The Winter's TaleにおけるMamilliusの死と16年間の欠落の意義についての一考察

概要

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Despite his subjects' unanimous opinion that Hermione is chaste, Leontes is suspicious of the relationship between his wife and the King of Bohemia. By telling his prince that his mother is a whore, he destroys Mamillius's innocence. Deprived of his innocence, he can no longer live as a child and dies. Leontes destroys his own innocence and becomes a tyrant when he kills his son's innocence: he orders his subject to take his baby daughter Perdita to some remote and desert place and leave it there. He even ignores Apollo's oracles and loses his wife and children. Only after he loses them, he recognizes his sin, and repenting of his sin, he leads a saint-like life for sixteen years. Luckily Perdita is found and taken care of by a shepherd and his son. Though Mamillius himself dies, his innocence survives in his sister. Seeing Hermione in Perdita, Leontes is reminded of her innocence. When he remembers his wife's innocence and tenderness, he chooses madness over saneness to recover her. He believes in Paulina's ritual like an infant, and when he does so, he recovers his own innocence and is reconciled with Hermione.