An essay (my last college essay) written for Shakespeare, The Later Plays about the role of disguises in The Winter’s Tale.
Do clothes make the man or the woman? Write an essay exploring the depiction or the function of apparel (such as clothing, armor, or disguises) in one play that we have read.
In spite of, or perhaps in light of, the present day, one could accurately describe the Winter’s Tale as a play about identity politics. Questions surrounding birth legitimacy, the hidden background of a bride, and tricksters posing as nobility drive the conflict and action in the play. Therefore, it comes of no surprise that disguise, the dramatic device used to manipulate characters’ identities and perceptions, plays a prominent role in the play. In other Shakespearean plays, disguises help illuminate a theme of the play by contrasting two perceived identities and highlighting the difference in perception of gender, class, or occupation. However, the Winter’s Tale seems less concerned about illuminating a particular contrast and more concerned with issues of perception and truth as epistemological quandaries. Time and time again, characters in the Winter’s Tale infer truths from appearance that end up being false. At the same time, the play does not seem to be suggesting to never trust one’s perception. Rather, the Winter’s Tale’s invites a deliberation about what kinds of evidence are sufficient to substantiate one’s belief and one’s faith. Examining the Winter’s Tale from this perspective illuminates a deep structure underlying the play. The audience first considers two approaches, each illustrated by one half of the play, and then makes a decision about the final scene. The audience needs to decide whether to trust the outward magical appearance or to suspect a darker truth hiding behind the disguise of magic.
Disguise, as a dramatic device, is inherently tied to the issue of truth. Shakespeare’s use of disguise is not limited to the Winter’s Tale so it is important to consider the common threads of its usage before examining its particular function in the Winter’s Tale. In Shakespearean plays, whenever characters are to disguise themselves, the audience is informed before the transformation or is shown the actual transformation. In the Winter’s Tale, Polixenes announces to Camillo that, “My best Camillo! We must disguise ourselves” (IV.2.53). In addition, disguised characters go undetected by the other characters on stage. These two aspects allow Shakespeare to cleave a single world into two different perspectives, one perspective from the audience, where the true identities are known, and another from the characters on stage, where they are not. Crucially, the audience understands and holds both perspectives simultaneously. That is, the audience knows that Polixenes is the disguised visitor to the sheep shearing and the audience also knows that Florizel does not recognize his father. This juxtaposition of the two perspectives in the audiences’ minds gives these disguised scenes their comedic, dramatic, or thematic effects. The audience of the Winter’s Tale recognizes the layers of irony in the discussion between Polixenes and Perdita of hybridizing flowers in Act IV Scene 4 because the audience knows both the true identities of the characters as well as their perceived identities. Disguise’s relationship to truth is deep and inherent, a feature often taken for granted by playwrights and not explicitly addressed within plays themselves.
However, the Winter’s Tale breaks this pattern by introducing a meta discussion of disguise within the play. The Winter’s Tale’s use of disguise differs from other plays in that not all the disguises are taken for granted so easily. After his conversation with Perdita, Polixenes remarks that, “Nothing she does or seems / But smacks of something greater than herself, / Too noble for this place” (IV.4.157-159). This is a sign to Polixenes that the costume does not accurately reflect the identity of the person wearing it. Another example of this comes in the comedic exchange between Autolycus, dressed up as a noble, and the Shepherd and the Clown. Autolycus accuses them of not believing his costume. In response, the Shephard remarks of Autolycus that “His garments are rich, but he wears them not handsomely” (IV.4.747). This exchange between Autolycus, the Shephard, and the Clown as well as Polixenes’s comment about Perdita serve to demonstrate that the characters actively use costume as a way of measuring reality. Rather than passively accepting outward appearance as truth and acting accordingly, the characters are actively considering appearance in their judgment of others. This shift, from the passive acceptance to the active consideration, is markedly different from other Shakespearean plays. The play’s discussion about physical disguise is limited to the second half of the play, which takes part in Bohemia in part because there are no physical disguises in the first half of the play.
Despite there being a dearth of disguises in the first half of the play, one can connect the first and second halves of the play through disguise nonetheless. The Winter’s Tale use of disguise is an extension of a broader theme, one of appearance, that can be seen throughout the play’s language. There are two recurring ideas expressed in the language of the play that connect the disguises found in the second half of the play to the questions of general appearance found in the first half. The first is that of theatre and disguise and the second is that is faces and truth. Each recurring theme is discussed in turn.
