my just censure, in my true opinion!" How do his comments connect his concerns of female infidelity to those exhibited by other Shakespearean characters from other plays?
How might the use of nature as both a tragic and renewing force "save" Leontes and Hermione from retelling the story of Othello and Desdemona?
When accused, Hermione asks Leontes, "How will this grieve you / When you shall come to clearer knowledge, that / You thus have published me?" How do Leontes' accusations later grieve him?
In 2.1 Antigonus tells Leontes "you are abused, and by some putter-on / That will be damed for't. Would I knew the villain," in a passage that echoes Emilia's words to Othello. What villain plagues Leontes?
Why might Paulina claim in 2.2 that "the office becomes a woman best," referring to the task of telling the King that Hermione is innocent and has delivered a baby girl? How might Paulina possess the power to change Leontes’ mind?
Paulina’s insistence on showing Leontes his daughter leads him to call her a "mankind witch." In what similar ways does Leontes chastise Paulina and Antigonus in 2.3?
How does Paulina appeal to her husband to defy Leontes?
How does Hermione defend herself against Leontes' claims in the trial scene of 3.2?
Leontes realizes his wrongdoing fairly quickly, exclaiming "Apollo's angry, and the heavens themselves do strike at my injustice," when he sees Hermione suffering after hearing about the death of her son (3.2 143-4). Why then, might the play lapse sixteen years before restoring the kingdom to its "natural" order?
Why does the Old Shepherd identify the gold next to Perdita as "fairy gold?" How does this understanding of prophecy distinguish the characther of both the Old Shepherd and the Bohemia he lives in? How does this opinion of prophecy connect to the play as a whole?
How do Polixenes' concerns about Florizel’s love for Perdita echo the paternal concerns of Leontes in the first half of the play?
How does Autolycus' role reflect a transition from tragedy to comedy in the middle of the play?
How does Florizel's disguise as Doricles reflect/exhibit the social corcerns about class status that permeate the relationships of The Winter's Tale? What class tensions are exposed in the play.
The Norton headnotes describe Perdita's life in Bohemia as consciously rustic and primitive. Why might Shakespeare create such a world?
In 4.4, the disguised Polixenes debates ideas about nature and art with Perdita. Based on their social positions, why might they approach these topics from different directions?
How does the play restore or maintain hierarchical class distinctions in Act 4?
Why might Polixenes direct his wrath at the Old Shepherd when he discovers his son's plans to marry Perdita? How does the Old Shepherd react to Perdita's knowledge that Doricles is the Prince, and how are these responses connected to the ongoing concerns of paternal authority in the play?
What tensions still exist at the play's close? Sean McEvoy's chapter on "Understanding Romance" is an important aspect of our reading and study, and he addresses a good range of issues about the 'genre' and this play. Here is one of his closing comments: "At the end of The Winter's Tale there is a sense of wasted years . . . . [one feels] that a better world has been glimpsed in these plays [including The Tempest], even if palpably not achieved" (Shakespeare: The Basics, second ed. 255).