When I read Polixenes’ account of his childhood friendship with Leontes in Act 2 of The Winter’s Tale, I immediately thought of Helena’s speech about her childhood friendship with Hermia in Act 3 of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and noted it on my question sheet. I was glad to see that I wasn’t the only one to draw this connection, as we briefly mentioned it in class. This led me to think about the similarities and differences between Helena and Hermia’s friendship and Leontes and Polixenes’ friendship, and why Shakespeare chose to depict this issue of childhood friendships gone wrong in multiple plays. Both friendships drift apart because external romantic interests get in the way of bonding time, and cause the pairs to be more competitive with each other. Polixenes says that “temptations have since then been born to’s” (1.2.77), apparently suggesting that their desire to sleep with women caused them to stop hanging out with each other. Helena accuses Hermia of renting their “ancient love asunder, / To join with men in scorning [her] poor friend” (3.2.215-216). Both pairs face troubles with their romantic lives that threaten their friendships, which is where, I believe, there might be an underlying message. Perhaps Shakespeare felt that friendships are too often destroyed by competing romantic relationships. He might even be suggesting that friendships cannot succeed alongside romantic relationships. Or perhaps he feels the opposite—that if two people work hard enough, their friendship can be preserved alongside romantic relationships without issues.
At the end of Midsummer, Helena and Hermia appear to be back to normal and have forgotten their conflict, after the four lovers wake up at the end of Act 4 Scene 1. This seems to support the idea that friendships can exist alongside romantic relationships, but at the same time, their friendship was only fixed due to Puck’s magical intervention. Even with the magic, Helena and Hermia agree that “everything seems double” (4.1.189) as if the events of earlier were merely a dream. Perhaps Shakespeare is suggesting that the only way a friendship can exist alongside a romantic relationship is with the use of magic.
Now, since I have only read the first act of The Winter’s Tale, it is not easy to draw conclusions from it. From what we have read so far, it seems that Polixenes and Leontes’ friendship is not going to even come close to surviving the impact of romantic interests. Leontes already wishes to poison Polixenes for just talking nicely with Hermione. While they once “knew not / The doctrine of ill-doing, nor dreamed / That any did” (1.2.69-71), it is clear that the childhood innocence that encompassed their friendship is completely destroyed. Not only did they drift apart because women got in the way, but they are now threatening to kill each other over interactions with a woman. It also makes me wonder what must have happened to Leontes for this to be such a huge deal, but that is off-topic and something I’m sure we will discuss further in class.
Obviously Polixenes and Leontes’ friendship is much more distant than Helena and Hermia’s, but the issues are extremely similar. I am curious though—what do you guys think about these pairs? Are their experiences similar? Do you think Shakespeare actually gave thought to the ideas I mentioned? Could we interpret it differently?