Paulina

Play

The Winter's Tale

Summary

The fearless noblewoman who alone dares to confront Leontes with the truth of his madness, bringing the infant Perdita to his face and refusing to be silenced. She is the play's great moral conscience — blunt, impassioned, and entirely unintimidated by royal authority. For sixteen years she maintains the fiction of Hermione's death, keeping the queen hidden and tormenting Leontes with his guilt, and she engineers the final miraculous "statue" scene that restores Hermione to the living.

Notable Quotations

"What studied torments, tyrant, hast for me? / What wheels, racks, fires? What flaying? boiling / In leads or oils?" *(III.ii)*

"It is required / You do awake your faith." *(V.iii)*

"O, she's warm!" *(V.iii)*

Cross-references

• The Winter's Tale — the play
• Romances (Late Plays)
• character_leontes — the king she confronts and ultimately redeems
• character_hermione — her mistress whom she hides and restores
• character_perdita — whose existence she fights to preserve