Shakespeare deliberately names this play The Winter’s Tale for a specific reason. These lines spoken by Mamillius directly outline the reasoning for the titling of this play:
MAMILLIUS: A sad tale’s best for winter: I have one
Of Sprites and goblins. (Act II, scene I, lines 33-34)
Here we see the use of the phrase “winter’s tale” and Mamillius says its a way to pass the time. The term “winter’s tale” is a fairy tale used as a way to transition out of the cold month of winter and is usually an improbable story in which the natural laws that govern this world do not apply. In many ways, the entire play is a fairy tale where things happen that really don’t seem to make any sense. Take for instance the scene in which Antigonus is consumed by a bear and the ship of that brought Antigonus to shore sinks by some sort of unseen force to punish Antigonus:
CLOWN: end of the ship, to see how the sea flap-dragoned
it: but, first, how the poor souls roared, and the
sea mocked them; and how the poor gentleman roared
and the bear mocked him, both roaring louder than
the sea or weather. (Act III, Scene, III lines 104-108)
Here, an improbable cosmic justice is being enacted upon Antigonus and the rest of the followers of Leontes’ madness. When Antigonus is consumed by a bear, the reason it is almost comical is exactly because this is a winter’s tale, rooted in fiction, a fairy tale to pass the time. Interestingly enough though when I googled the bear in the bible I discovered that the bear is not only a maternal figure, but also that it would come down from the mountains in the winter and terrorize villages. In 2 Kings 2:24 two she bears came out of the wood and tore forty-two children apart for mocking the prophet Elisha, fitting that Shakespeare would include a bear in this fairy tale, which takes place during the winter. So the bear in the bible is synonymous with child sacrifice, but interestingly enough, we see the bear attack Antigonus instead of the child. This act of the bear eating Antigonus is exactly the opposite of the events of the bible, where the bear eats the children for mocking the prophet Elisha, instead, the bear ignores the child and eats Antigonus. The bear could also be the antithesis of the pastoral genre, because the bear puts an end to the life of the sheep, a symbolic end to the relationship of Leontes and Polixenes, the end of their lives as: “twinn’d lambs that did frisk i’ the sun,” symbolically represented by the bear, a symbol of the winter in the Bible, when bears would come down from the mountains during winter to terrorize villages, so too did a bear end the relationship of Leontes and Polixenes, due to the egregious accusation made by Leontes against Polixenes of adultery, a foul sin in the Christian tradition. This sort of cosmic justice against Antigonus is like the hand of God, but considering this is supposed to be a fable or fairy tale to pass the time and transition out of the cold month season of winter, is Shakespeare considering the existence of God?
Let me start this off by saying that I always look forward to seeing how you name your blog posts, and you never disappoint me. While reading this play (I haven’t finished the whole thing yet) I couldn’t quite pinpoint what made the title so prevalent. The only time a “winter’s tale” is mentioned was when Mamillius literally wishes to tell a sad, whimsical story that takes place during the winter. I saw this as merely a nod to the title, but your points about it being something greater caught my attention. For example, when you said a “winter’s tale” is an “improbable story in which the natural laws that govern this world do not apply”, it actually made a lot of sense. The entire story, from a king that falls into a ridiculous fit of jealousy, to a man getting eaten by a bear, is a series of unbelievable, chaotic events.
Will, I really liked your post. We really don’t find anything out about Mamillius’ story, that he just says one line of. The idea of a winter’s tale is something I never heard of, but after you explaining it it definitely makes a lot of sense as to why Shakespeare named the play this, as well as why Mamillius is telling his own winters tale. It is a story that seems to be being told to merely pass the time and nothing makes sense. Everything Leontes’ does really is inexplainable and odd.
I also like your observation of the bear. At first I thought it was just a comical part of the novel and had no real meaning to it. But the idea of it having a biblical meaning is highly probable especially during Shakespeare’s time.