The language of theatre used by Leontes and Perdita connect the idea of disguises, found in the latter half of the play, to the events of the first half. When told by Camillo to disguise herself, Perdita remarks that “I see the play so lies / That I must bear a part” (IV.4.654-655). Later, Camillo will tell Florizel that “To have you royally appointed as if / The scene you play were mine” (IV.4.591-592). As seen in both of these examples, when physical disguises are brought up in discussed, the characters begin to invoke comparisons to the theatre in their language. However, in the first half of the play, an inversion of language is seen. First, the theatre is invoked to begin discussion about disguises. This can be seen when Leontes, when he suspects Hermoine’s infidelity to him, states “Thy mother plays, and I / Play too, but so disgraced a part, whose issue / Will hiss me to my grave” (I.2.187-189). Reinforcing this theme, Hermoine, in her plea of innocence states that, “As I am now unhappy, which is more / Than history can pattern, though devised / And played to take spectators” (III.2.35-37). Thus, although physical disguises are not featured in the first half of the play, the language of disguise and theatre are still found. Leontes has imagined himself in a play where he sees through people’s disguises. The problem, however, is that no disguises are found. Looking at the language used to discuss disguises and theatre, there is an inverted connection between the two halves of the play.
In addition to the language of theatre connecting the two halves of the play, so too does language invoking the face. The play’s language involving faces seems to suggest that while one might be able to change one’s disguise, faces reveal the truth. For instance, to reassure himself of his son’s legitimacy, Leontes finds likeness in Mamillius’s nose and sees his younger self in Mamillius’s face. When deciding whether or not to trust Camillo’s story about the plot to take his life, Polixenes looks at him, saying, “I do believe thee; / I saw his heart in’s face” (I.2.445-446). Even Leontes, who suspects Hermoine, even notes that she has a “free face”, which is, as Leontes discovers, is the truth. There is even the casual remark by Mamillius that “I learned it out of women’s faces” (II.1.12). The characters in the first half use faces in their deliberation of the truth, just as the characters in the second half use disguise in their deliberation of the truth. This relationship between faces and the truth found in the first half of the play is also found in the second half. Autolycus sings of, “Masks for faces and for noses” (IV.4.221). Even the Clown remarks, “Is there no manners left among maids? will they / wear their plackets where they should bear their / faces?” (IV.4.241-243). In these two instances, the language of disguise comes together with the language of faces. Here, the face represents the truth and the masks and plackets are disguises hiding away the truth.
Despite these numerous connections in the language between the two halves of the play, there are still thematic elements to reconcile. Upon examining the latter half of the play first, one might be inclined to see the play as cautioning against trusting one’s perception of reality—that appearances are misleading. Yet the first half seems to suggest otherwise. Leontes, who imagines disguises where there are none, ultimately makes a fatal error, while Polixenes, who sees the truth in the face of Camillo, makes the correct judgment. One can reconcile these differences between the first and latter half by considering these two halves as epistemological arguments about belief and evidence. One can be skeptical of the evidence in front of their eyes, as Leontes is in the first half, and suspect a hidden or disguised truth. One could also be trustworthy of the evidence in front of their eyes, as are the characters in the second half, and take people as they present themselves. As the play illustrates, there are risks to both approaches of inferring truth from perception. Ultimately, this debate between the two halves comes to a head in the final scene of the play.
The audience, presented with these two options, arrives at a forced decision in the final scene of the play in which everyone is reunited with Hermoine. There are two conflicting interpretations of this scene, with competing arguments for both sides. On one hand, one can take the scene as it presents itself to be and believe that the statue of Hermoine, through magic, turns into life. On the other hand, one can suspect that this performance is a disguise and that Hermoine has actually been in hiding the entire time. Here, the audience no longer has the privilege of knowing the truth as it has had for the entire duration of the play. There is no oracle or signed letter to establish reality. All the audience can base their judgment on is exactly what they have seen. Here, all the elements discussed draw the audience to a remarkable conclusion. The language of perception and faces is found through this scene. The audience, once having privileged knowledge, becomes like the characters on stage. The audience, in essence, takes the same functional role as Leontes with only the perception of the events that have just occurred to make a conclusion. The two cleaves of perception collapse and become one. Ultimately, there is no satisfying resolution—no oracle with the final say. The play seems to insist that this is the way that life sometimes is. Sometimes there exists uncertainty in art and in the world. “It is required / You do awake your faith” (V.3.95). Just as Paulina instructs Leontes, so too must the audience.
As one can see, the use of physical disguises in the Winter’s Tale expresses one half of the play’s recurring deliberation about the truth. The other half, concerning appearances and faces, offers the audience a different perspective on belief. The play acknowledges both the difficulty of assessing the truth and the necessity of making uncertain decisions as part of life and art. Audiences walking away from the Winter’s Tale are sure to be divided on their interpretation of the play’s final scenes. The play suggest that this is okay—even desirable.
Shakespeare, William. The winter’s tale. Ed. Frances Elizabeth Dolan. New York: Penguin, 1999. Print.