Review: The Winter's Tale

The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



It's a good thing when you start a book without having a clue about what is going to happen. Of course that is not a good idea, but when it comes to Shakespeare, that is not such a great risk.

Why do I say this? Because... because... because I didn't know a thing about this play, okay? I was looking at the index of the copy of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare and I saw that name. It caught my attention and I started reading it.

What it The Winter's Tale about? Well, again we have some misunderstandings about the infidelity wife to her husband, just this time, the wife is carrying a child. When the child is born, the husband immediately wants it dead because it is not her son but that of his wife's “lover.” His wife is then publicly humiliated at a trial, his husband declaring she's not with him. And when news finally arrive that her wife never was cheating on him, it is already too late.

So we have a hypocritical husband, the King, who falsely accuses his wife, the Queen, of infidelity. The man suspects this without any evidence, and thus, when the inevitable tragedy occurs, he's devastated. But, as this is not a tragedy, it must have a somewhat happy ending, doesn't it? Well, here's were the biggest plot twist in history happens. It's even bigger than this:

Remember when I said that it is not such a great risk to read Shakespeare's works without reading the premise? Well, I said it precisely because of the plot twist. I had no clue about that. But really, how could I have foreseen that? To be honest, I never saw that coming.

Even when the storyline itself was not very difficult to follow, I found it hard to figure out Shakespeare's intention. Really, what could have been passing through his mind when he wrote that? After I finished the play, I told my mother about it and she said, “But Bob Marley lived a lot of years after Shakespeare...” That got me wondering. What the hell was Will thinking when he wrote this? What could possibly have been his purpose?

It's a shame I can't ask him.

But anyway... Congrats, William, you surprised me.



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