Winter’s Tale Ends

The last scene from the play, “The Winter’s Tale” by Shakespeare marks the end of the play and resolves all the issues which were faced throughout the play. The ending episode shows great dramatic and thematic significance through various ways. The scenario is when Paulina is keeping her promise and showing Leontes, Polixenes and Camillo the supposed statue of Hermione.

The beginning of the ending heightens the dramatic effect of the situation as Paulina asks for music to be played to awaken the statue of Hermione. This act creates or heightens the drama as music is something which adds to the excitement or significance of any situation. The use of words such as “awake her” make it seem as if Hermione had been put to sleep all these years and was in reality alive. Also, it highlights the theme of regeneration as it can be seen that Hermione is being resurrected from the dead. Till now, the audience and as such even the characters in the play had thought Hermione to be dead. But at this situation we see that she comes back to life. The fact that the audience is kept in the dark about whether Hermione is just “waking up” from her sleep, or whether she comes alive after death, adds to the dramatic effect of the scene.