Previous
Imagery
Definition of Irony
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this seems like a loose definition... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how... read full definition
Irony
Explanation and Analysis—Cuckoldry:
In Act 1, Scene 2, Leontes articulates his paranoia about his wife's fidelity through the extended metaphor of the cuckold's horns. In Shakespeare's day, men with adulterous wives were often depicted in art and literature with ram's horns and were subject to mockery for being deceived by their wives. Throughout this scene, Leontes's language describes the metaphorical growth of cuckold's horns on his head as his belief in his wife's infidelity cements itself.
Related Themes:
Irony
Explanation and Analysis—Verbal Irony:
In Act 3, Scene 2, Paulina describes Leontes's earlier crimes as trivial despite how unjust they were. Knowing that speaking truth to Leontes will only make his delusions more intractable, she rehabilitates the power of her language by speaking only through negation—that is, by interweaving truths with her characterization of each of Leontes's past actions as trivial. Through this use of verbal irony, Paulina impresses upon Leontes the abhorrence of what he has done.
Unlock with LitCharts A+
Related Themes:
Irony
Explanation and Analysis—A Father in Disguise:
In Act 4, Scene 4, Polixenes and Camillo conceal their identities to visit Florizell and Perdita at the Shepherd's home. This is an example of dramatic irony because the audience knows their identities while the characters do not. In fact, oblivious to his father's disguise, Florizell reveals his plan to marry Perdita even without Polixenes's permission.
Unlock with LitCharts A+
Related Themes:
Irony
Explanation and Analysis—Leontes's Dreams:
While on trial in Act 3, Scene 2, Hermione declares that Leontes has conjured false accusations against her, as if dreaming them up: "My life stands in the level of your dreams." Leontes's response—"Your actions are my dreams"—is a source of dramatic irony: his intended meaning is that Hermione has enacted in reality what he has dreamed, that is, adultery. However, the audience knows that an alternative meaning of his response is true: Hermione's purported adultery is a mere figment of his imagination. Hermione never committed adultery, and Leontes has indeed "dream[ed]" her actions.
Unlock with LitCharts A+
Related Themes:
Irony
Explanation and Analysis—Acting and Disguises:
In Acts 4 and 5, multiple characters disguise themselves: Camillo and Polixenes to spy on Florizell and Perdita at the shepherd's cottage, Autolycus as a nobleman to swindle the Shepherd and his son, and Perdita and Florizell to travel to Sicily. A generic convention of the Shakespearean comedy, this use of disguises generates dramatic irony, thus contributing to both the suspense and the humorous tone of the last two Acts. Moreover, by creating mishaps around mistaken identities and obstructing the characters' access to the truth, the use of disguises highlights the unreliability of perception that provoked Leontes's downfall: once convinced of Hermione's unfaithfulness, no amount of evidence could persuade him to see the truth.
Unlock with LitCharts A+
Related Themes:
Irony
Explanation and Analysis—Father and Daughter:
Act 5, Scene 1 features the long-awaited reunion of Leontes with his daughter Perdita, who is accompanied by Florizell. However, since both Florizell and Perdita are in disguise and Leontes does not know that Florizell's bride-to-be is his own daughter, this creates dramatic irony that generates humor as well as increases the suspense of the scene. For example, when Leontes expresses his longing for children like Florizell and Perdita, wondering, "What might I have been / Might I a son and daughter now have looked on, / Such goodly things as you?", the audience knows that Florizell may soon be his son-in-law and Perdita is his daughter, but Leontes does not. This use of dramatic irony increases the audience's anticipation for the reunion of father with daughter.
Unlock with LitCharts A+
Related Themes:
Act 1, Scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—Nothing and Noting:
Leontes's repeated characterization of the adulterous behavior he claims to have perceived—but has largely imagined—between his wife and Polixenes as "nothing" is an example of dramatic irony. When Camillo attempts to refute Leontes's claims of Hermione's infidelity in Act 1, Scene 2, Leontes demands:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Is whispering nothing?
Is leaning cheek to cheek? Is meeting noses?
Kissing with inside lip? Stopping the career
Of laughter with a sigh?—a note infallible
Of breaking honesty. Horsing foot on foot? Skulking in corners? Wishing clocks more swift? Hours minutes? Noon midnight? And all eyes Blind with the pin and web but theirs, theirs only,
That would unseen be wicked? Is this nothing?
Why, then the world and all that’s in ’t is nothing, The covering sky is nothing, Bohemia nothing,
My wife is nothing, nor nothing have these nothings,
If this be nothing.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Simile:
As Leontes interrogates his son Mamillius in Act 1, Scene 2, in search of evidence that Hermione has been unfaithful, Leontes's use of similes provides insight into his distrust of women:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Women say so,
That will say anything.
But were they false
As o’erdyed blacks, as wind, as waters, false
As dice are to be wished by one that fixes
No bourn ’twixt his and mine, yet were it true
To say this boy were like me.
Related Themes:
Act 3, Scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—Negation:
Through the motif of negation, "The Winter's Tale" illuminates how irrational human beliefs can be even in the face of clear evidence, as well as the female characters' lack of control over their own sexual reputations. Once Leontes falls prey to his unfounded belief that Hermione and Polixenes are having an affair, Hermione and Paulina find that their words can no longer persuade him to see the truth. In fact, Leontes asserts in Act 1, Scene 2 that a woman's word is always false: "Women say so, / That will say anything." As a result, the more Hermione claims that she is innocent, the more intractable Leontes's delusions become.
Instead, both Hermione and Paulina recuperate the power of their language by speaking only through negation. For example, when Hermione testifies in her own defense in Act 3, Scene 2, she declares:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Since what I am to say must be but that
Which contradicts my accusation, and
The testimony on my part no other
But what comes from myself, it shall scarce boot me
To say “Not guilty"
Related Themes:
Act 4, Scene 3
Explanation and Analysis—Autolycus's Deception:
In Act 4, Scene 3, Autolycus pretends to have been beaten and robbed so that he himself might rob the Shepherd's son. The dramatic irony here derives from the fact that the audience knows that Autolycus is scheming to commit a robbery because they are privy to his aside earlier in the scene—"If the springe hold, the cock’s / mine"—whereas the Shepherd's son is oblivious. The comedy of this encounter heightens when the Shepherd's son, unaware of Autolycus's machinations, offers him money, to which Autolycus responds, "Offer me no money, I pray you; that kills my heart." This is ironic not only because Autolycus is refusing money from the Shepherd's son despite intending to steal from him, but also because Autolycus is being offered a simpler and legal means of achieving his original goal—and is foolishly refusing it.
Unlock with LitCharts A+
Related Themes:
