The Winter’s Tale: What the heck?

Act 5, Scene 3 still totally baffles me. Is Hermione a statue that comes to life, or has she been hiding, pretending to be dead, for 16 years?

Support for the statue theory:

• Shakespeare’s romance plays have lots of weird magic…just look at The Tempest
• Leontes’ response: he doesn’t threaten to kill Paulina, who’s whipped him into 16 years of constant mourning (had she been part of hiding Hermione, it can’t have been above reprimand, no matter how overjoyed Leontes was at the restoration)

Faking death theory:

• The faked death is a common plot line for women in Shakespeare: Hero in Much Ado, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet
• The statue’s words: “I, knowing by Paulina that the oracle gave hope [Perdita] wast in being, have preserved myself to see the issue” (5.3.125-138) (But why did she know by Paulina? Hermione heard the oracle herself.)
• My version of the play includes a stage direction that says “Hermione like a statue”

I’m also wondering if this play is possibly to blame for the horrible made-for-TV movies where a mannequin comes to life and becomes a “Mom for Christmas.”

 

The Winter’s Tale: Exit, pursued by a bear

Shakespeare’s most famous stage direction–exit, pursued by a bear–seals the fates of just about every character in The Winter’s Tale:

• Antigonus, who is gobbled up
• Perdita, left in a strange place with no human connection to her birth
• Leontes, who already regrets abandoning Perdita but now has no way to find her
• the shepherd and clown, who are enriched by finding and raising her
• Florizel, who later falls in love with her
• Polixenes, who disinherits him for it but later reconciles with Leontes on account of it

Exit, pursued by a bear–it sets up for tragedy, but it also sets up for comedy. In what other genre can a man being chased by a bear eventually bring about resolution to a 16-year breach of trust?