literature group work

Delia Evans

Zachary Phillip

How does jealousy function as a motivation for the various characters? Support your answer using specific examples from the play.

Jealousy is a secondary emotion, and typically refers to negative thoughts and feelings of insecurity, fear, and anxiety over an anticipated loss of something that the person values particularly in reference to a human connection. The first three acts of the winter’s tale are the study of jealousy and its destructive effects. In the play leonetes sudden and unfounded fear that his pregnant wife is sleeping with his best friend eats away at him like disease. This aspect of jealousy forms the climax and also the main plot in the novel.

Jealousy is a major issue in this play. The very core of the book has a plot solely driven by jealousy. Leonetes starts the play conversing with a dear friend Polixenes, a friend staying within his palace at leonetes’ will. This king of Bohemia, Polixenes has stayed nine months in the kingdom of Sicilia, all at the king,(king leonetes) whim. However, when Polixenes desires to leave, leonetes can no longer get him to stay and thus ask his wife to do it. His wife succeeds and leonetes immediately jumps to the worse possible reason that they must be having an affair “for to mingle friendship far is mingling bloods”. Leones’s’ jealousy is soon hear in act 1 scene2 and only grows stronger. Due to his green furry he plots to kill his dear friend Polixenes in act1 scwene2. His envy does not end there he further calls his wife an adulteress and sends her to jail. The jealousy cuts so deep that it drives him to try and kill his new born daughter because he believes “ it is the issue of Polixenes”, furthermore leonetes envy behavior blinds him from words of wisdom from others such as Paulina or the oracle. This pure blinding jealousy results in not only his son’s death but his wife’s deaths too, at the end of act3 scene2.

Jealousy causes leonetes to question if Mammillius is in fact his son, despite the fact that Mammillius looks like a copy of his dad. For instance when Leonetes quotes “Mammillius, art thou my boy?” we know the leonetes is questioning whether or not he is the biological father of Mammillius or his unborn child. Evidently leonetes puns on the word “neat” which means clean. He told Mammilius they need to be tidy, “you must be neat, not neat, but cleanly…” and also “cattle with horn’s”. He even calla Mammllius a calf, “art thou my calf?” (act1 scene2). This is all tinged with sexual meaning. Horns as we know are associated with cuckholds, which is exactly what leonetes thinks he is. Moreover leonetes also uses Mammillius as a tool to get at his wife Hermoine by taking away Mammillius her son. This affects both Hermoine and Mammillius. In fact imprisonment of his mother made him sick and as a result of that he ending up dying by the anxiety of his mother faith. On the other hand his mother Hermoine fainted and was later pronounced as dead from the tragic message of her sons death.

However, powerful jealousy is in this one characters life and the struggles of the truth regarding to jealousy does not affect all the characters. No other major character of the play is jealousy. In the Autolycus he is seen as more greedy rather than envious. The only other instances of “jealousy driven acts” arguably are the retaliations to the king’s behaviors for jealousy drives the king and the king causes retaliation therefore jealousy maybe seen as the motivation of actions. For example in act 2 scene 3 where Paulina brings Hermoines baby daughter to the king and proceeds to argue with him to set her mind at free, the motivation of Paulina’s actions is compassion in response to the kings outrageous jealousy. As is the case where ion act 1 scene3 camillo warns Polixenes of king leonetes plans to commit murder. Camillo is motivated by compassion which is in response to the kings jealousy.

In conclusion, throughout the play Shakespeare portrays leonetes jealousy as an infection “disease” in order to highlight the destructive nature of jealousy. Although jealousy is the main driving force for leonetes the stars action, the other characters of the play are not affected by this emotion but rather show compassion to the victims or scorn the king because of his jealousy. Thus is jealousy a main force for all characters?