What Is The Role Of The Child-parent Relationship In The Winter’s Tale?

/in /by

Prompt:

The Winter’s Tale


was one of the last plays that Shakespeare wrote, and he seems to


be thinking about youth, or the parent


–


child relationship, in a novel way perhaps based


his own enwisened perspective. How do parents regard their children or their own


childhood in this pl


ay, and how does that explain their behavior


or sense of self


in the


present? You might think about


Leontes


s


peaking of children


as “cop


ies


” of


their fathers


,


or Polixenes’s association of


youth with Christian innocence


, or Hermione’s efforts as


a


mother


,


or the shepherd’s dual role as biological and adoptive parent

Guidelines:

Follow standard MLA formatting


(1


–


inch margins


;


12


–


point


Times New Roman font


;


double


–


spaced


;


no space between paragraphs,


in


–


text parenthetical citations of the act


.


scene


.


line numbers


or of the hour:minute:second


). Although there is no requ


ired page length/word count, I


anticipate a satisfying argument in response to one of these prompts would run 2000


–


2300 words (6


–


7 pages). Focus on analyzing lines of speech and dialogue first and


foremost (and analyzing plot points secondarily). The most


interesting arguments


develop from a careful consideration of Shakespeare’s word choice


.


You may speculate


on how modern and/or Renaissance audiences would react to the play as part of your


argument, but keep your argument grounded in the text
!

Note: The key focus is analyzing what Shakespeare is saying in the text and discuss word choice and further in depth meaning of what he is saying.