The Importance of Time in Shakespeares The Winters Tale Essay

The Importance of Time in The Winters Tale Leon. No pes shall stir. Paul. Music, awake her strike Music Tis sentence descend be rock music no more approach Strike all that look upon with marvel. Come Ill fill your grave up stir, nay, come away Bequeath to death your impassivity for from him Dear life redeems you. You perceive she stirs --The Winters Tale (V.iii.98-103) Unlike most of Shakespeares earlier plays, The Winters Tale moves from tragedy to comedy. The disastrous consequences of Leontes jealousy and tyranny are resolved by the passing of time. Only after sixteen years can the two royal families come together again. Time also plays a significant division in the reading of the chosen passage. The passage is full of commas, colons, semi-colons, and periods, which force the lines to be slowed and pausing. The frequent punctuations draw the readers attention to time and its effects on the words macrocosm spoken by the characters. The scansion of the passage illustr ates Shakespeares mastery of time as he manipulates the rhythm of the lines using varying foots and meters. Time seems to be the crucial element in not only the scansion of this passage, but in the development of the play as a whole. Line ninety-eight begins with a half-line consisting of only two feet, No foot shall stir. The brevity of the line and the slowness of the opening spondee help to create the tension before Paulina attempts to summon the statue of Hermione. Leontes wants everyone to stand still while Paulina tries to give life to the statue. He says, No foot shall stir (98). Meanwhile, the metrical feet in line ninety-eight do stir as the pentameter is broken up into two ha... ...vidual from imminent danger. When time is misused or misjudged, as seen in Leontes hasty accusations and also in Antigonus tardiness in returning to the ship, Time can lead to utter destruction. Works Cited Gomez, Michelle. A History of Clocks. Online posting. 4 Mar. 2001. Shak espeare, William. The Winters Tale. Ed. J.H.P. Pafford. London Routledge, 1994. Works Consulted Bloom, Harold. The Winters Tale (Modern Critical Interpretations). Chelsea House Publishers, 1992. Granville Barkers Prefaces to Shakespeare A Midsummer Nights Dream The Winters Tale The Tempest. Granville Barker. Heinemann, 1994. Innes, Sheila. The Winters Tale (Cambridge School Shakespeare). Cambridge Cambridge University Press, 1999. Pyle, Fitzroy. The Winters Tale A Commentary on the Structure. New York Routledge & Paul, 1969.