Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Master's Theses Theses and Dissertations 1956 The Winters Tale: A Christian Tragedy Howard Gray Loyola University Chicago Recommended Citation Gray, Howard, "The Winters Tale: A Christian Tragedy" (1956).Master's Theses.Paper 1584. http://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_theses/1584 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please [email protected]. This work is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Copyright © 1956 Howard Gray .T....H.....E..... WINTBR t S .T....A....L...i. : A CHRISTIAN TRAGEDY , by Howard Joseph Gray, 8.J. A Thesis Submitted to the Paculty of the Graduate School of Loyola University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts August 1956 LIFB Howard J. Gray, S.J. was born in Cleveland. Ohio, May 23, 1930. He waa graduated from St. Vincent de Paults Gramma.r School. Cleveland in 1944. and entered St. Ignatius High School, Cleveland. in the same year. Upon graduation in June, 1948. he entered the Jesuit Novitiate at Milford, Ohio, and was enrolled in the College 01 Arts of Xavier University, Cincinnati. Chio. In August, 1952, he entered West P.aden College, West Baden, Indiana and was enrolled in the Bachelor .f Arts Course of Loyola University, Chicago, Illinois, f~o. which be received the degree of Dachelor of Arts in June. 1953. He then entered the Graduate School of Loyola Univer sity to pursue his studies for the dtcree of Master of Arts in English. Presently he i$ teacbing English at St. IGnatius High School, Chicago. Illinois. 11 TADLE OF a:mTBNTS Chaptu Pa.ge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 1. IN'rnOl)UCTlON .. .. 1 Problem of this thes!s--Alm of this thesis--Divisions of this thesis. I I .. TIm TUBMB InBA OF THE. WINT.BR t S TALa • • .. • .. .. •• 5 LegitiMacy of the Christian etbieo-religious ap- proach to ShakesptrU'e--The geJleral drama.tic action of mThe . ... ~11ntet t STje. .. -Action of the play reduced to :ttepen'iruu:.h orgivenesa. .R estoration--Sin. .. Repentance.Porgiven$sa.aestora.tion represents the Christi. . cycle of the repentant sinner. 111. AN ANALYSIS OF TIm CHIBP CHARAC'l"'.ERS OF TIE WIN"" TER t S TALE ... .. • .. • • .. .. .. • .. .. ..- :-" --;-.. • • 11 lJ ............... Leonte',; the s!nner--Hermlone, innocent. victim- Paulina. a concrete expression of conscience- Perdita., example of true Christian living- Florizel, compliment of Perdita's character. !!!! 'p IV. TIm IMAG.BRY OF WINT~ T~ .. • .. • .. • .. .. • 35- The winter.spring setting of the play its ale nific&nce--The images of Leontes in hIs sin con trasted with those !mages in the second half of the pla.y-.Perdita's images and how they reflect her spirit of life and virtue. . . . . . . . v. .. 49 The play is a whole but its parts are two ...... Lll pertance of recognizing this unity. .. -The religious ethical theme gives this unity. .... Baeh section of the play necessary for Christian tragedy. ... -Impor.. tau«, too, of recognizing the amtual dependence of eaCh part on the other. .. -Acts 1 ... 111 represent tragedy on a. human. leyel--Acts IV and V add a new element to the tragic theae of the fi rat part iii iv . . . . . . . . . . . .. VI. CWCLUSION .. .. . .. .. ... .. .. .. . 57 .. .. .. BIBLIOGRAPHY ..... .. • • • • .. .. • • • .. .. .. 62 INTRODUCTION This thesis offers an interpretation of a. play Which ha.s often proved diffiCUlt to Cla.ss!.fy, William Shakespeare's 'file Winter,'s Tale. It is the a.rgument of this thesis that what Shakespeare offers in the play is best described as a Christian tragedy. COn sequently, it would be good a.t the outset to define what is meant by tlte te1'tn Ch1:,i,stian trase.dI- Any discussion of the traditional Western view of tragedy must be .entered around the d. asaie 'Work on tragedYl the Poetles of A1'istotle. For ,as W. Macneile Dixon haa said, ttIf not in tbe foreground of all discourse upon tragedy. then in the background. a aOJliaant fig_., stands thiG a.uthority of authorities, for so long a kind ot intellectual Jupiter, not lightly even in our modern and irreverent age to be set uid• • "! \irlha.t. then. does Aristotle say about the na.ture of tra.gedy? In Section VI of the Poetics be sets forth his famous definition of ra t. tragedy; Tragedy ••• is an imitation of an action that is 1 2 serious, complete in itself, and of certa.in mag nitudel. in langua.ge made bea.utiful by different means n different parts of the won, in drama.tic, not narrative form; through scenes 01 pity and 2 fear bringing about .. purgation of such emotions. Throughout this discussion the noun .trasedy; and the adjective tral!C are always used in the sense that Aristotle had used them.- i.e. either as a. play of bigh seriousness with a theme ot certain magnitude or as something pertaining to suCh a play. What is meant by 9\ri$tiaa Should be clear enough: a Quality pertaining to the ethical and religious teaChings of Jesus Christ. Funda.m:entlJ. to these teaching' ;ls thE awareness of Christ's red_ptive &ct WhiCh atlkes every man q actua1 or an eventual ShUE ~ in the life of g.ta_. the realization tbat through Christ sin can be forgiven. a man united to God. and destined for heaven. The two teCla.-Christian aud tragedy--When taken together ref .... then, to a play of highseriouaness Which relies for its tragic effect on the recognition of the complete Christian ethieo- religious code. In other words, the Christian tragedy is a pla.y in 'WhiOh &ome great ea:tastrophe overtakes the hero; a pla y in whidl the be. Buffers defeat. Howewr. it is alSO a play Which admits the posaibility of the l'e,eaeratioD of the he:to preCisely because it aGknow1edg«a the ~.dempt!ve influence of Christ 1n the life of IIlD. The Christian tra.gedy !at that tragedy with hope. 2Aristotle, ~oetie., trans. S.H. Butcher, 4th ed (New York, 19S1). VI. 2-3. 23. 3 The purpose of the thesis is twofold, \flith a primary and a secondary end. The prmry end of the thesis is, of course, to show hoW 1h! W.inter·~ Tale is a Christian tragedy; a.nd. then, sec ondari11. havins: established this major contention" the thesis wil sbow that this p1ay .igh1 well stand as an argument aga.il1s t those c:rJ. ties lfbo claim there is an In4'ompatibili t1 between Christian!1 :1 and tn. tragedy. Most of these critics argue that the hope f~ futu. life wbiC Christianity holds out takes away from the true trag!. effect Which a play of this type ought t. have. It is mal tained that • play with a Christiau theme cannot end on a note of t!na1iiy and, therefore, loses all tra.gic power. The other obje:c tiona Which are so_times raised aga!net Christian! ty h .. tra.gedy concern peCUliarly Christian virtues suCh as faith, hope. and hum.i1 3 it1 Which are said to weaken the humanism of the tragic hero. It la hoped that what will be otfe red in these pages will show hoW it is poss!hie for a play to be at one and the same time Christian and traglc. ~Ples of such critic. would be: W. Ma.¢neile Dixon, I ed, F.L.Lueu. rig~~e~ation to ari$tot+et.~ poetichs ! o em, 1(:4tI9t)u,4r3, ••... I.e anf "TIieitoots of rage<Iy," ·iiaeeenth aR anfd' tAWft etL en (July 1929) 70. ... 81' and B.l. at ~!!S. ondon, 19'3). 38-55. An extremely f valuable ~J.lound 0 .e problem is supplied by Jean. .Mouroux., !.I! e Meanijitf_u (New York, 1948) 12-43. M. Mourouxts argu. .. t ent Is i every tl"agedy there must be at least an impliCit ecognition of original sin and Its effects on human nature. istian tra.gedy wl11 heighten the idea that fallen human na.ture s prone to sin by reason of man '& darkened intellect and weakened ill. The theai. U d!v!d$d into tour ~ta. In tbe filrst p,u:t GI Tht .tt1f£ the study the t~ 1c1e.a of ~'ii,,~.t! ".,il1 I'e cou&';'det!'ed. u Bet. it will l~' sh~ that tbe domu.nt ttl. . of the play a ("1lriatlan ftthico.t:ell$!• • tl~of Sin-ilepentuGe-ForSJ.veooas nefJtcr-atlcn. 'lb.e Hcoud chapta will p..-_ent an 4T.le.1YSiG of the allief chuaeier!i of the playf ~le thCt thfzd Ghapter will ciW - aaat,alG of tbe~. The fourth e!:r.apter wi11 q>1aJ.n t~ play·. stfteturCt. Pinally. th$ ConClua,i<m \'1111 GboW tlOW the .cpu. .. e1 __t a of the pl. .. , tt4M\ted in the earl!e Cb4pters of the· tha!s are t.U1:l'ed to t~ llIbat 1. bOat d __l bed as .. UChr!sti 1 tngedy.'t lleftc. the play. 1tl8Of'u as it wltes t#ue tragedy and. !:!brltlt1u!t r. -f#lt weU$taad u a kind of u~t aptllatt theae a" 'Wb6C1aim t1." 'trap:ty bd aU:!ft!Cl ethics or dO~a. uCQmpa.t .... ill1 • • CHAPTBR I THB lltBM1l IDBA Of TUB WlNTBR t S TALE > - - Padaaental to an intelligent understanding of this present study is an appreciation of the legitimacy of the Christian ethico~ religious approach to Shakespearian literature. In more recent years there has been a renewed interest in viewing tIle playa of Shakespeare fJ'OBl the vantage point of ethics and religion.l Such studies have done a great deal in offering new in$.ights and in prompting keener appreciations of many of the plays. Actu~ly the eihieo-religious approaCh to any literature is not a new one. There have alway. been critic. who seemed to have realized that if literature is ·'talk about the whole of life.'·Z then literature can noi help offering val• • judgments about how people live that life. ~or. .v er. the reader of literature, and this would include the critic, ia expected to go beyond the surface. to question the rep res«ctation of 11fe given by the author. & representation which lS.t. Bet. hell. The Wintert 1..~.!.J A ~U,~I (London, 1950), ,_ ~fred HubaSe. A~ +E.yrIkea~\NeW Yo ·941) r Laura. Jepsen ~th1C!l ~sp!ct. j[ageax t~ esville. l~S3). Donald A. staufer, ~liii'ie.peari's WHId of !iiiage~ (New York, 1949) I and Virgil K. ~hitakel'f Sl1akesRl!uiT! !!!! if.. Lea,rnins (San Marino, 1953). 2Hoda N. Fairchild, !~~liGiou~ perspt!ctives gf Colle8'e Tea.ehin-'! (Mew Haven, n.d.), 7. 5